A wondrous and amazing creature .....

A garden is full of wondrous things - and nothing can be more wondrous or amazing as a incredibly beautiful creature munching it way though the plants! Destructive as it may be, it is part of nature and I prefer not to use pesticide or insecticide in the garden unless absolutely necessary.

 

So here it is, a big fat caterpillar, some 5" long!

The grey-pink patches are iridescent, making it difficult to photograph.

 

You think the tail looks like the head?  Deceptive, huh!

Just look at the mouth parts!

 

 Is that not a wondrous and amazing creature?

 

The Zinna in our Garden

Love these zinnas. They are spectacular and form really nice border along a garden. There are some 20 varieties with with flowers in variations of white, yellow and orange to red, purple and lilac!

I have some of them them in small clusters along the walkway of my garden. The following are all the same colour but varies in the number and layers of flower petals. Amazing!

I am always on the lookout to add more ... browsing through nurseries and peering into other people's garden :-)

My Family

I have written before that I am from a very large extended family and we are also a 5-generations family (五代同堂). In one line of my family, five females in the family represent 5 generations of the Phang (彭) Family in a direct line of descent. They are the 彭门女将 :-)

 

The oldest is my mum at 88 and the youngest is my great-grand niece at just 4 months old.

The great thing about an extended family is the family events. At my mum's last birthday do, just the immediate family occupy more than 40 tables, not including those who cannot make it to the celebration! During Lunar New Year, family members visiting the family matriarch have to visit in large groups at regularly spaced intervals to  allowed for standing/sitting room to be available and food and drinks  to be replenished! It is just great fun!