In Cahoots with the Moon

veering close
Venus and Jupiter--
loud chirping of frogs

Tonight, if you head to the right place even on busy Smith Road in eastern Bloomington, you can hear the frogs chirp and in between skittering clouds, catch a few glimpses of Jupiter and Venus heading toward their big conjunction on the 15th. Hopefully, we'll have clear skies. But they have been traveling close together all this month, in cahoots with the waxing moon.

On our way down to Kentucky on Friday, Tom and I drove some Indiana back roads. At several places, even in the early afternoon, the frog chorus was so loud you could hear them even with the windows closed. They were forested places away from farms with a lot of standing grand water. Each time I heard the loud chirping of hundreds (maybe thousands) of frogs, I rolled the window down and allowed those amazing sounds to flow all around us. It's such a dynamic, primeval sound as though the mud itself were churning into life.

I love March with its newborn energy, everything madly rushing into bloom. Our magnolia tree is full of huge wooly-worm looking buds. A week away, I'd guess, from bursting into wild pink blossoms.