Live mud

[vaneramos]

Arriving at the pond this morning I noticed a slight disturbance around the edge. I knew what it was. Going over, I found the shallows teeming with tiny black tadpoles. These come from the toads which were at their peak of singing and breeding around May 11.

A little way from shore I noticed a pale shadow shift when I approached. It was a young snapping turtle no larger than my hand, trying to hide in the mud. Impulsively I seized a stick and attempted to sweep it onto the bank for a photo, but only succeeded in stirring up sediment. I stood and waited for the pale cloud to settle, occasionally poking at turtle-shaped lumps on the bottom, but the beastlet was in its element—water and mud—and I never saw it again.

I was appalled at the number of tadpoles I had inadvertantly stranded in mud on the shore, so tried to rescue as many as I could. But if nature had intended for the average tadpole to survive, it would have made them fewer and less fragile. If all of these grew to adulthood we would have to switch snow tires for toad tires. I have written about this before, but it never ceases to bewilder me.

While scrambling along the slippery shore I got mud in my sandals. I can still feel its dry rasp between my toes.

Comments

[poetbear.livejournal.com]

in Hawaii, we used to jokingly say, "We have the rainy
season, the mongoose season, the toad season, and the
rat season." the toads were so numerous when they came
out that they literally paved many of the smaller
roads for two or three weeks. ~paul

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Wow. It makes me think of that bizarre frog scene from the movie Magnolia. Have you seen it?

[poetbear.livejournal.com]

no, never heard of that one. have you seen
The Frogs with Ray Milland? ~paul

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

No, I haven't heard of it. Magnolia is one of my favourites with a big, quirky cast including Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman, John C. Reilly, Julianne Moore and others. It has several different convoluted plots, seemingly unrelated, which overlap and eventually converge, if you're interested in that kind of thing.

[poetbear.livejournal.com]

hmmmm. sounds like my kind of movie.~paul

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

No, I haven't heard of it. Magnlia is one of my favourites.

[leafshimmer.livejournal.com]

Anima blandula vagula...

love the image of dear little taddies scampering like darling spermata through the mud, clambering desperately past the straw. Kind of puts my struggle to get out the door every a.m. into perspective.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Despite the fact that I took a Latin correspondence course in high school, I'm afraid that phrase is lost on me.

It's impossible to look at those thousands and consider their fate without thinking of that primal race for the finish.

[leafshimmer.livejournal.com]

"Anima vagula, blandula" is the start of a celebrated, epigrammatic poem by Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. I did a Google but irritatingly can't seem to find the complete text or a translation on the Net (which shows again that it's no substitute for a good library).

It evokes the fragile wandering soul of an individual. I read it years ago when reading The Memoirs of Hadrian by French author Marguerite Yourcenar--a book that had a huge impact upon me in college.

Wonderful Van

[ranjtheobscure.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

Re: Wonderful Van

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Glad you enjoyed. :-)

[queenmomcat.livejournal.com]

Oh, drat. Now I can't get the idea of toad tires out of my head.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Maybe you would like to help with the research to find a best design. ;-)