Not poetry: swallowtail

I’ve been so busy with poetry and other stuff that I’ve neglected to post about what’s happening in the garden.

My lovage plant didn’t survive the winter, but it left a couple of self-sown offspring to be remembered by. I was delighted to discover this fellow on one of them last week:

swallowtail larva in the open

I checked on him today, and he’s almost twice as large. He’s a little hard to see because of his excellent camouflage, but that’s a good thing: I don’t want him snapped up by the neighborhood robins or cardinals.

swallowtail larva hidden