I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

"Spring peeper" is an actual type of frog. Here in AL, the peepers mostly call in January and February, when it's still cool.  The bigger frogs take over the soundwaves when warmer weather arrives.  For those who haven't heard what a spring peeper sounds like, here are some links:

http://www.naturesound.com/frogs/pages/peeper.html and http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/amphibians/spring-peeper/

The links go to pages with good pics and explanations, and snippets of audio so you can hear their calls.

Oh, yay!  I found an even better website with pics and calls from a dozen types of frogs and toads. http://www.naturesound.com/frogs/frogs.html

Bren, I think your "barking frog" may be a green tree frog.  They make a sharp, honking call, mostly from trees along wet areas.  There's also a green frog (different from a green tree frog) -- they make a call that sounds like someone strumming a banjo string really slowly.  Green frogs are pretty big, but not as big as bullfrogs.  The "naturesound" page has calls from all those frogs.

susieq, I remember when Hendra virus first appeared.  Talk about scary.  Some really good detective work went into the discovery of that virus, and identification of its role in those first deaths of horses and people.  I don't know much about it, although I should, 'cause it's the sort of thing I used to get paid to know about (in a previous life).

Almost time for supper -- tonight's menu includes elk roast (crock pot-style) plus whatever else dh comes up with.  He's already made a custard pie (from scratch) for dessert. No, he's not available! 

otter

[ETA:  LOL, HappyLibby!  That's a funny cicada story.  No, they don't bite; but their legs and mouthparts feel scratchy so it's hard to accept how harmless they are to people.]

They won't cull the colonies - it's absolutely stupid!!! It has now spread up to the far north whereas it's mostly been confined to the SE corner of the state so far. Now also in Northern New South Wales just over the border.

Dinner for me was a chicken salad sandwich (my favorite) and a diet Pepsi.  Can you tell Mr. Tim is on the road?  Ha! 

Otter .. Tim does all the cooking when he's home too.  I do the baking and make dessert.

Ducky .. did you get pictures of the baby birds?

SusieQ .. what does it mean "cull the colonies."  Does that mean kill some of them to thin them out?

Bren

Motheroffoursons~

Your posts made perfect sense to me...

The ladies on this thread are very welcoming.

( Sorry I am playing catch up on the threads. )

Well, I must tell you what we had for dinner tonight!  The basil is going great guns in the garden so I made pesto, then I made pasta sheets.  Cooked the pasta, folded the sheets over and over with pesto in between and then a big dollop of butter on top.  This is how we first had it in the 70's.  My SIL brought the recipe back from Genoa.  it was SO DARN GOOD!  It is, without doubt, my DH's favourite pasta dish.

Then we had fresh-from-the-garden salad greens with a home-grown English cucumber and onions (sorry, Otter!).  Later we'll have fresh strawberries and blueberries with vanilla yogourt.  Oh, and I managed to forage a couple of ripe raspberries.

Whew, I'm full!

Lightning bugs -- finally saw one a couple of nights ago.  I think we always called them June bugs, so they're a little late this year! 

Linda .. your dinner sounds so wonderful .. I'm so jealous that you cook.

We call the lightning bugs fireflies.  They've been out since last month .. and we have hundreds of them, they light up the night.

Bren

I had shrimp - sauted with the sugar snap peas I picked in my garden Didn't catch the shrimp!

Things seem to be going well on the "new' thead we started: Complementary& Integrative- hope it keeps up.   Still can't see why people have to post pictures, but maybe that will stop too.Will be good to have many people contributing, so that one person's opinions don't dominate. So far so good.

Espcially THANK you, Athena - LOVED The Question.   And SUCH good advice on exercise, reall, really, thank you!

I love lightning bugs too, Alpal.

Yes, they are called flying foxes - we get them in our backyard and they poop all over my clean paving. Culling is killing some of them. I know it's not nice to kill animals but they are a pest to the farmers. Here's a pic

http://www.treknature.com/gallery/Oceania/Australia/photo20494.htm

Lightning bugs - just realized I haven't seen any yet this year.  LOVE THEM...

Jancie - brown thumb!  LOL  Sounds like your growing season is the same as I have here.  I was used to living in DC, and just adore the smell of moonflowers.  Used to have them all over the outside of my little house in Bethesda, MD.  So , when I got here, I started the seeds indoors as always, and planted them outside when it "felt" warm - mid May.  WRONG.  We got a frost about a week later and killed all of them.  So the next year I listened to all the local farmers, and didn't plant out the seedlings I started from seed until the "official" Memorial Day, meaning not until June1.  So, there they were, getting their little roots into the not very warm June soil, and didn't show a bud until late Septemeber - by which time, yup,  you guessed it: Frost.  I think I got maybe one or two moonflowers.

So, if anyone has not yet smelled a moonflower, you have a real treat waiting for you. It blooms in the evening, only lasts for one night, and is, well, heavenly!  Huge, 6 inch across white blossom.

Even a brown thumb ( chuckle, chuckle, chuckle) can grow it, as long as you have a longer growing season than Jancie & I have

After years of lving in London, I do have very green thumbs, fingers, & toes

I have a problem with my basil plants getting huge and leggy. Don't have any this year because we moved June 21st. BTW - pesto freezes beautifully. I do it in ice cube trays - pop out a cube when you need it. I made a recipe last winter (I'm sure it was Rachael Ray) that called for parsley pesto - made the same way but used parsley and walnuts instead of basil and pine nuts. It was really good and we have great parsley in the grocery all winter long as opposed to the tiny little plastic packages of basil.

ETA - Janice, you need some Miracle Gro!

SusieQ, I hadn't heard about that horrible virus affecting the flying foxes. Makes me sad to think of it - not just because of the risk to people and horses, but because I actually think flying foxes are cute. They're much fuzzier and cuddlier than our flying rodents here. (On my one trip to Australia, we watched them fly back home every night from the island where they foraged to the island where they roosted ... this was on the Great Barrier Reef ... and I was totally transfixed.)

Toby101, I just noticed that you're another Toledo girl - welcome! That's where I grew up, and I still have family there.

(((((Blue))))  I hate the dentist!  I haven't been since my appointment right before chemo 2 years ago and it took 2 diazepam to get me in that chair!

Make that pesto with spinach, if you want. And walnuts instead of pine nuts. The color is stunningly bright green!

I miss fireflies. had them growing up in NC. They just don't come to Colorado!