No Frogs Today
Go on ahead, then. I don’t care if you beat me there. No frogs today. Turning onto the spring trail, I tried putting on speed, but soon found this was not the way to travel uphill in knee-high snow. I tired myself out rapidly. Usually, I vie with Val and Snowie to be ahead up the spring trail. Whoever reaches the pond first, witnesses the frogs’ synchronized escape jump.
A nice slow pace of lifting each leg repetitively was the key, one baby step after another. I felt as if I was on a very slow escalator through the woods. With no need to look where I was stepping, I could survey the scenery as I ascended. The freeze-thaw effect created so many intriguing formations of ice and snow where it had fallen from or remained with the foliage.
Still incredulous at the depth of the wintry wading, I thought of growing up in western Maryland. Last time I was visiting my folks, I was helping to clean out old filing cabinets filled with photos. There were so many pictures of us building snow forts and sledding. I remembered the Winters as being laden with massive accumulations because we received snow from the Great Lakes effect.
After perusing the pictures, I realized the reason I thought the Winters were so filled with large quantities of snow wasn’t because Jack Frost laid a heavy blanket. I was shorter. Those days were deemed Norwegian wonderlands in a child’s-eye-view. What am I looking at during this phase in my life that I will see later through the filter of reality?