Spring Peepers

Today is Groundhog Day and I am in a terrible mood, partly because I'm still sick and coughing up globs of scary umm, sputum (how was that for you?), and also because I'm not ready for warm weather. More ice please. Nevertheless I was able to appreciate the sky, which at around 3 this afternoon looked like a spilled tangerine egg cream near the Southern horizon. I was also able to appreciate the way Nora's sister and brother came to her aid when she tipped off her chair hard onto the floor, soaked in the ovaltine that had fallen along with her. I didn't really want to come to her aid before getting a towel, sticky as she was, all the while wondering what the hell was the matter with me.

A woman who came to our house today to pick up her daughter commented that the light had changed lately, and as she's an expert in Dutch painting I think I'll defer to her observation. Why not, the groundhog's observations about light gets credited all over the country today even though it payed for much less schooling. So, did all those groundhogs of Brooklyn see their shadows today? I didn't manage to turn on the local news, in fact I never do because the superficiality is bottomless. A trustworthy blog I found recently informs me today is also Candlemas and St. Brigid's Day. St. Brigid, among other things, is the patroness of midwives, according to the blog called At Your Cervix.

Is there a patron Saint of beanbags? If so I'd like to know who because I've developed an irrational passion for making and holding them, my therapy over the inexplainably brutal weekend. No, I won't whine to you, it will become too clear what a shamefully self-indulgent wretch I am at the moment and how much I take for granted. I'm getting down in the trenches with my despair soon, I've had it. After that I'm going to get down under a log with the small frog formerly known as Hyla Crucifers, or spring peeper, give it a big kiss, and wait for the chirping, which starts mid March.

Googling "Spring Peeper" and "Brooklyn" I came across an article in the Brooklyn Museum Quarterly of March 1914-January 1915, published by the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, the forebear to the Brooklyn Museum. The issue mentions the sticky-toed ones in an article called the Frogs and Toads of Long Island. Can't help but wonder if we have as many species of the amphibians around now as we did then. About the peepers it states "Its color is some shade of brown, and the little fellow sitting in a small tussock of marsh grass, looks like a miniature negro baby ready for a swim."

The way they talked back in the day! Still, I can't help but enjoy the use of the word tussock, I'm sure using a word like that more often will significantly improve my mood. And not being sick, holding beanbags, and hearing this sound.

The frog picture above is in the public domain because it contains materials that originally came from the United States Geological Survey. Thanks USGS!