July 26, 2007
-
Off
two things that turn me off instantly when gardening:
1. the sight of earthworms
the long-bodied red or maroon worms, thin or fat, flicking their heads … or tails around vigorously is gross. i memang don’t like earthworms ever since i was very young. i dreaded showering in my baby-sitter’s home when i was younger, because sometimes, earthworms appeared from the cracklines of yellowing white tiles. i would plant myself firmly on ONE spot – which was the center of the small bathroom – not shifting my feet anywhere if i didn’t have to.when i garden, i would be pulling the weeds and loosening soil with all my heart until suddenly, one strand of noodlelike yuckiness was at sight. that’s when i lose appetite of gardening and stop everything i was doing.
2. amphibians or reptiles
the sudden appearance of them scared the daylights out of me. i was clearing a patch outside my house, just beside the deep drain. mum treated it as a dumping area and dumped a lot of unwanted wood and planks and metal there. the wood rotted and the metal became brittle and rusty after being there for some years. as the bleak grey skies threaten to pour anytime soon, i was on my knees, picking out the abovementioned foreign objects and throwing them away. i had in mind to plant japanese roses there, after i cleared the space of weeds and metal and wood.. it’s a nice plot of land anyway. why waste it by putting junk there?suddenly, from a little crack of the cemented borders, a black mouse head popped out. i drew in a gasp of air and stumbled a step backwards. i don’t know whether my neighbours who lived opposite me saw me stagger backwards. i didn’t look at them to check.
i looked at the creature again, and turned out it wasn’t a mouse. it was a big charcoal-black toad, the size of the fleshy part of my palm! ewww. i don’t like toads either. i peered into the crack. what if they are more toads in there?
i quickly packed the shovel, fork and rake, tied the plastic bag of junk and plopped them into the trash bin and went indoors. minutes after i did, the rain began to fall.
i think i’m gonna ask someone else to clear the patch for me.
maybe the grasscutter man. or my mum.
