The Frogs and Other Things

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to Pseudacris crucifer, otherwise known as the Northern Spring Peeper. It is truly spring. These little buggers are out in force, calling and sounding and looking for love. Though allegedly nocturnal, they've been doing their thing most hours of the day this week. There must be thousands of them due to the sound. I've had the windows open because it's been balmy and breezy and their calls are inescapable. They seem to work as a chorus, so it's nearly impossible to single out when a specific call begins or ends, unlike larger frogs or toads. It's almost like when cicadas are out in force. Their sounding never really becomes white noise that you can block...at best it becomes like a case of tinnitus. If you click the link above, Wiki has a sound file of hundreds of them. It gives a rough idea of it--but the scale is definitely off. Useless critter trivia: a group of frogs is referred to as an army or colony. More useless trivia: contrary to its poster, the 1972 animals amok flick, Frogs does not contain a scene where a large bullfrog eats a human hand. This one didn't make it into my recap of favorite killer critter movies because Joan Van Ark survives. I always hated Val.


Today is the last day of meds--huzzah! They've done the trick, although I'm now in that "feeling fine but have an energy deficit" zone. This is the hardest part of the whole illness/recovery cycle for me to navigate. It's a battle between stubborness and sensibility. I know I'm still not completely well, but dammit I feel fine. I wanted to work in the yard today, but am going to resist because I know I'll be clammy and coughing in about half an hour. I learned this on Friday when I went out to pick up some small branches and things that had blown out of the maples. I lasted twenty minutes and then ended up sacked out for a couple of hours. No need to repeat that. A few days of waiting isn't going to change much since the dead stems will still be there.



Daffodils are blooming like crazy, as are the tulips. In addition to the bargain packs of bulbs I'd nabbed at Lowe's, I had gone around last fall and dug up several large clumps of daffodils to transplant on the bank. What's astonishing is the amount of bulbs I must've missed. There are still sizeable clumps growing and blooming from areas I know I harvested. I might feed them heavily and then transplant more in the fall. Not sure how viable this plan is--I need to consult some books.