The Dragonfly and the Frog

This story starts with mosquitoes. In late spring, our yard was full of them. I think I went through a whole can of Deep Woods Off in one week. Then, much to my delight, I woke up one morning in early summer to find the yard full of dragonfly. I really mean full. They were everywhere. I couldn't move without a cloud of them moving in front of me. We can sit at the fire today and watch clouds of them fly above us. The mosquitoes mostly stopped being a problem.

A couple weeks later, a massive amount of frogs showed up in the yard. They too, were everywhere. Hiding in the garden, the lawn and even in the gravel of the sideyard and drive. One day I stood in one spot and was able to turn around in a circle and take pictures of 9 different frogs around me and frogs are good at hiding! They are entertaining and come in at least 4 colour patterns that I have seen. Some are small, some are huge. All of them panic when people or dogs are on the move. After a day or two, the dogs knew we did not want them to hunt the frogs and most of them were resisting the urge.

I was as delighted with the frogs as I was with the dragonfly. Until last week. I was standing at the raspberry patch, eating berries when a frog came summersaulting out of the nursery and landed on his feet in the drive right at my feet. My firtst thought was, WOW, that little guy can jump high! Then I looked down and saw the dragonfly sticking out of his mouth. Not very much of the dragonfly either. Not sure why I didn't make the connection before I saw it but I have it now.

It is officially open season on frogs in our yard. I have released the 4-legged frog hunters, who are not normally allowed to hunt in the garden, in hope of giving the dragonfly a fighting chance. And so I don't see the mosquito population double overnight.