Really Random Tuesday #95: Very Hungry Caterpillars and a Book Winner

These very hungry caterpillars are on a restricted diet.  Yesterday morning, I was pleased to find many caterpillars feasting on my milkweed plants, their only source of nutrition.  They devour the plants, which become quite bare after a while (though the leaves will grow back for future larvae, as long as the plants get some water).  A couple of years ago, while I was reading Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver, I became keenly interested in monarch butterflies, as the book features them prominently; at the same time, my sister-in-law, Kristine, was posting on Facebook about monarch butterflies and her milkweed plants.  I was intrigued, and found plants for my garden from a local nursery and from Home Depot, and I also purchased milkweed seeds.  I  grow milkweed in pots now, though, because many of the plants I'd put into the earth would mysteriously disappear after a few days.  I learned at the nursery that gophers were probably stealing the milkweed I planted in the ground, pulling them underground by their roots.  Anyway, the hungry caterpillars start out as adorable, tiny creatures, and grow larger and plumper as they eat.  They're a bit cartoonish, as if they belong in a Dr. Seuss story, but some of them will form exquisite chrysalises, and the most fortunate ones will become beautiful monarch butterflies.

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Please help me to congratulate Pat from Posting For Now. She's won a copy of The Antigone Poems, a collection of poetry by Marie Slaight, with illustrations by Terrence Tasker.  Many congratulations, Pat!  I hope you will relish this book, which features striking poems and drawings.  Thanks to everyone who entered this giveaway.  Please stay tuned for more giveaways, which I list on the right side of my blog.

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Appearing on random Tuesdays, Really Random Tuesday is a way to post odds and ends--announcements, musings, quotes, photos--any blogging and book-related things you can think of. Often I announce my book giveaway winners in these posts.  If you have miscellaneous book news to gather up and are inspired by this idea, "grab" the button for use on your own blog, and add your link to the "master" Mister Linky on the Really Random Tuesday page.  Thanks for stopping by!  Your comments are welcomed.