I pattered out to my balcony this morning to water my plants (in the painting lull I decided to allow them the freedom to enjoy oxygen and sunlight before being returned to the bath tub to live in exile.)
I was rather shocked to glance down at my mint, surely it couldn't have died overnight, but there it was all bare sticks without a single leaf on it. Closer inspection revealed it wasn't some sudden heart attack but there was some stubs of leaves with definite chew marks. Something had had quite an extensive nibble of it.
I am quite a tolerant person, when leaves of basil turn up with large holes missing I just shrug and say that is part of nature, the insects are entitled to contribute to my small little eco system of a few herb plants in a pot... but this... this was overstepping the mark...
I managed to find three culprits, large bloated caterpillars of a bright neon green, their appearance was quite absurd really, just little balloons of bright green that when squished just turned a more liquidly translucent green smudge. To completely destroy every single leaf on a plant is to deprive that plant of its ability to grow. How can it photosynthesis after such abuse. And so I declare my balcony garden to no longer be a neutral territory for insects to congregate within, trespassers will be squashed.
On a lighter note we saw a great play tonight 'Travesties' by Tom Stoppard... brilliant fun, so many ideas and linguistic tricks bubblling in there that it is hard to get a grip on just what your thoughts are... the first thing we said to each other was more along the lines of "geeze, imagine trying to learn all those lines... impressive" indeed I think the actors certainly had to work hard for their money on that one. But it was great
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