In the land of eternal drought it has been raining. It has been raining a lot.
The rain means frogs around my house. From May to October we get very little or no rain. In the summer most of the frogs go underground into their mud shells and wait for the rain. A few come up to my deck and hang out in the planters, or hide underneath the front porch in the hot weather but most vanish under the ground.
Anyway right now their chorus is deafening at night. They’re called Sacramento Valley Chorus Frogs. Really. That is what they’re called. They’re tiny little things with huge voices.
My dog lets me know when deer and coyotes come into the field behind my house. There are always turkeys. If I look up into the sky I can see eagles, hawks, and a large assortment of song birds. If I go outside the humming birds will buzz around my head. The hummers are fearless because they know nobody can catch them.
Occasionally my brother Aaron will call me to help distract some old dried up shadow creeping Vampire from a building. His friend Austin Durant, a Vampire Hunter, often is along. The only reason they call me is because I’m not afraid and I’m the only one small enough to get into most of the tight places under houses and in attic walls.
I guess the point is that even when it is raining or seems like nasty out nobody needs to stay hidden behind walls. I wonder why my brothers, friends, and I choose to Vampires who live in the real world, and others crawl away and hide. Sometimes they hide for years, until they dry up, like frogs who live in a drought for a hundred years.
There are regular people like that too, living like the frogs who get stuck in the hardened ground forever.
If you know anyone like that you need to go water them. Bring them out. Let them sing their songs again.
Then again, if they’re Vampires, leave that to the experts. Let me know and I’ll hook you up with someone who can help. You don’t want to mess with Vampires.
~ Juliette aka Vampire Maman
One of our frogs. They’re tiny. You could fit 6 or more in the palm of your hand.
Vampire Maman 
Beautiful picture and nice post. 🙂 Thanks for sharing.
Thank you. The photo was taken at night by the frog pond in my neighborhood. It is a Vernal Pool – it is only a pond in the rainy season. My daughter and I were out there with big rain boots and flash lights. The frog noise was deafening but as soon as we got close they stopped all at once, like a switch was turned off. We’d be really still and they’d start up again.
I think what we called frogs around here are actually toads. I remember liking to pick them up as a kid and then having to drop them because they’d always pee on you when you did that…
HA HA HA frogs and toads always pee on people who pick them up. I imagine picked up by something so big would scare the crap out of anyone.
Once in a blue moon someone will see a toad around here. They’re usually under porches, or hiding under plants. They seem so sweet compared to the frogs. I don’t know why but it just kind of seems like that.