My little friend of worms...

Kyle loves worms. While I have been gardening I've shown them to him when I have come across them. He's taken them, held them, driven them around in his trucks, and then we always put them back in the dirt. He makes me laugh because he always calls them cutie and talks about how cute they are. He talks to them, "Want to drive over here little cutie worm? Want more dirt little guy?"

I would say it was a "boy thing," but honestly, I remember walking to and from school in elementary school and picking up worms off the sidewalk and throwing them in the grass. I have no idea how many worms I have "saved" in my life. Kyle and I now do that after it rains when we see a worm. While I've never had any kind of fascination with worms, I think it is just my love of animals extending down to this little creature. (Although it does fascinate me that a worm that is cut in half will live on as two worms.)

Today I went to rake a clump of leaves that had gathered in a corner of the pavement last fall. It was very wet and there was dirt at the bottom of the pile. WOW. It was a haven for worms. Big worms. Kyle was napping, so I actually got a container and put ten worms or so in it for him. He loved them! Here are some pictures of "the release" in the garden this evening.

And yes, Kyle is out in a shirt, jacket and underpants. Again, not all battles are worth fighting. I don't care what he wears to let worms go. ;-)