I admit that, since the appearance of the frogs, I've gone a little "frog wild". Last night I spent over an hour just sitting very still at the edge of the pond and watching them. But I DID already have dinner in the oven, so I felt that it was okay.

Those guys are canny little creatures. They'd only come out when I pretended to be reading my book. I really wanted to get a closer look at them so I could find out what kind they are and thereby know what I can do to keep them happy - that is, if frogs can experience happiness. I think they can, if they have enough wit to disappear when I look away from my book!....

The pet sitter said she saw three of them. So far I have only spotted two, and one is smaller than the other. The truth is that they are both quite small. They would each fit easily in the palm of my hand. They spend a LOT of time in the water...just hanging out, with the tops of their little heads and eyes above the water. And I haven't seen the dragonflies in a few days. Hmmm. But I think that a dragonfly would be too much for one of these fellows to eat, as small as they are.

The larger one seems to have staked out a terratory near the water lily that is closest to the house. Last year, we went looking for pond plants, but they were very expensive. We went to Bowman's in Westminster, and wound up being helped by a manager there. We told him that we were looking for pond plants but we didn't have a lot to spend and wanted something easy to grow because we didn't know what we were doing.

He looked back over the counter under the cash register. "You know what? Are you willing to take these water lilies off my hands? They failed. I think they're dead or close to it. They're guarenteed by my vendor and that's the guarentee we pass on to our customers - but it is a huge hassle to return these things and get the credit."

"How much do you want for them?" I asked.

"Nothing,just take them. If they come back - and they might, then you got a good deal. If not, then, well, they were free. And I don't have to fill out that damn form."

"Well, okay." I said. I followed the instructions on the pot, but was unsurprised when it appeared that they were, indeed, dead. Still, when we cleaned out the pond this year, we didn't remove them. They still had a little green around the stems, and I am a great believer in "where there's life there's hope". And, sure enough, they both came back to life.

I wonder if maybe there were frog eggs on the pot when we put them into the pond. That's the only way I can imagine that we got these frogs, unless they hoped up out of a storm drain when it rained or something. While the County is still a pretty rural area, the town has been there for awhile, and all around me are treated lawns, sidewalks, and a very busy Main St.

The frogs themselves are very still. I guess that's part of their natural defense mechanism against preditors. But, if they are out of the water and decide to get back in - SPLASH!- they make an astonishing arc and a heck of a lot of noise as they go! When they are in their still mode, they're very hard to see. You have to look for the eyes, otherwise they look like little brown-grey leaves against the stones surrounding the pond. Then, all of the sudden, the sun will hit one of them just right....

And you find that you are looking at one of natures jewels. They are the bright emerald green of spun glass, with shimmering skin reflecting the light brilliantly. Illuminated are the strong, fine lines of their powerful back legs, their perfectly aerodynamically shaped heads and bodies no longer looking lumpy and grey, but sleek and slick like a race car if it could jump. Like so many of us, out in the world, it takes the right kind of light to see their beauty, and when you see it, it outshines any expectation. It's a loveliness made more perfect by its surprise. It's the secret of frogs.

Who knew that every one of them, in his own way, is a prince?