Metamorphosis

I planted dill in the garden to attract swallowtail butterflies, not being a fan of the herb myself. But I should have remembered, they like parsley better too! Gathering some sprigs to add to cooking, I found a swallowtail caterpillar on one of the leaves.

In previous years I have repeated my childhood science experiment and put the caterpillar with parsley sprigs in a jar, covered it with wax paper perforated for ventilation and put it on the counter to wait for the butterfly to be born. It is just amazing to watch this transformation. Mom is Magic.

I picked the caterpillar on Labor Day, it cocooned 4 days later and 7 days after that, voila. After we released it from the jar it sat on the patio table for about 15 minutes, then took off into beautiful fall weather.

Meanwhile, a second caterpillar hatched on parsley I had brought in for Number One to munch on, so we are having a double dose of magic this year.