How many times a day I tour my garden? Several. Several times in the morning, several times before sunset, and several times in between :). So that’s several of several times.

My routine is to look, inspect from far away, inspect closed up. I checked on my Asian pear tree most because it had fireblight last week. I saw a couple of ladybugs one time, another couple ladybugs mating and then few days ago, I saw the underside of an asian pear leaf with orange eggs. I freaked out thinking the tree was being invaded by alien insects, so I snapped off the leaf and checked with chatPT. It turned out that they were ladybug eggs. What do I know!

Not wanting to be baby murderer, I decided to save the eggs. I put the leaf in a plastic box, cradled on a wet paper towel. The box rests on the ledge of my dining window, to simulate the outside weather. The eggs stayed orange for 3 days, then yesterday morning they all were mushed together and turned black. Not usually a good sign. I thought they were getting moldy.

This morning, I decided to move the box to outdoors in indirect sunlight. A few hours later, I looked and saw tiny little black creatures moving around. What a miracle! Baby ladybugs! I had one rose bush I know has aphids. So I put the leaf into the rose bush and watched as the babies started crawling in all directions.

How wonderful is the lifecycle of any creature! May you be healthy and eat well, my babies!