45 Comments
User's avatar
Jim Cummings's avatar

Ah, there’s nothing like a nice little woods pond out back! No harm no foul, but those quackie folk are wood frogs….peepers are higher pitched (more peepy!); they’re also super tiny, very hard to see. (Though maybe this is a farolito/luminaria situation, where people from different parts of the southwest disagree on what a much-lived wonder of a season should be called….Don’t let a Mainer quelch your Vermonting!)

I had the wildest experience at the little woods pond near me yesterday: it was the middle of the afternoon and there was no calling action at all, and then suddenly the whole pond erupted in peeping. That’s when I noticed there was a siren going by on a road a couple hundred yards away …. and when it passed, the peepers all settled down again. Well, I’ll except for one, who kept at it for another 10 minutes or so (with one or two others occasionally joining in halfheartedly)—I don’t know if he was the one with the most gusto, just feeling ready to rock, or if he was the one with the most FOMO, anxious to be sure he was there for the party…. Anyway, it sure seems like the frequency of the siren was right in the froggy excitement sweet spot!

Expand full comment
Sandra Murzin's avatar

Neko,you made my morning so much better with this beautiful piece...spoke to my heart and soul.I love that sweet picture of Marcia! I always observe my cats' behavior and try to take my cues from them...cats know everything!...but often fail; they still are always there for me with love and comfort,making me laugh,no matter what.Thank you for stopping by and sharing,Neko...always a pleasure...😻💕🐾

Expand full comment
Tonda's avatar

Thank you for the peepers. I needed that today, as a dear friend died yesterday. I so love Marais La Nuit on the Middle Cyclone album. There are days that track smoothes a tired, ragged soul. Would love if maybe you could incorporate the peepers into a future album. I will have it on repeat all day today. Peace & Love sent your way.

Expand full comment
Tim's avatar

Sorry to read about your pal. I’m sure you have supportive people around you. Loosing someone close might bring you closer to other people you care about. Makes me think of “Tacoma Way” one of my favorite Neko songs. Music heals, I should say it helps me heal.

Expand full comment
Kimberly  Oskins's avatar

I listened to Marias La Nuit on Saturday night to relax!

Expand full comment
Krissy Teegerstrom's avatar

I've never heard of peepers! Is that them floating and diving in the water? They make a mighty sound.

Expand full comment
Ian Hill's avatar

These posts are so needed, anxiety and stress has been so overwhelming the last year, everything feels divided and it's so important to remember what's outside my door and for the energy I'm putting our there and not just what I'm seeing in the news, (that causes so much worry).

Cats are just the perfect example of self care.

Hope everyone is doing ok on here, thankyou Neko for these posts

Expand full comment
Kimberly  Oskins's avatar

Don’t let anyone take your joy as Lucinda says 💜💙

Expand full comment
Miniskirtwaddle's avatar

I needed your message today. I am struggling in every aspect and seeing this note this morning helped me. Thank you.

Expand full comment
Marcelle C's avatar

Curled kitten toes make my heart swell. I almost can’t stand that level of cuteness.

Expand full comment
Chris Papps's avatar

Reading Entering the Lung brings me joy, and I like it when our weird time zones almost align. I picture your world and I know you can picture mine. Today was a lovely day, coolish for the first time in yonks. Jenny and I walked all over our new suburb, there was a record Fair where I bought a Buffy St Marie LP, met a friend of over forty years ago, and looked at the kite flying festival at the jetty.

We feel the local community here is diverse, quirky and friendly folk.

Next time you are down I'll put on a green tea for thee.

I am learning a lot from this experience of moving and from good folk like you and yours.

Take care Neko.

Expand full comment
stevie's avatar

Love reading these posts with a good cup of coffee and the sunrise.

Expand full comment
Liz EM's avatar

Love the positivity here Neko. Talking to people - friends, family, neighbors, strangers - all of the above! Human connection is essential and we forget that too easily these days...and that's coming from a shy, akward introvert (me). Community is everything right now.

Expand full comment
Kara Norman's avatar

“I try to think of every day like I’m going to work for the world…” ahhhh this is so useful, and apparent! 🫶🏽✨

Expand full comment
Jen Screamer's avatar

I’ve been wanting to start a punk rock band again so I can yell my frustrations. That’s my own brand of catharsis. I once had a therapist tell me, “I usually recommend meditation to my patients who are dealing with anxiety, but…I don’t think that’s for you.”

I have a short list of names already, but The Lymph Sacks just got added.

Expand full comment
lisa peet's avatar

My cat and dog both came running when I played the peepers video—they absolutely can discern fellow non-human-animal sounds from all the other stuff that comes out of my computer, even if they've never heard VT peepers before. The connection is strong...

Expand full comment
Dawn Burns's avatar

Those peepers! When I lived by a swamp, they were my favorite thing to hear, especially at night under the stars.

Thank you for sharing the good you have going on. This helps me resist the freneticism I've been feeling, as though my own chaos could ever combat the chaos of this moment.

Joy is resistance, and so I turn again to writing the good I too have going on:

My dog who has led me outside so we can both sit on the porch in the sunshine.

The hard-hatted linemen in the bucket truck fixing electric wires like my dad once did.

My neighbor across the street who rolls trash bins off the curb and back out of sight. I greet him with a wave, my dog with a bark.

Expand full comment
Jen Max's avatar

One of my favorite habits of our recently lost, old man retriever, was when I’d catch him wiggling and writhing on his back like an upside down snake under the dogwood. In our tiny oasis of a suburban backyard, he’d do this on a near daily basis. So often that his floofy but boney back had rubbed and worn away all of what little grass we have back there. I called the spot “Reece’s dust bath”. I savored witnessing the pure joy and puppy woofs from a nearly 13 year-old pooch. He twisted back and forth with the occasional lunging kick into the air with his skinny, old boy legs! He did this until the day before he died in March. Sometimes the dust bowl calls to me and tells me to lie down on my back and do the same! I need to do it one of these days, dusty back and brown boogers be damned!

Expand full comment