Earth-movers

There is much to think about on the subject of dirt. Today the worms in my dirt (in my preexisting perennial garden--no solution to the buckets of dirt problem yet) are multiplying! I am digging wire (Satan) grass out of said garden and during this process spent much of the last week digging in the dirt. Every handful had a huge fat worm. Do you know when you are watching a movie and the scary moment comes when something that is supposed to be solid starts undulating and out pops a creature? You have to understand that I love worms. I once was late to class in college because I was saving worms out of a deep puddle (they breathe through their skin). Annelids, worms, are the earth movers our upon which our biological web rests. I love how they take hard, poor dirt and turn it into soil...and get a yummy snack in the process. That said: my particular dirt is fairly boiling with worms. It is unnerving to see them burst out of an inanimate pile of dirt. As I said, I love worms, but sometimes when you are that outnumbered, you start to contemplate the fragility of the Homo sapien. I thought those beloved, multi segmented, terra-ruminators might have been eying me with thoughts of my future return to dust. I even found a nest of infant worms in a rotting log in the oily creek. Tangent: I thought cleaning some of the debris out of the creek might help it flow and cut down on the stagnation, mosquitoes and toxins. More on that later!