RIP Little Frog

Jacob wanted to see the frog eggs and tadpoles; so this afternoon he and I went down to the pond.  The sky was low and heavy, but there was still light enough to see many tadpoles swarming around the leftover egg gelatin.  I sketched a couple of them while he took some photographs.  Then he spotted something white bobbing around in the masses of eggs.  We got a stick and tried to fish it out, and it turned out to be a small frog, very dead, trapped in the egg masses.  Could it possibly have died from drowning?  I know wood frogs live on land but are able to hold their breath for a long time.  Those egg masses are very gelatinous and it maybe got caught and couldn't surface in time.  We felt sad that in the midst of those teeming wiggling tadpoles was a sad little dead frog.  Jacob took pictures and I drew it;  then J placed it on top of a cement globe that stands at one end of the first pond at the edge of the drive.  His image goes far beyond mine, especially in terms of expressive content and selective focus.  He will post it as soon as he gets a chance, which should be in a couple of days.

Afterwards we walked across the field to the old well that I found a couple of weeks ago.  The darkening light and wind made the well in its field look ominous.  That thing needs a better cover before any more cows are let loose to graze in the field--