Under the milkwood tree

I spent a few hours under the milkwood tree in a corner of the garden today, writing. As I write with a notebook on my lap, any movement at my feet catches my eye. What a busy world it is under that tree!

A round, shiny black beetle scurried out from between the paving stones, with a smaller, different type of beetle in hot pursuit. The first one must have trespassed on the smaller beetle's territory and was being seen off in no uncertain terms. The little one then went back into the crack between the slabs, doubtless to re-mark his boundaries.

A line of ants rushed back and forth, apparently not moving house as they weren't carrying anything, and yet unceasing in their industry. Maybe my eyes were not good enough to discern their burdens and they were in the process of relocating a food source to their nest. Whatever it was, I wonder whether ants ever sleep or do they toil day and night?

Songololos glide multi-legged over the slabs, perhaps feeding on the berries which have now all dropped to the ground, providing a feast for the fruit-eating ground dwellers. I never sweep them up, as their purpose is a food source, just as the leaves that fall all year round are meant to provide the protective mulch that milkwoods use in their own food cycle. I throw clivia seeds among the leaves once they have turned a beautiful crimson hue, and have been very successful in achieving self-propagation in this way, leaving everything to the whims of nature.

Whenever it rains, in no time at all you can hear the frogs croaking in the undergrowth, and I have seen one of the Breviceps species, so called because of their short little legs and muscles which make leaping impossible, scrambling over the layer of pine bark that I scattered rather than grow a lawn. These little beasties have quite an attitude and will puff themselves up and glare at you if you dare to lean down for a closer look. They apparently are unaware that they are very tiny and know no fear. My fear is that, because they live under the bark and burrow into the sand for protection, I might unwittingly be standing on them when I walk in that area.

I'll never know, will I?