Peepers Galore! Our weather warmed into the 60’s today and the little tiny critters are out looking for love in the swamp. They are a type of tree frog that hibernates under logs and tree bark. Though they are just itty bitty things, their voices are very loud and sound a little like jingling high, clear bells. It’s Peeper time in the swamp! Oh Joy!
Here’s a little sample of their croak:
We took a little trip to the Gillinder Glass Factory today, and bought this sea star for our art glass hanging. You can easily pinpoint where the factory is–get your maps out and find the spot where Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York meet. Yes, we drove to Pennsylvania for a piece of glass. Gillinder Glass opens on a few Saturdays during the year for tours of its art glass area. During the week, they focus on their commercial glass. Their specialty is runway lighting, and they supply half of the runway lights at US airports. You can buy a runway light in their gift shop if you want. Randy’s thinking about lining the driveway with them.
This is an example of how they make their moulded glass vases. Today there were about six or eight artists working in the furnace area blowing glass. It was amazing to watch them work, moving around with the long blowing pipes without running into each other. The factory is large–football field sized, almost, with maybe eight furnaces blazing at once. I know. It’s geeky, but it was really fun.
Afterward, we stopped at the railyard. Here are some cool trains we found:
I don’t know anything about these trains except that on the green and white locomotive, Radio Equipped is proudly written on the side. Maybe from the 40’s or 50’s?
Never underestimate the power of a good joke. This afternoon, while sitting next to an open patio door, I perused past posts until I found one dated March 28, 2007–the date the peepers returned that year. The post has a link to their mating call. Randy was sitting nearby, and though I told him I was going to look up the date they returned, he didn’t realize what I was doing (proving that he doesn’t really pay too much attention to me). I clicked on the link. The spring peepers sang. Randy jumped–astonished to hear their croaking. They’re back! he said. Then he realized it was just my computer. A moment later, I heard a single croak from outdoors. Now, a few hours later, there is a small chorus. I think I woke them up when they, too, heard the computer croaking. I wonder what my computer froggies were saying. Oh yeah–it’s a mating call. I hope I didn’t start something that can’t be finished yet.