slug exportation
So, the kids have this wacky game that they play in the dahlia bed out front...
They turn over these huge rocks, I don't quite know how they manage it-some of the rocks are too heavy for ME to heave, admittedly I'm no muscle woman or anything but they are just bitty kids!-to search for critters.
Pill bugs get ooohs, they're cool 'cause they roll up. Spiders get screeches and beetles are kind of interesting but by far the most exciting are the slugs.
The bigger the better-Rowan: "whoa, look at that fatty!"
Sam: "Ooooh, that's super big!"
Somehow a game developed where they pick up the slugs(using leaves for slime protection) and carry them over to the yard next door, which just happens to be the yard of my landlady. There they "set them free" to join their little slug friends in "the wilderness".
Well, today I was sitting out on the front porch indulging in a sunny afternoon jaw session with my friend Ben, Rowans dad. The kids were playing happily out on the rocks and I was vaguely aware of their simple discussion of bugs and dead flowers which made a pleasant backdrop for our more adult topics of relationships, vulnerability, fear and buddhism.
Then my landlady came walking up the driveway.
She said hi to the kids and they immediately filled her in on the bug game. To my dismayed amusement, Rowan eagerly showed her how they export the leaf-wrapped slugs right over to her front yard!
She came over to talk to me and I offered her a rueful grin and apologized for turning her yard into a slug haven. To her credit she just laughed and said she'd merely come over to say we were welcome to pick the blackberries in her yard.
Thank heaven for nice landladies.
Rzan