Mr Frog

Who's that croaking in the troughs and watching me in the garden?

I'm going back and forwards with the wheelbarrow ... topping up rocket beds with soil. We're sowing 2 x 20m beds of rocket every week right now. It's a bit monotonous and feels like it will never end. Then I notice I have a silent audience.

A frog is sitting very still at the end of a garden bed. He doesn't move after I've gone past 10 times. Every time I go past, I glance over to see what he's doing. He distracts me from my work, and suddenly, I'm finished.

Southern Bell frogs love our place. In the warmer months, their croaking melodic love songs echo loudly from inside our concrete water troughs. They're telling potential girlfriends that our trough would be a good place to set up house.

In the winter, they become quiet, and we more likely see them in the garden, especially when it's wet. They hide under taupolins, logs, and piles of leaves.

I once looked it up, and they can live up to 10 or more years here in Northland NZ. Have we met before Mr Frog?