I'm envious.... although we have Superior a half mile away to gaze on and love, no ponds or wetlands. We're upland boreal forest so fairly dry despite the annual precip total. I do miss hearing the spring peepers' songs, and the larger frogs later on, as well as tree frogs. Night is utterly silent here exc. when it's windy (it's windy a lot here). Sometimes you will hear Owl or Coyote or even Wolf, and Cricket, but that's it. Love it though. So nice to sleep with the windows open nearly year-round, lay in bed upstairs and watch the trees dance against the stars when the wind sings. When the wind is from the N or NW, Superior sings to us too with her surf booming down below against the shore. No sirens, no cars, no window-vibrating music, no human chatter. Just nature.
I learned something in class (Anishinaabe/Ojibwe) today that you might appreciate. The word for bog or swamp is mashkiig, pronounced Mahsh-keeg. You might know that in Canada and Alaska, this is also the term for the difficult-to-traverse marshland called in English "muskeg." It comes from the word for medicine "mashkiki." It can also be translated as "pharmacy." Wetlands are a rich depository of strong medicinal plants like willow, cedar, Labrador tea, birch, sphagnum moss, tamarack. Although there aren't any wetlands on our property here, there are many within walking distance. Took a class this past summer to learn the plants and medicines of this area, and how the indigenous folks used them.
