Ribbit!

Ribbit!

Ribbit!

 Many, many, many, many moons ago, mom's friend who happens to be a doctor made the mistake of telling her that on his honeymoon there was an army of frogs that kept singing their ribbiting chorus all night, every night.  (Yes, army - that's what they're called! Look it up!)  Mom took this knowledge and used it and her powers of mischief to assist various frogs and frog-shaped items in reaching a new home - with "Doc Froggy" both at his home and his office.  I spent a couple of weeks helping out at his office one summer and was coerced into delivering several of these ribbity critters surreptitiously.  His friends, family and patients all saw that he "collected" frogs, so they started giving him frogs too.  That's where the story might end, except that "Doc Froggy" and "Mrs Froggy" along with their family decided to retaliate by also offering assistance to frogs and frog-shaped items in finding them a new home - with mom, or "Nurse Froggy."  Doc's kids and I all became affectionately known as "the tadpoles."

One of the many frogs at mom's house.

Just like "Doc Froggy," mom's friends and family began to notice her "collection" of frogs and decided to help it along.  The kids who lived next door to us used to make a game out of trying to count all of the frogs in the house... they'd usually give up when they reached 50 or so, with many more to go.  Nearly everyone who knows mom has participated in some way in building her "collection" of frogs.  Frogs will mysteriously appear in the garden in the middle of the night, on the kitchen counter after a friend came to tea, they even greet her when she goes to collect the mail.  I can't remember a Christmas or birthday that didn't include at least one frog present.

Something I made for mom
when I was bored one day.

One of the many frogs at mom's house

Josephine and Napoleon

Fergie, Mrs. Gardenhopper, Freida, Lily, Leopold, and Dreamweaver

 Back in high school I used a small sample of our frog army in a photography assignment:

A few of the frogs we had 15 years ago.

I've had many encounters with live frogs too.  We'd go hunting for frogs and tadpoles when I was a kid.  Mom took my friend Rachel and I out once, had us put on rubber boots and told us not to step too deep or we'd get our feet and clothes wet.  She had a pair of hip-waders on, so she braved the middle of the pond, while we caught tadpoles in the more shallow area.  On the way back to the car, we kept hearing the "swish, swash, swish, swash" as mom walked beside us, having gone too deep into the pond (she claims there were holes in the hip-waders!) her boots were full of slimy water.  Rachel and I had nice dry feet.  I Guess mom should have taken her own advice!

A couple of years ago I was taking a nap by the pond at Jericho Beach Park during the Vancouver Folk Music Festival.  I woke up, turned my head and found this little guy sitting on my backpack inches from my head.


After work today, C and I were both doing a little gardening with the "assistance" of her 4-year-old son, when something suddenly leaped away from the planter I was moving.  I found a little brown frog with an orange throat.  I didn't manage to get a photo of him before he escaped into my plants, but I did get to show him to everyone upstairs first.  The boys thought he was pretty cool and Trooper the dog wanted to eat him.

On my first day home from the cruise last month.  I was giving my plants some much needed water when something suddenly popped out of the herb pot.  It was a little green and brown frog, who I did manage to capture on film.  Isn't he cute?