A couple of days ago, I was out in the garden picking some grape tomatoes.
As you might remember, the tomatoes are planted in raised beds made out of wood. The bed walls are about 15″ tall with aisle ways between them.
Anyway, I was planning on really cleaning up those tomato plants. I had already picked about a peck of good tomatoes. As I came across a rotten tomato, I just tossed it about four feet away into the aisle so I could rake them up later for composting. My picking went something like this: pick 4 or 5 good ones…toss 1 bad one …and so on, until the basket was full.
I casually tossed my 40th mushy tomato out into the aisle, when all of a sudden I saw something flash into the air toward the tomato (that was by now arching about two feet into the air, near the top of its trajectory). This was followed something much larger that then connected with the tomato and the first object.
A frog who was sitting behind the wall of the raised bed, had shot his tongue out to catch the tomato, then in a nanosecond; had jumped up, followed his tongue and caught the tomato in mid-air! By the time he landed, he had the entire tomato completely in his mouth!!
He sat there for just a second or two then spit the tomato out. The way he spit that tomato out reminded me of a baby “mooshing” out a mouth full of strained vegetables. Even the expression on his face made him look like he was surprised! I tell you what, I never knew frogs could change their facial expressions like that!!
I was laughing so hard I could hardly hold the camera still enough to get his picture.
Here he is sitting just in front of the tomato he had just “mooshed” out.
I suppose a frog could legitimately mistake that tomato for a colorful insect of some sort , especially when it is moving through the air.
After a few minutes, and watching several more tomatoes pass by, he hopped away. I presume, to look for more productive hunting grounds!
His dignity doesn’t look too tarnished, does it?
Bob
Funny! Cute! The only hard part to believe is that he didn’t like the tomatoe. On the other hand, my kids don’t like them either.
What is it about tomatoes? Are we born with the taste for them or do we aquire a taste for them? I remember being the only one in elementary school who liked the stewed tomatoes they served on Thursdays. I still love a good, fresh tomatoe more than anything!!
Comment by victoria mcintyre — October 12, 2007 @ 4:16 pm
It might be an acquired taste, I didn’t really like tomatoes all that much until I was 20 years old or so. Now…look out!
Comment by Bob — October 15, 2007 @ 8:02 pm