Black Swallowtail In the Caterpillar Stage

Today as I was watering my parsley I found this interesting caterpillar. I did a little research on the web and found out that it's a black swallowtail butterfly in the full grown caterpillar stage. There are about 5 of these caterpillars on one small parsley plant. I've never seen them on any of my parsley plants before. I don't even mind if they eat the whole parsley plant. What a gorgeous creature and it will only be more beautiful when it morphs into the black swallowtail butterfly. Here's a link to the metamorphosis of a black swallowtail. Hopefully in a few weeks I'll see the caterpillar turn into a butterfly that will look like this.

July's Flowers

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Raspberries Galore

The raspberries are here! Thankfully my neighbor called and told me that my raspberries were ripe. I don't usually have to get a voicemail to tell me when to harvest my raspberries but I had just got back from a lovely family reunion in Oregon and I still hadn't been out in the garden yet. Her timing was spot on and I immediately went out and picked some. I wish I could tell you what varieties I have but I don't remember. I do know that the ones I transplanted from my mother's garden in Washington are much better than the ones I had. Strangely enough those also seem to not be bothered as much by the dreaded Japanese beetles. Oh, they are still eating a few but at least I'm harvesting more berries than beetles. I'm eating lots of them fresh but I also am freezing some for raspberry sorbet.

Wordless Wednesday