DailyCelestialChallenge: Frog Tuesday

I've just recently started posting on Steemit, and @sirknight's DailyCelestialChallenge seemed like a good first Steemit challenge for me, as I love animals.

I never knew that Tuesday was named after Mars, the God of War. I like Tuesdays, so it's good to know that it's also about energy and vitality.

Frogs are full of energy with their powerful back legs.

As a fervent hillwalker, I often see frogs on the hillside as I'm walking, generally in spring and summertime. Sometimes they are leaping about everywhere and it can be impossible not to tread on a few of them as we walk, sadly. They are so well camouflaged.

The Scottish countryside is plagued with midges, tiny fleas that swarm about in clouds, carpeting anyone they come into contact with in tiny bites. It's actually the female midges that bite. They are physically harmless, but psychologically horrendous. People in Scotland will do almost anything to repel the midges, from smoking, to slathering themselves in bog myrtle oil and other concoctions, or even throwing fashion cares to the wind and wearing a midgie head net.

One reason I love frogs is because they eat midges. That's probably why there are so many of them about on the Scottish hillsides in summer. That, and the sheer bogginess of the terrain - most Scottish hills are teeming with the small pools that frogs love.

Frogs are so delightfully diverse. They come in many different sizes and colours.

People often think they've spotted a rare species of frog when they see a bright yellow or orange one, but the chances are, if it's in Scotland, it's just a brightly-coloured Common Frog.

I saw this gorgeous creature when I visited Costa Rica a couple of years ago.

Frogs can also be surprisingly tame. I have a friend who I call The Frog Whisperer, because she can spot a frog at fifty paces, and they're often happy to sit calmly on her hand or arm.

I was involved in an organic gardening project last year, and we often saw frogs hopping about – probably attracted by all the delicious slugs that were eating our lettuces. Once I saw a frog sitting nearby, and I noticed that it had something sticky on its face – maybe a bit of chewing gum. It sat still while I removed the sticky thing from its face, and then it hopped away.

Maybe it was waiting for me to kiss it, and then it would have turned into Prince Charming...