Peepers

We live across the street from what I think is technically called a storm water management facility. When it rains, all the water from the neighborhood is supposed to collect there and get rid of some of its impurities--litter, oil, grit, what have you--before moving into the stream that runs through the park.

When we moved here many years ago, the area was a dry basin where the kids sometimes played baseball. Eventually, dry storm water management facilities apparently fell out of favor, so the city came and dug the basin out, did some engineering and planting and--voila--now we have a wet storm water management facility--or what most people would call a pond.

Not all the neighbors are great fans, but I like the pond. We have ducks that hang out there--and sometimes ducklings. A great blue heron has stopped by. And this time of year, I blush to say it's a bit of an X-rated frog orgy. Er, or maybe they are toads. Actually I think my knowledgeable neighbor told me there are several varieties of the froggy/toady creatures in the pond. Today husband and I think we think we heard two distinct frog calls.

The frogs (or toads as I suppose they may be) can get quite loud. I had a friend over for a meeting one night a few years ago, and I had to walk her to her car--she thought she was in a jungle. Son #3's fiancee thought a car alarm was going off. But we just hear it as the beginning of spring.