*This post is part of a collaborative project - a year of stories shared by a group of 15 photographers every Tuesday in 2016. Please visit Allison Gipson (hello! She's in Hawaii. You really, really should go visit her!) after you read this post to continue the circle.*
My husband is a trail runner and an obstacle course racer. Whereas my hobbies and pursuits lie in creative endeavors (hello, photography... and writing, reading, crafting, etc.), with our precious limited time for ourselves he chooses to exercise his body mightily. I feel energized and alive when I find time to be creative. It was a wonderful thing for our marriage when I realized he gets the same pump of fuel when he works out.
He runs trails at a nearby "park" of sorts and often asks us to meet him there afterward to explore and be outside together. It was March 6th. The budding of Spring was whispering to us all day long. March is such a coy month, playing hard-to-get with us folks who lie at the mercy of the weather. This evening, however, we heard the chorus of a million little frogs beckoning us like sirens of the sea.
Have you ever heard frogs who have gathered in small bodies of water? The sound can be incredible, but have you laid eyes on the creatures who produce such incredible volume? They are the tiniest of creatures! It's amazing that something so small can produce so much sound.
A few days prior we'd heard the frogs for the first time but the light was fading fast and we had no collection vessel at hand. We came prepared on the evening of March 6th in order to catch frog eggs. Our plan was to bring them home and watch them change from egg to tadpoles to frogs. The eggs were amassed in huge bundles all around the pond and marshy exterior. Nets in hand, they set out to collect.
They caught two adult frogs as well. A five gallon bucket with a small crack carried pond water. All of it went into the glass Habitat - a investment well made many years ago that has held spiders, lizards, groundhogs, and snakes. And then my husband sat it on my kitchen island, fearing the freezing overnight temperatures may disturb the eggs.
An hour later he brought up the fact that the pond water may also contain mosquito larvae, to which I then yelled "OUT!" To the garage the habitat went. For three nights those darn frogs --just two of them mind you! -- made so much racket that they woke me several times a night. Then they quieted.
We watched the eggs hatch into tadpoles. We've watched the tadpoles grow larger. We've replaced the pond water at least weekly since then. We now have three frogs, and we are hoping to see all of these little wannabe frogs turn into bug eating frogs on our patio. It's really rather fascinating, and despite my fury at the initial placement on my kitchen counter, I love it.
My only regret is that this day I completely forgot to change from my nice shoes into my 'get muddy' shoes, so I could have gotten a little closer with the picture taking.
(click on any image to view it larger)
*This post is part of a collaborative project - a year of stories shared by a group of 15 photographers every Tuesday in 2016. Please visit Allison Gipson (hello! She's in Hawaii. You really, really should go visit her!) after you read this post to continue the circle.*