Smiled on By Serendipity in a Wildflower Meadow

Hmmm, you never know what you might find taking a nap in the middle of a meadow.

July is usually the peak period for the winged wonders I spend my summers pursuing. But butterfly and dragonfly numbers are down noticeably this year for reasons that are not clear. In these circumstances, I hope for one good sighting to put an exclamation point on my day. However, last Sunday turned up something I was not expecting.

Tag along with my thought processes on that day. I’m in a wildflower meadow following cut trails through growth five to six feet high. Up ahead I spot a green blob on a large plant leaf.

Michael: What the heck is that? Michael’s Brain: Visual input received. Processing… Green blob. Possible explanations: fungus or mold. Closer observation required.

Michael: Okay, I’ll look through my binoculars. Ah, the green blob appears to have eyes. Michael’s Brain: Visual input received. Processing… Eyes do not correlate to mold or fungus. Possibility: small mammal. Closer observation required.

Michael: Okay, I’ll move closer and scope it again. Michael’s Brain: Visual input received. Shape and contour now discernable. Processing… Shape and contour correspond to frog.

Michael: Frog? In the middle of a wildflower meadow? The nearest pond is twenty yards away. What’s up with that? Michael’s Brain: Request for clarification received. Processing… Possible explanation: tree frog.

Michael: Tree Frog? Interesting. But do tree frogs actually occur in Ontario? Michael’s Brain: Query received. Processing… Insufficient data to answer query.

It did indeed look like a frog. So I snapped a couple of photos – one of which you see below – and did some Google research when I got home.

Gray Tree Frog

It is indeed a Gray Tree Frog. Yes, I know that it’s green, not gray. Gray tree frogs have a chameleon-like ability to change their colour and can appear gray, green or brown. This one changed to green to match the comfortable leaf it had settled on.

I learned that Gray Tree Frogs can be found in many types of trees and shrubs near a permanent water source. They descend to the water to breed in late spring and early summer. Outside the breeding season they are rarely seen. They hide in tree holes, under bark, in rotten logs or under leaves and tree roots.

The one I happened upon elected to remain hidden in plain sight on a very comfortable, curved leaf which, by all appearances, makes for quite a comfortable bed.

Nature provides me with an abundance of metaphors. On this day, she offered up the Gray Tree Frog as a metaphor for serendipity – for it was pure serendipity that I caught sight of this Gray Tree Frog. Sometimes serendipity is a nature lover’s best friend.

~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog .

~ Subscribe to “Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka Things That Make Me Go Hmmm” at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2 . Instructions for subscribing are provided in the “Subscribe o this Blog: How To” instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.