24th July 2013 1.29 a.m -– just now as I turned to leave the kitchen to go upstairs to bed I realised there was a frog silently staring at one of the poodles asleep on her blanket.
I was slightly baffled – the back door was shut and the frog must have come in the house much earlier in the day. I picked up a plastic pudding basin and popped it over the frog and found He who loves Frogs and used to rescue tropical ones from the bananas when he worked in Safeways and take them home with him and look after them when the zoo didn’t want to know.
He was asleep. I woke him. I could have maybe done it myself, I know I know, but I didn’t want to. He likes frogs a lot, I like frogs, but not so much that I want to have one jump up at me, because then I would jump and we would all scream a bit and the frog would get stressed.
So the sleepy Lord of the Frogs put on his Frog Catching Gloves and airlifted Mr Green to safety. I don’t think he really woke up, he is clever like that. He will think it was a dream in the morning.
Outside there is a big golden moon sailing high in the sky. lighting up the streaky clouds. We saw the moon earlier in the evening and did that thing where you look at the moon upside down (easiest way is through your legs) and it looks smaller. It worked.
This post could do with a photo or two and I don’t have a picture of the moon, but here is a photo I took the night before of a flower in a front garden I walked past. There were lots of them and they had clearly spread through the garden in a slightly invasive way.
I asked on Twitter if anyone knew what it was and kind people made all sorts of suggestions and eventually came up with Inula Hookeri. It reminds me of something you would find stuck on a bathing cap from my childhood. I think it is beautiful.
If I walk down to the back fence, there is this stalwart shrub covered in flowers. Every year I think it is going to die in the cold winds of winter. Its leaves turn red, and then mysteriously they turn green again in the Spring and by July it is covered in sweet white whirls of jasmine scented flowers, the shrub doesn’t grow very much but it is still here eight years after being planted in a planting pocket surrounded by concrete. It is a survivor. The Clock is telling me to Go To Bed once more.
I am becoming an insomniac blogger.
Night all x
Zeb Bakes 
I adore your sleepy midnight blogposts. I would have squealed at the frog, so I’m very happy you live with the Lord of the Frogs who can safely catch and move them in his sleep. Poor little frog must have lost his way, how nice that he was rescued. You have cheered me up no end, thank you dearheart. :) xx
Mr Green was just sat like a statue, not hopping so there was no startle response from me or the dog and I think I had nodded off at the table which is why I hadn’t noticed him moving about. Poor poppet, he was much happier going out again :)
All the eyes of the world seem to be on the UK at the moment with that new little boy. I would have to get rid of that frog too – I wouldn’t want an unwelcome surprise in the middle of the night. We have had the same gorgeous moon – I love a full moon xx
The media has its frenzy, moments but it is easy to avoid as I haven’t been watching TV, it is too hot in the day to walk the dogs properly, so I have been out the last few evenings when it is coolest, watchg the sunset over the Avon Gorge and the moon rising. xx
I’ll have to go and take a look at the moon. We had horrendous storms today with hail falling and covering the grass so that it looked like snow for a bit. All the vendors at the farmer’s market were drenched and in a very snarky mood- so I tried to buy something from every booth. Maple sausages and new potatoes, fresh red onions, okra ( which they had spelled as orka – I have a difficult time when signs are misspelled, but I didn’t even bat an eye) everyone was dripping wet and so was their produce.
I would have Frank dispose of the frog- although first I would probably freak out.
You sound so calm in your telling of the event!
Hehe I felt calm, just didn’t want the dogs to bark or hurt it. . We had dog howling in a big storm the night before at 3.30 am. I can understand the farmers being snarky, the weather not only affecting their mood but their livelihoods so deeply. Doesn’t sound good out where you live this summertime, I hope the westher settles for you all. x Jo
Well, this is a nice little peak at your garden and a great frog and your prince story:) I couldn’t touch the frog myself either, too squeamish for that sort of thing and he’d probably escape!
I did think of Kermit sitting on the stairs siniging that ‘Halfway up the Stairs’ song….I have held a little frog in my hands before now, just wasn’t confident that if I tried he wuldn’t leap out and go under the fridge or someplace like that :)
I love your stories! I could recount the same story but it wouldn’t sound interesting. Still smiling at Lord of the Frogs.
Thankyou Cas! I am so touched that you enjoy them. A friend of mine who reads but comments offline told me that similar goings on happen in her home. I think all this hot weather – the open doors and windows – admit all sorts of possiblities :)
Joanna
I’m so glad it was just a frog that invited his self in to your house (we’ve had just spiders coming in ours to escape the heat (I think)). I love frogs, to look at, but I think I’d get D to move one as well. I’ll bet the frog was very appreciative to have help locating himself out of doors again.
I just love that yellow flower you are so lucky to have found. Sorry I couldn’t help w/ the identity. I think I would take extra walks just to pass those flowers by over and over. Very beautiful. The white flowers remind me of pinwheel shaped pastries.
Hope your day is sunny and cooler!
xx
Mel
I think the frogs are attracted by lights, or maybe he follwed a DaddyLongLegs into the house, who knows? I love peeking into other people’s front gardens or yards as you call them and seeing what they are growing. They are all so different. Yes the jasminoides do look like pinwheeled pastries, those nice ones with the apricot in the middle :) Breezy and sunny here today, quite lovely !
