When I was quite young, my father gave me his well-worn, dog-eared butterfly book.  I have very little that was his so the book is highly treasured by me.  We loved looking up caterpillars and butterflies when we saw them.

     Tonight, I discovered that my bronze fennel has several caterpillars snacking on it.  I grabbed the book, looked them up, and they are swallowtail butterfly caterpillars.  I won’t kill them.  Swallowtails are such lovely butterflies.  I hope the little guys hang around long enough to change into their winged beauty.  Who needs fennel when you have swallowtails to look at?

     This week we’ve had a few days of much needed rain.  South of us, they had quite a bit of flooding.  We were lucky here.  My garden is happy and I’m happy because I haven’t had to water.

     The first sugar baby watermelon is almost ready to pick.  I can’t wait!  DH’s hand is the one holding the cucumber in the pictures from yesterday’s post.  A few curious people asked whose hand it was.  The cucumber measured 9 inches long with the wide end having a circumference the same measurement.