Among the many delights Bob and I discovered during our initial sojourn at Terra Nova before the fire was a tiny tree frog who hopped out of a hibiscus plant one day while I was watering. I scooped him up carefully and took him inside for a few minutes to show Bob. He was a wonderful and wiggly little thing who promptly escaped my fingers and scaled our kitchen window a la Spiderman.
After the fire, looking around at charred terrain as far as could be seen in every direction, I thought often about our little frog. Surely he and all his kind must have perished in the cataclysm. And even if a few lucky Kermit cousins had survived, how could they possibly repopulate without any apparent source of water? With all the fire took from us, it seemed especially cruel that we would likely never again find a frog in our flowers.
You know where this is going, of course, so here's the denouement. Our daughter Lauren gave us a beautiful copper wall fountain for our anniversary. It arrived just as we were moving into the new house, and we decided the front porch was the perfect place to hang it. What a lovely addition to Terra Nova. We found its burbling such a soothing sound that we took to leaving the door ajar just to listen to it. Apparently, we weren't the only ones enjoying our fountain. One evening I discovered a tiny tree frog perched on its rim. Reason enough, Bob and I decided, to call our recovery from the fire complete.
P.S. Update 7/31/05. Make that two frogs in our fountain. Here are a few photos of Pacific tree frogs: http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/narcam/idguide/hylareg.htm
4 comments:
La grenouille s'est retournée! C'est une belle histoire.
I'm delighted to assist in the return of the tree frogs to Terra Nova. It's a shame they couldn't meet my pigeons.
But maybe for the best. Pigeons might consider frog legs a delicacy.
Any frogs in the avocado tree?
Post a Comment