So yesterday, Saturday, UD was
returning her sprinkler
to the side of the house, and near
the wall she saw a toad. An American
toad.
It was well-camouflaged, as it
is in this photo, but she saw it,
and she stared at it.
A few years ago, when she saw
a turtle in the front yard, UD
ran into the house and got La Kid
and Mr UD and they came out
and everyone stared at the turtle.
La Kid‘s off at college now, which
leaves Mr UD, and UD ran
into the house to get him.
She really did run, because she was
afraid the toad would hop away.
And then Mr UD would do
this elaborate stupid thing about
how UD made up the toad sighting,
or about how UD‘s getting old
and seeing things.
Sure enough, the toad was gone by the time
Mr UD hauled himself out there,
and sure enough he went into his old,
totally no longer funny routine about how
UD made it up, or only thought she saw it.
*************************
A few hours later, Les UDs went out
for a little weekend hike at Lake Frank.
They walked around the lake, and then continued
on to the nearby Meadowside Nature Center.
***************************
The minute she walked into its two
small rooms, UD felt a
strong sense of déjà-vu.
“I think,” she said to Mr UD, as they
surveyed the dusty, random,
exhibits (pioneer bunk beds, stuffed beaver,
whelks), “I must have been here last
when I was in elementary school.
Field trip? I’m definitely feeling something.”
Mr UD encouraged UD to think about that
while he hiked back to get the car.
UD sat on a couch and read
books in the teeny nature library about
the wildlife of Montgomery County, which
turns out to include bobcats.
UD now thinks she sighted one.
It was very early one morning, and loping
across Rokeby Avenue was a cat, she guessed,
but an insanely large cat…
Here’s a university angle on the thing.
Montana State University in Billings has
a bobcat:
“[T]he dean of business at MSU Billings…
has seen the bobcat several times in
the early morning hours. He called
[Fish Wildlife and Parks] Billings office
out of concern, but was told there
was nothing the agency would do.”
UD also learned, from her reading,
that the teeny nest she discovered
in the azalea bushes in front of her
house recently was a hummingbird’s.
Finally, UD discovered that since
the Meadowside Nature Center
was built in 1972, she… er…
without going into ugly detail…
could not have visited
it on an elementary school field trip.
September 6th, 2009 at 11:38AM
Toad symposium!
"The Death of a Toad" (Richard Wilbur, 1950)
A toad the power mower caught,
Chewed and clipped of a leg, with a hobbling hop has got
To the garden verge, and sanctuaried him
Under the cineraria leaves, in the shade
Of the ashen and heartshaped leaves, in a dim,
Low, and a final glade.
The rare original heartsbleed goes,
Spends in the earthen hide, in the folds and wizenings, flows
In the gutters of the banked and staring eyes. He lies
As still as if he would return to stone,
And soundlessly attending, dies
Toward some deep monotone,
Toward misted and ebullient seas
And cooling shores, toward lost Amphibia’s emperies.
Day dwindles, drowning and at length is gone
In the wide and antique eyes, which still appear
To watch, across the castrate lawn,
The haggard daylight steer.