Life has frogs in its throat! #phenology

It / they started yesterday, or thereabouts. We can't tell if we're hearing gray treefrogs, Spring peepers, Boreal chorus frogs, wood frogs, or all of the  above plus other, but the peeping and chirruping has begun. The sounds are significant signs of Spring's arrival here at the Southern edge of the North Country. Mating calls follow emergence from a frozen habitat; precede mating, which  precedes egg laying, then tadpoles then more frogs; then another Autumn followed by another Winter.

gray treefrog on porch screen

Photo by J. Harrington

Frog calls are a delightful replacement for Winter's howling winds. The morning bird chorus is adding voices by the day. This all makes me think I'm overdue for an attitude adjustment. I have been spending way too much time worrying and fussing about things I can't control to the detriment of enjoying the things I can. According to much of the contents of my email inbox, the world is daily overrun by one crisis after another and signing a petition per crisis will take care of things, especially if an online signature is accompanied by a donation. Back in the mid-1960's, one of Minnesota's two Nobel Laureates in Literature, in his poem It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding), enumerates lists of factors that brought us to where we are today. The more things change, the more they…

dime-size green  treefrog

Photo by J. Harrington

The last line of Dylan's song: "But it’s alright, Ma, it’s life, and life only" points us back in time to the shores of

[An ancient pond!]

Matsuo Basho - 1643-1694

An ancient pond!
With a sound from the water
Of the frog as it plunges in.


                                              —Translation by William George Aston

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