A few weeks ago, on a warm evening, I heard one of my favorite signs of spring: the spring peeper chorus. A spring peeper is a little frog that peeps as the weather warms. For me, this sound evokes the twilight hours, driving past Tom Barry’s house next to Mr. Mowbray’s old vineyards as the sun is setting and it grows dark. There was, and still is, quite a large puddle next to the road where spring peepers come out en masse. It is a peaceful but noisy sound hearing hundreds of tiny frogs peeping at the outset of the dark.
A few years ago, when we had bought our land but hadn’t yet had the farmhouse built, the children and I discovered a tiny frog clinging to the screen door of the tollgate house where we lived at the time. It was only about an inch long. Excited to find something of nature to learn about so close in those early homeschool days, we pulled out our field guides and looked it up. It was a spring peeper! I had never seen one–only heard them–so this was quite exciting for me!
That evening a few weeks ago when I first heard the spring peepers this year was unusually warm for March, and since then, the spring peepers have gone back into temporary hibernation, but I am looking forward to hearing them again soon.
Since hearing that sign of spring, I have seen several more of my favorites. After our Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Easter celebration with Parable Pastures Atrium yesterday, the children and I had a little picnic in the woods. It was the perfect weather and although I had plenty of office and farm work to do, I figured I should join them. After all, these moments are the reason we do all of the other things.
While on our picnic, I was able to get some photos of the flowers that are some of my other favorite signs of spring: Spring Beauty, Virginia Bluebells, and daffodils!
Of course, being a farmer, my other favorite signs are getting the cool-weather transplants planted into the soil, chicks arriving at the Post Office, and everything greening up around us!
Photos: Daffodils, Bluebells, picnic, Spring Beauty, Virginia Bluebells (up close), Virginia Bluebells, stream, Easter Bunny caught, Easter Bunny running away
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