Happy Mother's Day!

from the FTT

Happy Mother’s Day and big virtual hugs to all the Mamies, Nanas, moms, grandmas, aunties, mother figures, and any great-grandmas who read the Frog Trouble Times! Richard is spending Mother’s Day with Nana in Virginia, Bea is under the weather, and the weather itself is rainy and cool, so we’re just having a chill day at home. We’ll have some crepes and strawberries in a while. Maybe we’ll watch Freaky Friday!

Here are some nature, frog, book, and food-related things we’re loving:

My friend Maya used the app Seek on a hike last weekend to identify plants and toads. It’s a free app from iNaturalist, and uses recognition technology to identify wildlife, plants, and fungi. You just open the app, point your camera at whatever you see, and it’ll identify the species. The girls have really enjoyed using it.

We’re loving wild swims in the Haw River. Many thanks to the Haw River Assembly folks who work to protect the river and who monitor water quality all swim season long (follow @hawriverassembly on Instagram).

This week we rescued about a hundred tadpoles from a puddle that was about to dry up, and Seek couldn’t tell us exactly what kind they are, but I think they might be toad tadpoles (small and black). Right now they’re in a Pyrex dish on the deck, eating boiled lettuce and swimming around. We might let some of them go in a bend of the stream that doesn’t dry up but stays pretty calm.

Bea and I are reading Hello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly, a Newbery winner—so far it’s great!

Harriet and I read and appreciated Nya’s Long Walk: a Step at a Time by Linda Sue Park, a story of two sisters fetching water for the family in South Sudan.

Bea continues to read the Keeper of the Lost Cities series (she is eagerly awaiting book ten). “It’s riveting, adventurous, and surprising, with plot twists galore,” she says. “Once you get to the second or third book, there are so many cliffhangers. I swear, she’s evil.” Who’s evil? “Shannon Messenger, the writer!”

She also recently started Max and the Midknights, a fantasy comic series from Lincoln Peirce, creator of Big Nate. “It’s set in the 14th century, AKA the Middle Ages, and it’s about a girl named Max who is trying to overthrow the cruel King Ghastly while trying to save her uncle. It’s very funny and adventurous.”

For grownups, if you want a Mother’s Day crime read with a tough-as-nails mom protagonist, I’m really enjoying Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane.

Last night I made an easy vegetarian meal—baked feta with tomatoes, and broccolini. Just heat your oven to 400, line a sheet pan with parchment, and add sliced feta, trimmed broccolini, thin lemon slices, some sliced red onion, a pint of sliced grape tomatoes, and fresh time. Sprinkle salt and pepper on the veggies and drizzle with olive oil. Bake for twenty minutes, until the broccolini is a little charred and the tomatoes are collapsed, and then add some basil. Serve over orzo or with crusty bread.

Recently we replaced our gas stove with an induction stove, and we love it. One of the best things about it (besides lower indoor/outdoor pollution) is that the stove stays cool to the touch as soon as you remove the pots and pans (which conduct heat through magnetism), so it’s safer for kids who like to cook. (It’s also way easier to clean.)

At a birthday party for Harriet’s friend Emerald, the dad made mocktails for all the grownups. He called it a “no-jito”: mint, seltzer, lime, maybe a little simple syrup? I thought that was a nice touch, and it reminded me of this kachumber cooler I make in the summer. The main feature of this party (at Umstead Park in Chapel Hill) was stream-wading, and all the kids thought that was great.

We’ve been doing a lot of shrubs around here. Favorite current recipe for me and Harriet:

1. Take some very ripe strawberries and raspberries (about a cup) and mash them together with a wooden spoon. Add a half-cup sugar and leave out overnight, with a towel or cling wrap on top.

2. After a day, add about a cup of apple cider or white vinegar. Put this in the fridge for an hour.

3. Strain and add a little to your seltzer. Delicious!

Also: Hooray for E. Jean and her brilliant lawyer!!!! (All the boos/boycotts to CNN, which reportedly told its carefully-curated rallygoers before the DJT “town hall” “please do not boo, please be respectful”).

Finally, check out this video of an osprey mom protecting her eggs in a hailstorm in Colorado:

Moms are amazing!

Love, Belle, Bea, & Harriet