We were cleaning out the drains yesterday (oh what a joyful life we lead) and five tiny tiny frogs jumped out. Maybe it’s a good year for frogs. I keep meaning to look at the moon through my legs to see if it really looks smaller.
I was pulling the compost through and communing with wriggly worms and it was a bit wet and stinky so I do sympathise :) Maybe frogs are on the increase :) Wierdly the moon also looked smaller when I looked at it with only one eye too.
Joanna, did you know that frogs attack me? Yes, they do. And grasshoppers too. As well as cicadas (this morning during a run that happened TWICE). I could tell many stories, but let’s just make it plain and simple: I married a saint.
The moral of this is that you just move too fast for them and they leap to get out of your way but just aren’t quick enough as you zoom past … (teasing) Sally Quicksilver BR :-) Go on, tell me some stories (she said invitingly with a gleam in her eye) xxx
I wish it was the case… you know, the “zooming past the little monsters” – :-)
Lovely post and lovely plant. Summer suits you :)
Thank you! I like the longer hours of daylight particularly, time stretches out almost like childhood when the weather is good like this :)
Steve phoned his mum in Liverpool last night for a chat and she said that it has been hot for a fortnight there…unheard of! Who needs to go to Majorca when you have that kind of heat in your home town?!!! Save a fortune…get a handkerchief…knot it around your head and go to Blackpool I say! ;)
I have never been to Majorca and it is still lovely and summery here – albeit more unsettled – showers and double rainbows tonight :) Blackpool I have never been to either, I am saving it up for a special occasion !
We’ve had the same big, golden orb of a moon too – it still strikes me as the most wonderful coincidence, but my inner Miss Smarty Pants, arms folded, rolls her eyes and says ,”duh”! That beautiful white flower looks like a jasmine flower. Poor little frog. I pictured him talking to the dogs in a voice that sounds like Manni from Blackbooks, “yeah, well, of course my real name is Prince William….you try getting someone to kiss you when you’re green!” Frogs I can deal with but spiders have me doing the ooh, hoppy, hoppy dance and Peter comes to the rescue with a couple of squash rackets and some deft manoeuvres. How lovely and gentle your Lord of the Frogs sounds. Wow, must go to bed now too, I’m typing this through my eyelashes, night night.
Our stars are different aren’t they? Or we see different ones or upside down or something… mumble.. but do we see the same side of the Moon? (chords of Pink Floyd heard in the distance) Yes the white flower is named for jasmine, trachelospermum jasminoides, whirling away there on the back trellis. Frog hasn’t been back but I am sure he has happily hopping around under the shrubs. I reckon I can deal with most of the jumpy things if I have to, but I would rather not. Spiders – depends on how fast they move and what sort they are. We have some very thin legged ones who don’t bother me, on the other hand the ones with eyes on stalks, no.
Well we must see the same phase of the moon because at the beginning of last week – approx 22nd July – as we drove home from work I commented to Peter on how big and golden the rising moon looked and he gave me a lengthy reply on why it appeared to be golden ,,, during which said lengthy reply my mind glazed over. Next time, I shall display my amazing intelligence by giving an upside down demonstration of how to make the moon appear smaller! He will be gobsmacked! Love Pink Floyd.
That floral sunshine is indeed Inula…and yes…it is very invasive…in the nicest possible way.
Thanks for confirming that, I would like to have them but not if they are going to slowly march across my tiny beds. We have just uprooted a line of bamboo that has snuck under a fence and a stone retaining wall after eight years. I think I will just admire them in other people’s gardens :)
I’m too scared of Bamboo to have it in my garden!
I have one lot at the bottom of the garden but it is a variety that clumps and has done just what we expected, no tricks – unlike the sneaky one from next door!
Hi Joanna,
You’re very funny. I imagine two grown-ups bending over and peering at the moon between their legs:)) Keep the flower and gardening and nature posts coming. You have a beautiful garden and radicchio, lucky you! And hedgehogs! The only ones I’ve seen are runover ones by the side of the road, unfortunately. And I’m with you on the “three-toed sloth exhibit”:) Sorry to be commenting all over the place. Finally the bear bread sunning away was adorable. It reminded me of loved-to-death stuffed toys drying away on the washline after their annual wash. Could you bear (bear!) to cut into its tummy. Hope the better half is fully recovered by now!
I expect you to try one day and think of me :)
Thank you for reading all my posts and for commenting, it’s always good to know that people have seen them. I have a picture of the poor bear which will make you wince!
Your beautiful jasmine is the exact same one known in the deep south of the U.S. as ‘confederate jasmine’ – and is a flower which has burned itself into my very soul. When we lived in Florida, I built a 6′ high wood fence around our back yard – someone told me confederate jasmine would be nice growing on it. Wow was it! It very soon covered the entire fence, and every spring it was covered with those gorgeous white flowers – but best of all was the wonderful perfume which filled the air for more than a month.
Now that we live in Oregon, where confederate jasmine is not supposed to grow, I have some growing in our side yard – it has established itself, but it is not really happy – but every year it gets bigger and blooms more – and someday it may fill the air with it’s beautiful aroma. I live in hope.
I like that name ! I think I will call it that from now on :) I really think it has died every year, one year it got covered in sooty mould and I thought it had really had it then, but it flowers every July, it is a tough plant!