Frogs and Flowers

I was walking with a favourite student yesterday when she ran across one of the little canals in the neighbourhood and picked this higanbana for me. "But isn't it dangerous?" I asked in Japanese. "Poisonous," she said in English and I was just so happy she knew the word "poisonous".

Higanbana blooms in autumn and it's one of the many signs of the incoming season. The rice is getting tall, too.

This year, the rice fields seem to be overflowing with frogs.

I'm also seeing a lot of butterflies or moths lately, different from the ones I see in spring.

And this is a turtle and two ducks who aren't speaking to each other.