Impromptu Science

Yesterday we walked to a pond in our neighborhood that my boys have lovingly termed "the lucky pond". The boys have attempted fishing several times and were not what you would call big successes at it. Austin (the oldest ) had no paitence for this type of hobby within minutes he would look like he had been there hours and was bored through his eyeballs. So it came as a surprise to us when he caught a fish at lucky pond and then the other two did as well all within litteraly minutes of their first cast. All of a sudden going fishing did not seem so boring and we have gone quite a bit.

In spring the city, I think, burned the dying grass and stuff around the pond to prevnt a bigger fire from occuring naturally. My boys didn't understand this at the time. The good thing was we discovered out pond had bullfrogs. Which had the boys and I thinking about the other sorts of wildlife there. Then we discovered a turtle and looked for him on our following adventures.
Now the reeds and grass have grown back and look very strong and hardy. I told the boys that it was the cycle after a burning this generally happens and the vegetation usually likes the extra ntrogen in the soil. (it is nitrogen righ??)

Upon arriving yesterday the vegetation was very dense and I was afraid that we would not be able to see the bullfrogs. The boys went right up to the edge and all of a sudden there were bursts of hopping and splashing all around. We had found the frogs and they were everywhere and we even saw tadpoles. Colin, of course who else, was the first to capture one of the slippery creatures. The cutest thing was it still had a tail, I mean it looked like a frog but it had quite the tail. They release him and caught a few more marveling how not one looked like the other and all their tails different lengths. There were just barley nubs to about 3 inches long. It took some time going around the pond and I could have kicked myself for not bringing the camera but we were just out for a walk. Therefore I have no pictures but I told the boys we would go back because I think it would be a great thing to be able to have pictures of them to compare once we were home and we could find out what types there are and all about them. In short we would have an impromptu science class on our hands.

Vanessa