"Mud, Mud, I Love Mud" or The Day Julia and Sage Went Froggin' With Tuck!

Yesterday Lena came over with Julia and Sage in the late afternoon.  Tuck was so excited when he saw the girls because he knew that meant an extra walk.  He loves going walking with the girls.... they know how to have a good time unlike his old Master and Mistress.  No matter what the activity, Julia and Sage know how to really "get into it".

Although the adults thought a peaceful walk in the forest would be nice...the girls had other things on their mind.  They love digging in the sandpiles of the bogs or froggin' with Tuck.

"Hey Tuck, let's go froggin' in the bogs" said Julia.

"Me, too, froggin'", Sage parroted.  Sage started singing a little song about frogs.

Instead of the ditches of the bogs, Papa suggested we go over to a man-made reservoir.

"Let's go to Tuck's favorite froggin' place...the reservoir behind the grassy meadow.  We are bound to find frogs there and maybe even some tadpoles."

Once at the reservoir, the girls threw off their shoes and into the water they waded.  There were literally thousands...maybe millions...maybe trillions of little black tadpoles swimming in the water.  There was a whole Conference of Tadpoles just waiting for little hands to grasp them and show them the light of the day!














Papa cautioned the girls that tadpoles breathe in water so once caught and observed, they must be put back fairly quickly into the murky water.



















As the girls were discovering the fine art of tadpole catching, some neighborhood boys came along.  Zach caught a large bullfrog and showed it to Julia.









"Kiss it, Julia...he may be your prince!"





"Yuck, I don't want to kiss a frog," said Julia.


"Let me hold froggie, let me," Sage begged.















  "Hey Mom, do you want to kiss it," said Julia?   Lena, sitting on the edge of the reservoir, leaned over and planted a kiss.  No prince in shining armor appeared.  Darn!






Meanwhile, Sage had discovered the squishy, squashy feeling of mud.  As she played in the mud she started singing "Mud cakes, mud pies, Do you want to have some mud pies?"











Watching her play, I thought of the old camp song:



Chorus:

Mud, mud, I love mud

I'm absolutely, positively, wild about mud!

I can't go around it; I've got to go through it.

Beautiful, fabulous, super-duper mud!









"Big Teddy White, his clothes were mighty clean.

Went swimming in a pool of mud; he made quite a scene,

He started with the backstroke, followed by the crawl.

You should have seen him swimming when he heard his father call!

Chorus

Juliana Root, in shiny yellow boots,

Saw a pool of mud that she wanted to go through.

She only took two steps, and then she disappeared.

Nobody has seen her for twenty-five years!"



Unlike Julianna Root in the song, Sage did not disappear.  Did she have a grand time in the mud?  I'll let you be the judge of that.  All too soon, it was time to go....and so we brought our mud baby home.  Home to a nice warm bath to erase all the mud but not the memories of a warm froggin' afternoon.






"It is not half so important to know as to feel when introducing a young child to the natural world."
~Rachel Carson