Tadpoles and More Tadpoles!

I love the warm weather of Spring and Summer,  always have, and one of the reasons is the critters. As a child, I was pretty much the tomboy, and if it was alive  (and not poison) I'd try to catch it. When I was six, after a hard rain, I remember taking my sand pail and catching as many crayfish as I could find. No one had taught me how to catch them, I just seemed to know to keep away from those pinchers.

Another time I collected a large jar of praying mantis eggs from various spots around our yard and brought them inside, which horrified my mother. She made me take them back outside. Which, I learned with my own child, was the smart thing to do. We had one hatch inside his bedroom and baby praying mantis were everywhere!

Beneath the edge of my grandparent's porch, was a favorite spot for granddaddy longlegs, and to my sister's horror, I allowed them to crawl up and down my bare arms, still do.

But one of my favorite things are the frogs. As a child I caught every one I happened upon.

I have a Koi pond in my backyard, and every year we have a multitude of frogs that return to mate and to lay their eggs. Each night I go to sleep to their own special orchestra. Then come the tadpoles, hundreds of them, gathering around the edge of the water close to the warmth of the sun. The first batch of tadpoles recently turned into hundreds of tiny toad frogs no larger than the nail of your little finger. If you've never seen one, they are the cutest things ever.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Summer!

Gwyn