If you were to visit New York City's 843 acre Central Park, you'd find yourself being surprised every so often by the statues you'd see along your walk. Like the one of Christopher Columbus, and a brown looking, well, brown bear. There's also a bronze of Alice in Wonderland, the literary character with a Cheshire cat and Mad Hatter surrounding her, and heroic sled dog Balto in the distance. Statues make any walk more interesting. Some even have a purpose.
The bronze frogs in and around downtown Blacksburg (VA), the Virginia Tech college town, do indeed have a purpose, showing off the town watershed, among other things. On a cold day in mid January I set out with some hearty hikers (good alliteration there) to discover where exactly the 16 different frogs were.
At twenty degrees, it was NOT the ideal day for a hike around town. But the sun was out and we bundled up in layers (like two layers of socks in my fur lined boots), so with a coat, insulated gloves, a hat and scarf covering part of my face, I set off with several others.
Just what are the 16 frogs? They were four inches of bronzed statues, some attached to a lily pad, some not, set in different places throughout Blacksburg to point out the waterways that once provided life giving drinking water to town residents. (The New River has since taken over that task.)
How much value do we place in our waterways, streams and creeks that feed into rivers that feed into big lakes that may feed into really major waterways, like the ocean? These creeks are living worlds for fish and mayflies and salamanders. The frogs in the area need them as well.
We walked all over downtown to different spots. I liked the one by a fountain at the renovated Black House on Draper Road. One of the walkers said I was nuts to sit on the cement area next to the frog and lily pad attached (cemented?) to it. But hey, I had on my good winter coat, jeans, and three layers under that! When our leader Pauletta took a pic of the group, I was the one pointing to this dark gray colored frog.
A few frogs were noticeably glued in place. I was told a few had already been "stolen" -- really, too cheap to go to your own nearby garden supply store for decorations? Or perhaps they were big animal lovers. Not long after this we took a break and warmed up at the Squires Student Center. But there were parks, bridges, and other places still to explore.
