The first thing I do in the morning these days is rush out to our new butterfly garden and check on the caterpillars. I was so excited when I found the first, itsy bitsy one on a milkweed plant Emma and I purchased with garage sale earnings a couple weeks ago. A couple days later, after munching on milkweed leaves, it was huge! Now there are four caterpillars who are all big, fat, juicy, yellow and black striped wonders. They completely cleaned off all the leaves on one of the milkweed plants so we went to Home Depot today, to buy another one. Besides plants to eat (we also have parsley and dill), butterflies need nectar plants, so we bought some pink and red pentas and a purple lantana. They also need water, so I took an old bird feeder and filled it with sand and water. The whole project cost about $35. I had started a butterfly garden in the backyard with the girls when we first moved into this house six years ago, but it never really attracted any butterflies. I decided to try again in the front yard because I had noticed butterflies flying around near the mailbox. Can't wait until they form chrysalises and eventually emerge. But, yes I can, because I'm jumping ahead. "Be patient, grasshopper." I need to appreciate them as they are right now.
And now, since April is Poetry Month, a poem about butterflies.
Butterfly Day
It is blue-butterly day here in spring
And with these sky-flakes down in flurry on flurry
There is more unmixed color on the wing
Than flowers will show for days unless they hurry.
But these are flowers that fly and all but sing
And now from having ridden out desire
They lie closed over in the wind and cling
Where wheels have freshly sliced the April mire.
Robert Frost
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