frogs and butterflies

I didn't post yesterday. I am posting today. I notice that I feel better when I do some sort of writing and this is definitely some sort of writing. The inspiration today is in the writing and not in the content, although goodness knows there is plenty to be inspired about when I remember to look around a bit.

We went out to Sauvie Island the other day and were lucky enough to find a few frogs down by the water. Eva caught one and held him for a while and then we took turns passing him back and forth until we decided {actually, it was after he peed on Samuel and Samuel said, "what IS that?" and I said, "it's pee," and he said, "you didn't have to tell me that."} he might be tired and Eva put him back in the water. When we went over to the other side of the lookout thingy which I can't seem to place with a name today, we looked for more frogs but found instead what Eva is calling a wild guinea pig. It did look quite a bit like what we think a wild guinea pig might look like and it also looked quite a bit like what we know a baby domesticated guinea pig does look like and also, to be honest, it also looked quite a bit like a vole or a small woodchuck who ran very fast and was not nearly as interested in being found by Eva as Eva was in finding him. He has been dubbed "the wild guinea pig" and probably shall remain so ever after.

We also saw several garter snakes, both down by the water and up in the leaves basking in the sunshine. And our first butterflies this year. I looked them up and one was {probably} definitely an orange tip. The other two were those little blueish-periwinkle butterflies. Are they blue copper butterflies? I'm not entirely sure. I know I have seen them before. We followed the first one around with our eyes and feet for several minutes revelling in the thrill of a butterfly in our midst. The second one came along when we were on our way back to the car just as we were telling Samuel about seeing the other butterfly and he was bemoaning how he would have liked to have seen that butterfly too and we all looked over and sure enough there was another one. Right there. And I pointed him out and said something very excitedly like, "hey look there is another butterfly just like the one we saw before!!" and he looked and Eva looked and I looked and we watched with our eyes and big smiles as the butterfly flew around us and across the path and out into the grass.

Then we walked back to the car and I helped Jack climb in because he is a senior dog now and doesn't resist me giving him a hand. It felt so good to have him with us today while we walked in the woods. He didn't seem to mind being kept on the leash the whole time. It seemed a small price to pay for feeling well enough again to go walking in the woods with us and the butterflies and the frogs. When we all stood still in the sunshine we could still hear the frogs singing out in the water beyond.