The very wise ToadMaster perched near the toadstool,
and with his croaky voice, he summoned all of the little tadpoles to swim up to the riverbank
to hear another lesson.
He, in his sagely way, bellowed, “Unfortunately, many of the upright, large apes — that we have mentioned in the past — foolishly refuse to judiciously see that they too evolved from swimming fish, even as you here, as swimming tadpoles (through a long passage of time), will soon be leaving your aquatic existence to join our terrestrial lot. What is even more unfortunate is that the upright apes continue to mindlessly throw toxic debris into our water habitats and also
onto the beautiful terrestrial domain that you will all soon be graduating to.
The upright, large apes continue to make things that destroy things. The upright apes can be downright
destructive and dangerous, though some of them are very kind and considerate. Overall, the whole world’s
life forms are all rapidly disappearing due to what these, large bipedal creatures are mindlessly doing. Even as they claim that one of their kind is a God, they endlessly continue to pour cement and plastic over living things and spew out much toxic debris, killing our planet. They often do what is called “mowing their lawn,” which they think is very beautiful (though such activity callously cuts and kills many precious creatures, including us amphibians.) When you hop on land — which you all will be doing soon — do so with extreme caution, and avoid these large, bipedal creatures at all costs… and please
do your best to survive in the excessive heat (due to the climate rapidly changing).”
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If you have time, please watch the following 60 Minutes video on ocean plastic and pollution…
The Very Wise ToadMaster … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog 
Such a wise toad and so true. These little toads will soon be hoping in on land so they have to be extra careful….
Thank you, Michelle! 🙂 Animals all have it tough in this day and age.
This is a perfect post for National Estuary Week — which happens to be this week! The Toad Master’s message needs to spread.
Thank you, Linda! Yes, the wise toad’s message needs to spread.
I remember, i was chasing and admiring frogs and toads back in 1960. I’m still at it. There are far fewer these days.
Gratitude to Toad Master – for trusting you to convey his wisdom, and for posing for this spectacular portrait!
Yes, Jazz… he’s a wise old toad! 🙂 We need to have far more humans who are similarly wise.
Thank you Toad Master for all you do to monitor the environment for us. Forgive us for our lack of attention and action.
Each one of us (humans) needs to do better (regarding the environmental realm). We all need to act and vote with much more compassion.
Love that picture – I am a Toadwoman!
Great, Sara! Like i told shoreacres, above, i’ve been chasing and admiring frogs and toads since 1960. 🙂
I have loved them ever since I first heard spring peepers and could identify them. I must have been three? You take the most beautiful photos Tom.
Thank you Sara! Much appreciated! 🙂
thanks for the link and the beautiful picture. Have you tried to buy products, packaging, etc. without plastic? It’s generally impossible. I’m going to pass this link along and continue to try to avoid plastic. Great post but I couldn’t hit “like” on this one.
We sure tried to avoid plastic, but it’s, as you say, generally impossible. We do recycle all of our plastic, but as to how much of it is really recycled at the end of the transfer… well, that makes one wonder. We do have non-plastic reusable tote-bags that we use to buy/carry groceries from Walmart. (A “like” could indicate that you are appreciative of the seriousness of the words/overall meaning.) Thanks for passing the link along! 🙂
A fantastic, but frightening video Tom.
It’s a sobering video for sure, Peter. They need to quickly develop some kind of clean-biodegradable plastic or plastic substitute.
This would be an even more beautiful world if man did not inhabit it…
It would run with much more order without all the crap that we make. We can, potentially, be orderly and fit quite nicely into nature, but i don’t see that happening, unfortunately. As the poet E.E.Cummings wrote: A world of made is not a world of born.
Clever lecturer! I pick up plastic and other HGT (Human Generated Trash) every time I walk the beach, and there’s always more the next time I go out. Sad.
Yes, good (compassionate) action on your part, Lindy! 🙂 It is unfortunate that even remote ocean islands have a lot of plastic crap washed up on the shores.
Wonderful photograph and reminder for all of us large upright apes! We used to have lots of frogs in the garden, but I haven’t actually seen one this summer. They have started to croak at night though. I did see the resident snake a while back though. As to grass, as in green lawns, there are plenty in my neighborhood. People mow and spray and fret over weeds! I’m not one of them. We keep it just passable enough to not get fined by the HOA. When we applied to replace it with an ecologically sound ground-cover that almost looks like grass, we were denied! It was deemed to “different and exotic”!! I’ve watched neighbors spend a lot of time and probably money to have these postage sized golf greens out front. I think it’s a waste of water (grass is thirsty) and don’t even get me started on the chemicals. Never again will we live with an HOA! 🙂
I’ve been chasing and admiring frogs and toads since 1960, Sabine. There are far fewer around these days, unfortunately. (Heaven forbid if your lawn would look too different from what all of the lemmings have!)
Yes, we have a neighbor that acts like his lawn must be perfect in every way. Yet he is full of disorder and cruelty, even bragging about maybe running over his dog with his car if it misbehaves. Orderly lawn, messed up mind… like most! Someone cuts our lawn for us and he doesn’t come around very often, which is just fine with me. The whole lawn thing is so ludicrous and absurd.
Wow! Your neighbor’s behavior makes me sad! With all the turmoil in the world, the limited source of clean freshwater and the destruction of the environment one would think people adapt. There’s one positive thing though, at Fred Meyer stores they now ask if one would like a paper bag instead of plastic. I almost always bring my own. We can only do our part and hope that others will eventually smarten up! 😉
Keep doing what you are doing, Sabine! You are a great example! 🙂
Apparently the reblog button does not want to work for me, which is too bad because I dearly wanted to share this. Very well done!
Apparently the reblog button does not want to work for me, which is too bad because I dearly wanted to share this. Very well done!
Well, thanks for trying, Carol! 🙂
I’ll tell the Toadmaster that you are appreciative!
Yes, please, and give him my very best regards 🙂
I’ve been a Toastmaster, but not a Toad Master. However, I did move a little toad off the driveway this morning to be sure it didn’t get accidentally stomped or run over.
So good of you to move him, Eilene! I moved one that was behind my car tire in our driveway recently.
Just eat a few flies and you’ll become a superlative Toad Master! 🙂
I actually saw that video twice when it aired on TV and I was utterly disgusted by what so many researchers and environmentalists have been trying to tell us for decades now. This manmade madness is causing so many creatures to become extinct, even us homosapiens! 😦
Yes, it brings tears to one’s eyes. It really is something horrifying.
Sadly it well said. I will make a point of keeping this and watching the video tomorrow, thanks.
Thank you, Jane. As tough as it is to watch, we all need to watch this kind of thing and do more. Continuing to bury our heads in the sand just won’t cut it in these precarious times.
I cannot remember the last toad or frog that I have seen. I often hear the bullfrog croaking in the morning at the Park but I have never seen it. I worried about the frogs after we had the Creek freeze over for so long during the Polar Vortex – then I saw all the dead shad washed up on the Creek banks. But I have seen the various turtles and hear the frog – in fact, one of the walkers showed me the turtles coming out of the hole where the mom had buried all the eggs almost three months ago. I was so disappointed I didn’t see that last year … she saw it on a day I was not at the Park – she did videotape it so that was the next best thing!