Inching along

Two and two are four
Four and four are eight
Eight and eight are sixteen
Sixteen and sixteen are thirty-two
Inchworm, inchworm
Measuring the marigold
You and your arithmetic
You’ll probably go far
Inchworm, inchworm
Measuring the marigold
Seems to me you’d stop and see
How beautiful they are

Every morning for the last couple of weeks, I have counted the number of caterpillars left on our evening primrose, just outside the kitchen door. The brown ones have slowly disappeared. We hoped that they had left under their own steam. The last to leave was the only green one in the bunch. Maybe its green colour protected it or it was a different hatching. In any case, we were able to watch it inch away in its caterpillar way.

Believe me, I was so tempted to pick it up and put it in our butterfly house. Yes, it would have been wonderful to see it change and become a moth, but it seemed wrong to interfere with nature. Especially after the privileged of watching it grow fat and big on our own doorstep. So I let it go.

As I took photos and made notes for a crafting project, Danny Kaye singing “Inch Worm” kept looping around in my head. It was good to take some time to watch the caterpillar. Such beautiful markings and movement. I know as I help the children with their times table and number bonds, this Autumn, I’m going to think about my friend the caterpillar inching along! Hope it made it. Wherever it was heading.