Walking through my garden one day, I noticed an Ice Cream Shop amid my roses.

The shop was inside a huge snowball topped with Holly.

"That’s funny, it was not there yesterday, or the day before," I thought, as I entered the snowball to find an Ice Cream Lady standing behind a counter of cracked, crunched, and crystallized ice.
"How came you to my garden?" I asked.

"Magic. Young man." She replied with a magical flourish. 

Then she made me the most beautiful ice cream and cone that I have ever seen.

"Taste and you will become a part of your garden." She said.

I marveled at the ice cream's perfect shape, its rainbow of colours, and the fragrances that overwhelmed my senses.

I could smell the fruits of the rainforests, the breeze off the sea, the dew of the morning meadow, and the scents of roses, jasmine, and gardenia.

I could resist the ice cream no more. I put out my tongue, and I licked.

"Hmmm." It was the most delicious thing that I have ever tasted.

My head swam in a sea of icy pleasure, and again I licked the Ice Cream.

"Hmmm. Fantastic". It was irresistible and I licked, and I licked and I licked and I licked until my head developed an Icy Freeze Brain so deliciously cold that I could take no more. 

That was when I noticed that the ice cream had grown smaller.

"This ice cream is so beautiful that I want to gobble it all up," I said to myself as I left the Shop. "But if I gobble it all up I’ll lose its beauty forever. How can I protect it?"

I wanted to ask the Ice Cream Lady, but when I turned back she and the Ice Cream Shop had vanished.

I was puzzled. 

Continuing on I came to my Ice-Flower Bed, which is cooled by a Glacier stored deep within the earth, and there I planted the Ice Cream. Then I sat, wondering about its perfect beauty.

All was still. All was well.

Or so I thought...

I heard a strange noise and looked to see an army of Ants marching towards the Ice Cream.

In a ferocious voice, they sang,

"Eat it, munch it. Chew it, crunch it. This is what we'll do.

Eat it, munch it. Chew it, crunch it. This is what we'll do."

By their words, I could tell that they were going to eat the Ice Cream.

"How can I protect this Ice Cream from the Ants?" I thought.

I could not step on them, for that would be Anti-Social.

Then I  remembered the words of the Ice Cream Lady, "Taste, and you will become a part of your garden." she had said.

And I did!  I became a part of my garden. It was the most incredible thing.

My ears popped. My heart thumped. My toes squiggled, my hair frazzled, my bones creaked and I shrank.

Yes! I shrank.

I shrank to the size of an Ant.

For a second, surrounded by an army of Ants in an ant-sized world, I was terrified. Frightened out of my wits.

But then I saw how wondrous my garden looked from an Ants perspective, and nature's beauty took care of me.

I was frightened no more and knew what I had to do to protect the ice cream.

I would tell the Ants a story.

"Hello Anties"  I said. "Have I got a story for you..."