Rainy days - building towns and encounters with leeches...
After a few weeks of dust storms and very dry weather we have been blessed with a deluge - the garden is definitely loving it. Racking my brains for something to occupy L. on the rainy weekend I remembered he had some sidewalk chalk and wooden offcuts from our house building project. So we gathered them all up along with his toy cars and some playdough and set to making a model town on the back verandah. What resulted was a charming little village complete with wooden waterfall, cardboard bridge and playdough traffic lights. For trees we picked some weeds (the dominant form of vegetation in our backyard at the moment) and stuck them into some playdough. L had a great time driving his cars around and chalking in driveways and detours. We also set up a shop where he delivered flowers on the back of his toy truck which then became blooms on the trees for the gardens of the village.
Later that day we thought we'd take a chance in between showers to get out for a bushwalk. The bush was lovely and fragrant and green and dripping... and full of leeches. P seemed to be winning with the number of leeches that kept popping up on his shoes. I was smug in my apparent immunity at first but soon spied them trying to sneak past my shoelaces. Holding back my instinctual screeches I flicked them off with a handy stick - it took a few goes - they really do have powerful suction. I like to think of myself as a nature lover - but slugs and leeches give me the heebie-geebies every time.
Imagine my horror when I saw one on my trouser leg, inching closer to my foot, on the way home in the car. I started hyperventilating. I demanded that the car be stopped immediately. Another one flicked off firmly. Further on I swore I could feel them squirming around in my socks. Upon arrival at our house we all proceeded to strip off our shoes, socks and trousers. In fact I decided a shower was in order and a even more thorough search for the beasts. Thankfully I had none. P did have one that had made its way through his sock. L got away scot-free also or so we thought... until P noticed some blood on his foot during dinner. Sure enough an engorged leech was smooching away from the table. L was declared the winner in the leech contest (positive thinking on P's part) having had blood actually taken by a leech. I'm just thankful I'm not living in the age where blood-letting by leeches was considered to be the cure to all ills.
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