Last Friday was the tenth anniversary of the day our Botanic Gardens was officially opened. There was a celebration which included the official launch of a wonderful children's book - The Bungy Jumping Caterpillar.
Three of our very talented Friends wrote, illustrated and produced this book, a story featuring four plants which grow in the Botanic Gardens and which are considered to be 'threatened species' in the wild.
Do click on all these images to see them enlarged. Kate has done a lovely job with the illustrations, a combination of photoshopped photographs and paintings.
There is an exhibition in the gallery with photos of the caterpillars and the Zodiak day flying moth, which triggered this project. There are three Omphalia trees growing beside the carpark, which the caterpillars denude of foliage on a regular basis. The gardeners and Maya, one of the authors of the book, wage a permanent battle. They want to spray to kill the caterpillars, and she want them left for her educational talks with visiting school children!! Mostly Maya wins.
Maya wove the giant leaf, school children coloured the caterpillars with water soluble pencils.
Carolyn, another of the authors, made this gorgeous caterpillar for the exhibition.
Maya reading the story to the children on Friday night, and you can see the adult audience reflected in the glass!
There was a really good crowd there to celebrate and reminisce on how far the Gardens have come in ten years - now we have to work on the next ten years!
I have more immediate things to concentrate on however - I have finally got a date for my second knee replacement - 4 July. It seems so very close and I need to do so many things here before I fly off to Buderim. My surgeon has moved down there, and as my sister lives in Buderim, I have decided to go there rather than try someone else. I just hope I recover as quickly as I did the last time, but I imagine I shall be away from home for nearly a month, leaving Bill to fend for himself for most of that time....now I just have to fill the freezer!
There was a really good crowd there to celebrate and reminisce on how far the Gardens have come in ten years - now we have to work on the next ten years!
I have more immediate things to concentrate on however - I have finally got a date for my second knee replacement - 4 July. It seems so very close and I need to do so many things here before I fly off to Buderim. My surgeon has moved down there, and as my sister lives in Buderim, I have decided to go there rather than try someone else. I just hope I recover as quickly as I did the last time, but I imagine I shall be away from home for nearly a month, leaving Bill to fend for himself for most of that time....now I just have to fill the freezer!
Lovely illustrations & great page layouts. The oven leaf is fabulous.
ReplyDeleteHaving the boy home is great tho he preferred falling out of a plane to bungy jumping!
Isn't it good when one's friends produce things like this.
ReplyDeleteGood luck for the knee - I am coming up to having to have my first one done. I am sure the freezer full of food will suffice.
It seems knees are all the go, Love the idea of the caterpillar book.
ReplyDeleteA beautifully written and illustrated book. So glad that the caterpillars are not being sprayed; a recent survey of wild life in the Uk has shown a serious decline in over 60% of species.
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