Removing the buttercup from the strawberry bed is a ritual of mine that I follow every couple of weeks in the springtime. The chickens devour the buttercups when I toss them into the coop - it is one of their favorite foods. I filled a couple of buckets amazingliy quick. Actually, I don't know how long it took. Weeding is a meditation. I disappear, time slides by, and the bucket fills up.
In my spaciness, Eliot had drifted behind me and was playing with an empty bucket, a piece of paper, a tile, and a couple of buttercups. I snapped out of it, looked around and Eliot was standing up by holding onto the edge of the raised vegetable bed smiling at me. However, he not only had a big grin on his face, but a long brown drool dripping down his chin and onto his shirt. The tell tale sign of pica - dirt eating.
He thought it was funny. He grabbed another clod and went for his mouth, but he shook too much due to his laughter and missed. Either he liked eating the dirt or he liked the EEEyuK look on my face!