We are currently surrounded by inchworms. They are everywhere. We step over them. They fall on us. We find them swinging from the trees.
The boys have named themselves inchworm protectors and they collect them and feed them!
In the way of a true earworm, the song Inchworm (as performed by Danny Kaye in Hans Christian Andersen), has been going round and round in my head for the last week! I find myself humming it in the shower and on the school run, and singing it to the wee girl!
(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 marigolds
You and your arithmetic
You’ll probably go far
Inchworm, inchworm
Measuring the marigolds
Seems to me you’d stop and see
How beautiful they are
Frank Loesser (1910-1969)
Accompanying the incessant loop of the song in my head, memories of Primary School have come flooding back! I was in the choir, and this is one of the songs that we used to sing. A vivid memory of singing at an old folks home (I’m sure that’s not what they are called now!) flew into my head when the 6yo first presented me with an inchworm. I can picture the room, the chairs arranged in a semi-circle. I can smell the institutional smell, remember the tea cups, the clink of spoons.
It always surprises me just how evocative a piece of music, or a smell, or a sound can be…
The last lines also resonate with me.
Seems to me you’d stop and see how beautiful they are.
One of our hopes for this move to States was a calmer pace of life, one where we stopped and enjoyed the small stuff. As I get caught up in the chaos of schools, classes, activities and play dates, it is a timely reminder to take a step back and breathe.
I’m linking this up to the Shoulder to Shoulder to Day blog hop. Following some fantastic news for Emma, the last line of this silly little song seems even more appropriate. Happy memories, a thought for the day and an earworm!
I’ve never heard that song! And I didn’t know those were called inchworms. No wonder our Bumpy died last year – we were treating him as a caterpillar!
Having looked it up (!) inchworms are the caterpillars of geometer moths… Learn something new every day! The song is still on a loop in my head :)
Do they have particular diets? That is a great shot going up his arm.
We went on a bug hunt yesterday :O)
Visiting from s2s2d
They eat leaves – as can be seen by all the trees around us that have very holey leaves! I also found a wiki how page… http://m.wikihow.com/Take-Care-of-Inchworms ! Thanks for reading xx
Great poem. I always used to think those were caterpillars when I was in primary school. We kept them in an ice cream tub and wondered why they didn’t turn into butterflies!
Have to admit I didn’t know either until we were surrounded by them this summer and I went and googled them :)