Hi, I love learning new things - especially when its an important garden discovery. I took a video of this butterfly and only afterwards realised she’d been laying eggs on the leaf. I posted the video and a friend with a farm nearby messaged me and told me she, the butterfly, is a gulf fritillary also known as a passion butterfly and her kind only lay their eggs on passion fruit vines. Then I did a little research and learnt that when the caterpillars hatch they eat the leaves of the passion fruit vine (this is the only leaf the caterpillars will eat… no other plants) and consume their toxins. Later in life its these same toxins that protect them making them taste bitter to potential predators…. and before they are eaten they release a scent that deters the animals from eating them.
I also read a poem that made me pause … I extracted a part of it and used it as a writing and meditation prompt in a class I taught - see the picture below
Wishing you a good week. Sending love & wishing you good things wherever you are.
Lucy
p.s. In March 2025 I have two weeks of all inclusive medicine arts & surf retreats (meals, classes, yoga, massage, beach bathing, surfing, herbal medicine making, art) here at my home in Southern Nicaragua. If you’re interested… click here
p.p.s. My retreats are a max of 4 people. That might sound small but I prefer little groups and deep conversations and peace and deep work over busy large group dynamics …
p.p.p.s Here’s the whole poem by Eleanor Farjeon
It Was Long Ago (1951)
I’ll tell you, shall I, something I remember?
Something that still means a great deal to me.
It was long ago.
A dusty road in summer I remember,
A mountain, and an old house, and a tree
That stood, you know,
Behind the house. An old woman I remember
In a red shawl with a grey cat on her knee
Humming under a tree.
She seemed the oldest thing I can remember,
But then perhaps I was not more than three.
It was long ago.
I dragged on the dusty road, and I remember
How the old woman looked over the fence at me
And seemed to know
How it felt to be three, and called out, I remember
'Do you like bilberries and cream for tea?'
I went under the tree
And while she hummed, and the cat purred, I remember
How she filled a saucer with berries and cream for me
So long ago,
Such berries and such cream as I remember
I never had seen before, and never see
Today, you know.
And that is almost all I can remember
The house, the mountain, the grey cat on her knee,
Her red shawl, and the tree,
And the taste of the berries, the feel of the sun I remember,
And the smell of everything that used to be
So long ago,
Till the heat on the road outside again I remember,
And how the long dusty road seemed to have for me
No end, you know.
That is the farthest thing I can remember.
It won’t mean much to you. It does to me.
Then I grew up, you see.
Tropical Garden Discoveries