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Category: Just Call Me MAM Just Call Me MAM
Published: 19 July 2020 19 July 2020

By Mary Alice Murphy

I haven't heard frogs in years in our nearby arroyo, but they were sure sounding off this evening.

I guess getting a little over an inch of rain over the past few days has given the frogs something to sing about again.

I took our dog Jackie out for her last business trip. In the still air of evening, I could hear the two-tonal croaking of at least one frog and maybe more than one.

What a treat! I've missed their froggie choruses over the years. Where we used to live more than 20 years ago in Texas, we could regularly hear frogs in a nearby creek.

So, I enjoy the evening choruses. I hope it keeps raining enough this season to keep them croaking for weeks.

What I wonder is where do they go when it's dry? Are they hibernating in the damp sand somewhere?

OK, I just did a search and some species of frogs and toads hibernate or estivate in cold or dry weather. Ingenious creatures these little friends that enhance our evenings with their music.

Inside the house I can't hear anything but a cricket just outside the window. It's much closer and louder. I wonder if it's the one I relocated from the bathroom sink this morning. How it got there, I don't know, but it sure surprised me when I got up this morning. I threw a tissue over it and grabbed it before it jumped away. Then I set it outside. It's not alone. It's a veritable chorus of crickets singing this evening.

Enjoy summer evenings with a light breeze and occasional thunderstorms that cool off the air for sweet sleeping with the windows open.

May your musings bring you beauty!