Velvet Green Creations

Frog at the Front Door
by Gina Harman

Living in a rural area amongst the forest and wetlands, you can never really be sure who's at the front door.

It was a warm mid August evening in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and we had just finished our supper.  We were all just relaxing when our daughter Jess came running inside from the porch screaming!  It wasn't out of fear, but mainly because she was a young Harman child and it was out of pure excitement! 

"You wouldn't believe what's at the door!", she said so quickly, she sounded like an auctioneer.  We just knew it would have to be some type of wildlife.  When she told us to grab the camera, it was then that I was absolutely certain that we were in for a real treat.  I'm thinking maybe its a lunar moth like we found years before under the bright porch light.  Possible its a racoon in the garbage.  No, this was much better.  I felt like the representative mascot to our company was knocking — right at our front door.  A relative to our logo, "Billy Bullfrog".  We call all our frogs "Billy" because of our (recently launched) children's book, "Pond Friends".  So on this particular evening, after carefully opening the door (at the advise of Jess), much to our surprise was a large content Michigan Gray Tree Frog!

The summer of 2009 has been so humid and warm.  We received a huge amount of precipitation that year and in return, we seen an immense amount of tree frogs.  Two nights ago we had another on our 2nd story kitchen window above the air conditioner.  We have had a growing population throughout the property also.  I don't know what the Chinese calendar may say, but for the Harman's, its been the year of the frogs.  

From the Michigan DNR Website:
Tree frogs have large, sticky toe pads. Color can change gray, green, or brown, according to environment or  activity. Underside of hind legs are yellow and 1 1/2 to 2 inches long.