NYC Frog Project On the Road

Dr. Seuss Memorial Garden
Springfield, MA

On our way back from a weekend in Vermont, we stopped in Springfield to see the Dr. Seuss Memorial Garden, which is is a courtyard between the library, the art museums, and the Springfield Science Museum.  Adorning the walls of the Science Museum were these frogs:

The Dr. Seuss National Sculpture Memorial Garden is worth a stop if you're ever in Springfield.  Theodore Giesel was born in Springfield, and his first children's book, To Think that I Saw it On Mulberry Street, was supposedly inspired by a street of that name in Springfield.  As this New York Times article concludes:

"As for Mulberry Street?  A shabby place with boarded-up houses, an addiction treatment center and drug dealers.  Young Marco in his necktie and dress Bermudas would be eaten alive on Mulberry Street.  Of course, that's the magic of Dr. Seuss' books, or any good fiction.  The real Mulberry Street isn't the real Mulberry Street and may never have been the real Mulberry Street.  The real Mulberry Street is the Mulberry Street drawn by Dr. Seuss in 1937 and forever frozen in time." 

The park features favorite characters--Horton, The Grinch and Max, the Lorax--and a statue of Giesel himself, at work in his studio.

Frogs of the TImes

A Frog of Special Skill

The article tells us that:  :Though they are widespread in New York City's five boroughs, gray tree frogs are rarely noticed by park visitors or wetland hikers." Its trick to surviving a New York City winter?  The frog is able to shut down its body so that its "heart stops beating completely, its lungs stop working, and its brain activity is almost unmeasurable."   I kind of wish I could do that in the summer, when it's 95 degrees and the whole city smells vaguely of rotting garbage.

Photo from the New York Times

NYC Frog Project on the Road

Turtleback Zoo
West Orange, NY