Every once in a while you meet a child who is so attracted and attractive to the little people of the planet that they are seen constantly surrounded by little critters. Lexi is such a child. He loves to observe and be around anything that crawls, flies, swims, slithers… anything that is moving really. He is the child the dragonfly chooses to land on and linger, and the one that the little baby lizard likes be with and who plots to take one of the Gibraltar apes back home in the car!
They live in colonies, the communicate amongst themselves, they have the ability to solve complex problems, they have ranks, leadership, work ethics, they colonize new territories, they invade neighbors, they serve their queens… do they remind you of any other Eartlhlings?
I spent a long time watching this group of workers with their leader as they moved a discarded piece of potato chips along a distance of about 5 meters, working so methodically, so quickly and with the so much effort, each ant concentrating on its task at hand until they finally dragged it under a rock to the base of their colony. They moved in a straight line to their final goal, it was so incredible to witness. As this was right in front of our building, a few people of course pitied my insanity (well I was kind of crawling on the ground), and I had to ward off a little toddler who almost crushed the whole miracle with his foot and with a semi evil look on his face, the one little boys have when they are about to exercise their power over an insect! 🙂
With Lea’s growing and intense fascination with the world of bugs during the last months, I have been finding myself almost daily with my nose to the ground in search mode. When you shrink yourself and force your perceptions to go smaller to enter that world, you become more and more intrigued by the beauty and wonder of it all. You become sensitized to little creatures and start to see them everywhere, and they are so fascinating! How can anyone not gasp at the skill displayed in the crafting of a spiderweb? They are so exquisite, so fine, and so delicate. I just hope she won’t bring the spiders home in her little box too! I love to watch them, from a little distance 🙂
photo taken: a spider and his web over a stream with pebbles