Corner View: Miniature Worlds

Jane at Spain Daily has a weekly theme in which we write on our point of view from our corner of the world. Be sure to click on over to her blog and read the other corner views! This week's theme is "Miniature worlds."

When I moved to Georgia from wintry Maine one thing I was looking froward to the most was walking barefoot in the grass. I love the luxurious feeling of the grass under my feet. The act is emblematic of wild abandon, thumbing one's nose at winter so to speak. That bit of self-indulgence, reveling in sensuous grass, is a summer-time only thing in Maine, which is all too short. I was looking forward to a longer time barefootin' it in Georgia.

I got the longer summer, for sure, and a lengthy spring and a gentle fall too, but the running over the lawn in bare feet and twirling like Julie Andrews atop the Alps ain't gonna happen. Why? My enemy, the fire ant!

Oh, my, is that a bald spot on my lawn? Mental note: get grass seed.

Peering closer, I see that it is the tip of the iceberg, a small segment of a vast underground miniature world. The fire ant mound, indicator of the hell beneath and lo, there are the hellish beasts emerging to torment the barefoot wanderer now.

Peering even closer, looking at each blade of grass, one can see many ants traversing each tiny blade, going about their work but ready to BITE the BIG TOE at first moment! The miniature world of the fire ant is immense, unseen, and if you are a big toe, hell itself!