Teensy Weensy Froggies

It took me a long time to mow the lawn this morning.  That is because it took me awhile to get started mowing once I had all the cords attached to the mower and plugged into the electrical outlet.

What slowed me down was the discovery of several tiny green and brown striped frogs in the grass beside where I placed the lawnmower as I was preparing to start it up.  I am so grateful I saw them moving before I set those sharp blades awhirring!!  It seems we have a colony of the little creatures out beside the house in the shadiest, dew-dampiest area of the lawn.  There isn't much distance between the side of the house there and the flowerbeds along the outside wall of the church and so it is a perfect place for the frogs to live. Moisture catches on the grass and plants overnight now with the dropping temperatures. There are flies, mosquitoes, small spiders and most any other sort of insect the frogs would enjoy eating.  

I have loved frogs all my life. When I was younger I had quite a collection of stuffed, ceramic and china frogs, posters and paintings and photos of them lining the walls of my apartment.  Today I fell in love with this small colony. I wonder how long they have been there?  None of them were more than 5 centimeters long in the body and were very easy to fit into my gloved hands for transport across the grass and into the flowerbed where they would be safe from the mower.  After moving them far enough away from where I was working, I combed the grass all around that area of the lawn to be sure I hadn't missed any of them.  Never have I watched the ground so carefully when mowing.  I would have been sick to my stomach if I had run any of them over.

It was a busy morning out there in the yard.  A second ginger cat has discovered our bird feeders and in between swathes of mowing I was busy putting the run on her.  She is beautiful and I hope that she and the other cats around here whose owners allow their pets to run about unattended, will be safe from the cars and dogs and other dangers lurking for kitties on the loose.

All the mowing and animal removal certainly dropped my blood sugar into a nice range prior to lunch time, so I had better go now and have another long walk before I test it again after lunch.  

It was a perfect morning for mowing....sunny, not too hot, only one wasp that seemed threatened by my presence and fun with cats and frogs.  So grateful that soon it will be freezing overnight and thus the mosquitoes will soon be eliminated from the landscape, but for now the natural coconut and lime organic spray I am using is quite effective to keep them from biting me.