I don't often think of cool and July in the same sentence. Yesterday the words met. It had been several weeks since I had visited our property in western NC. Road Trip! It was so nice to open the car windows at the bottom of the mountain and discover cool temps---in the 70's. The drought in the area was declared broken sometime this spring. There has been summer rains, but not really enough. The official status is 'abnormally dry'.

The pond is losing water each day. The springs that feed it are not running right now. I'm hoping for some tropical system to bring in the needed moisture.

The pond completely dried up during the end of last summer and through out the winter. It was distressing becasue we really loved all the frogs that called it home. We hoped some survived under the bit of damp earth that was left. At least a couple of frogs did survive. As we walked around the edge of the water we saw little hippity hops heading for the water. This one was nice enough to pose.

Here is a closer look.


He was around 3/4 of an inch long. The newts have been active in the pond since spring. It is nice to see that the frogs have returned.