It’s been a strange summer here in my corner of the south.

Usually, my back porch at night is crawling with flesh toned geckos, going after the flying bugs that have the misfortune to light upon the screen.

This summer, I’ve only seen one. A poor sample at that, with its tail snapped off.

We have our fair share of spiders, but this year, the yard azaleas were fairly adorned with multiple huge webs of golden silk orb weavers – a very large and scary looking spider, with leg spans up to 5″.

Smaller, but just as prevalent, the orchid spiders infested the crepe myrtles and camellias out front, their florescent orange markings bright against their grass green legs.

Why were there so many spiders, and so few geckos this year? Also, the other lizards were no where to be seen, usually running across the driveway, bobbing their heads and extending their necks as they made a clicking noise to call a mate.

Saddest for me was the lack of tree frogs – sticky little bright cheerful looking amphibians, clinging to walls and posts and doorways. They are always around in the humid summer months. Not this year.

Did the spiders get out of control due to lack of frogs and lizards? I’ll never know.

What I do know is that today as I was walking out to get the mail, I spotted a tiny green tree frog on one of my plumerias. I was so excited, I ran back in to the house take a picture of him.

I’ve missed the little fellas. He made my day.

We have at least one more month of suffocating heat to go in our extended summer. I hope to see things get back to normal, if just for a little while.