Skip to main content

Day 42

We pulled into the driveway from dinner on the farm and the headlight skimmed over something moving across the gravel. That was enough for Jorja to ask her Dad to stop the car so that she could go and see what it was. I on the other hand could tell that it was of the spotted and slimy kind, and that was more than enough information for me to stay in the car!

People say: My husband will always be my biggest and oldest child that requires the most adult supervision. I would have to agree, if we weren't going to go with the: He was doing his Dad-duty idea.

P-J jumped out, grabbed a cup (to capture the creature of course) and followed Jorja to the spot - each one telling the other to be more quiet so as to not scare the unsuspecting amphibian away.

But then, it was as if they'd used all of their adrenalin supply to get there, and ran out just as they were going in for a closer look! Ethan and I had a good chuckle from the safety of the car while the other two skipped around the now frantic frog - trying to persuade him to hop into their cup for a closer inspection.


I'm guessing it was a Northern Leopard Frog - native to parts of Canada and the United States and the state amphibian of Minnesota and Vermont.

Jorja was not scared to take a better look once we'd bundled everyone inside, but Ethan was adamant, "I no like a p-rog!" Maybe if Ethan knew that it had the word Leopard in its name he may have been more interested. Unfortunately Jorja's five-year-old attention span just needed a quick glimpse before she moved on to the next topic. That's a little too short considering all the trouble her Dad put in - finding a bigger jar, filling it with some water, transferring the high-hopping frog into the jar, piercing air holes into the lid before releasing him back into the garden! 

Anyway, another day with our very own Bindi Irwin! I guess we'll have to find something else to draw in Nature Study class tomorrow...


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Papu Comes to Visit 3

Since the last post we've had two more weeks of Papu visiting with us and then one very long week since we dropped him off at the airport. In mid-July we went to Burlington Airport en route to my final exam, and recreated what should have been his triumphant arrivals lounge experience in June. PJ took him to Lake Champlain and surrounds while they waited for me to complete the test and then treated me to "the test is done" lunch. We spent a rare hot afternoon at Silver Lake Park swimming with friends, we shopped 'til we dropped at The Vermont Spot, we were able to see the clean-up operations happening in flood-stricken Montpelier and even managed a quick stop at the Vermont State House.  We visited the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe and enjoyed Ben and Jerry's ice cream at their factory. We took a drive around my old VTC campus in Randolph and Gifford Medical Center where I practiced this past year. We drove through the Dartmouth campus and the Boat House on the Conn

Papu Comes to Visit

For the last 10 days we have been enjoying having Papu here with us so much that we completely forgot about the plan to post daily blog entries about his trip!  Yes, I considered this special visit the perfect reason to resurrect the blog and write more... Well, it turns out that when your Dad is visiting from overseas, you don't have much time for anything else besides trying to do 180924523093284 things, be in the moment, and take a photo of it! Here are a few photos of the first week-and-a-bit: Day one. The equivalent of driving to Plettenberg Bay I'm told! We experienced smooth open roads in some parts, midday congestion in and out of Boston, heavy downpour with flash flood warnings towards Burlington, and some interesting GPS navigation. But the passenger and his luggage reached us safely at the end of a long day. At last he was able to wrap his arms around Papu! Ethan and Adrienne arrived back from their trip to Lake George the day after Papu arrived and have been doing

Papu Comes to Visit 2

 It's been another 10 or so days of Papu in Vermont with us, and he's experienced more heat, severe flooding, Summer holiday camps, a long-awaited touristy activity, and many, many late dinners!  We returned safely from Plymouth VT just before mudslides, flooding and road erosion caused all major routes between there and home to be closed. It's been raining nonstop some days! The snack shack that we visited in Papu's first week suffered flooding similar to what they experienced in 2011's Hurricane Irene, and many more surrounding towns have been struggling to get on top of water diversion and mopping up efforts. We are fortunate to be safe and able to access necessities, and bar one wild drive in a thunderstorm last Thursday, we are trying to time outings around extreme weather forecasts. Of course, this means that we haven't been out much! Last Saturday, however, the sun was shining, and PJ took the crew into Boston for a bit of sightseeing. They visited Fenway