Rampaging sex
You know all those old folklore tales of forecasting the weather?
“Red sky at night” and all that sort of thing?
Does anyone know any folklore tales of frogs and their spawning habits?
I ask because the lake is currently seething with frogs all merrily humping each others’ brains out and filling the gaps between the weeds with frogspawn. They don’t normally do that until mid February, or Valentine’s Day to be precise. I don’t remember them going hammer and tongs as early as January before.
So I predict we are going to have a blazing hot summer.
There again, we could be going to have a miserable cold wet summer.
I know it will be one or the other.
Or somewhere in between.
For centuries German farmers have preserved folk wisdom in short rhyming couplets. Of course with the calendar changes and astronomical misalignment most of the old ones are bollocks…”if it rains upon St Bogoffs then it’ll rain to Maria Ascension”
A national magazine “Stern” actually prints ‘modern’ comic, and often rude, versions…”are the hens as flat as plates, the Farmer his tractor accelerates”.
So how about “If frogs do spawn to Titus & Timothy, tis a sure sign from God to move to Brittany”
If you should hear a mating croak, it’s time to relax and enjoy a smoke.
As long as the frogs are happy?
Oh they are happy all right. In fact I would go so far as to say they are fucking happy!
Now how did I know you were going to say something like that?
I wrote a short story about frogs last year. The story is still being written/I’ve not finished it yet, and I dunno if it counts as folklore, but yeah…it’s about frogs.
I started writing it because it’s been a long time since I’ve seen frogs. Spent some time out west of Dallas/Ft. Worth in late 2016/early 2017, and there were frogs everywhere. The live ones had quite the chorus at going at night, and during the daytime you could see the streets were lined with flat, dry corpses that had been squished by cars. When I came back to this side of town? Nothing. Not until late fall of 2017…saw a frog one night when it was raining. Couldn’t believe it.
Anyway…thanks for the read. 🙂
Frogs are relatively common around here, but they are the totally silent type [except when shagging each other brains out at night]. They are quite reclusive and usually the only time I see them is when I run over them with the lawnmower. I don’t do that deliberately but they are very dopey about getting out of my way.
I believe they always return to the spot where they hatched to spawn, so the more the merrier.
I think you mean the mower the merrier?
I’ve looked at the weather forecast for the next 15 days for Dublin and it says it’ll stay above freezing. Intimidating winds, yes, but no frost.
The amphibians may have some way of knowing that.
Whatever summer you have, there will be plenty of food for Herons and the like.
And in a couple of weeks your grandkids can go collect tadpoles and go all gooey as they develop, before flushing them down the loo.
It’s going to get perilously close to freezing on Tuesday apparently, but then what do they know?
Indeed the fucking heron will doubtless make an appearance in a few weeks time. That will antagonise the dog who spots the heron arriving a mile off. I don’t know what the cat will make of the visitor? That could be interesting……. !
The Grandkids can make their own tadpoles. They ain’t having mine.
Isn’t a plague of frogs supposed to be one of the signs of the apocalypse ?
Is it a plague of frogs or of locusts? I must look up the signs to see if anything else untoward is happening. I would like some kind of warning if the world is about to end. I wouldn’t want to miss it, after all?
For some years now I’ve been using a guinea pig to predict Climate. On the morning of Candlemass day, 2nd of February, the guinea pig comes out of his hutch, sniffs the air and looks down at the ground. If he can see the shadow of his tail there will be a late spring, with six more weeks of winter. No tail shadow is a sure sign of an early spring. Sadly the guinea pig has recently died so it looks as though we shall have no spring at all this year 🙁
Cunning wee beasties.
If they can get the spawn out before it freezes, then the ice will keep the predators at bay. Give them a few days start.
Unless they just want to take their chance before some smart arse frog gets them all confused about multiple genders and like poor young humans, don’t know what to put where.