WOW Word Of the Week #5

Happy World Frog Day, Everyone! 

Today, 20 March 2019, is World Frog Day and to celebrate the survival of about 7000 species around the globe and counting, today's WOW is FROG.

While more frog species are being discovered as we speak, sadly about 25% of the discovered ones are endangered. The Australian Museum created an app, called FrogID that allows to discover, track and record. It helps scientists like Jodi Rowley, a biologist with 'a focus on amphibian diversity, ecology and conservation, and a passion for communicating biodiversity conservation' at the Australian Museum, to observe and conserve these amazing creatures.
Read here about Jane Goodall and her role as International Ambassador for the Frog, appointed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2008.

#5

FROG

Old English frogga, and of Germanic origin. the word is related to Dutch 'vors' and German Frosch 1. From Middle English frosch, from Old English frosċ (“frog”), from Proto-Germanic *fruskaz , from Proto-Indo-European *prew- (“to jump, hop”). Cognate with West Frisian froask , Dutch vors , German Frosch, Norwegian frosk, Icelandic froskur.



Anyone who knows me, knows that I am into frogs. A lot.

I think almost every room has either images, figurines, or books about frogs. They are everywhere: in pot plants, on table tops, my desk, shelves and t-shirts.


...indoors...




...and outdoors!

We even had real ones. But not as pets, no. We had two visiting frogs: One came only a couple of times inside the house, but stayed mostly on our tree in the front yard; the other  hung out in our kitchen for months).


Here is a pic of one of our visitors who stayed with us and became my muse:


I called him Fridolin.

He loved to hang out under a hibiscus cutting I planted in a pot in the kitchen, near the window. He would be at certain places at certain times of the day: for example, in the morning he was soaking up the sun (see picture under his personal umbrella). 

In the hot afternoons, he'd go and sit in the cool, dark TV room.

He was very friendly and unafraid.

Sometimes he disappeared for a couple of days, or so we thought until we found him sitting in another pot, in another room entirely!

Then one day, he didn't show for a week and I was worried and looked everywhere --and I found him, too late, under a heavy pot plant. R.I.P,  Fridolin.

Personal Frog Fun Facts:

• 'Frosch' is one of the first words our little bilingual granddaughter has recently learned, at 20 months!

• Friends bring me frogs in all forms and shapes from their travels to Japan!

• I'm sure I'll be reborn as a frog in my next life!

• My first eco tale, A Tale From The Cabbage Tree Forest, Figtree will be published in April 2019 by Griffith Review and features a Yellow Spotted Tree Frog as the MC! (Needless to say, Fridolin was my inspiration!)
• I studied at the same University as the Brother's Grimm, at the Philipps Universitaet in Marburg, Germany. And I sat many a times under this fountain sculpture, a cute version of the 'Frog King':

                          

>>I would love to hear your frog stories! Leave them in the 'comment' section below!<<