asakiyume: (shaft of light)
asakiyume ([personal profile] asakiyume) wrote2015-07-19 11:24 pm

another walk

On the way to the supermarket and back I saw three creatures.

First was a northern leopard frog, sitting at the edge of the sidewalk, in meditative contemplation, staring at the grass.

Here is a photo of a northern leopard frog from the Internet (source). Like my leopard frog, he is staring to the left.



He looked like Bodhidharma, who meditated so deeply he lost his arms and legs.

Bodhidharma (source)



Only, my frog's arms and legs were still intact, and the fingers of his hands were pointing inward, like he was getting ready to make a sitting bow.

I kept walking and later I heard a noise like a cat hissing or like a red-tailed hawk screaming--but very quietly (khhhhhaaaaaa!), and there was a rustling in the grass. I looked, and a garter snake slithered away. I hadn't known they could make such a noise!

On the way back, the snake was long gone, but the frog was still there, still doing zazen. I didn't have a camera, so I crouched down to sketch him, but I only managed his hands before he decided he'd had enough and took one big leap into the green.

A little farther on, I ran into a rabbit--who also took a leap into the green, flashing its tail as it went. What a lot of wildlife for a very short walk.


pameladean: chalk-fronted corporal dragonfly (Libellula julia)

[personal profile] pameladean 2015-07-20 03:39 pm (UTC)(link)
Our leopard frogs seem less contemplative. This is the season when you can walk along a prairie path and repeatedly flush the same frog, because they leap about six feet away and then you catch up with them. If you cross to the other side of the path, there is probably a leopard frog there too.

P.

[identity profile] asakiyume.livejournal.com 2015-07-21 11:51 am (UTC)(link)
Better than a mule for your forty acres: a leopard frog for all your paths.