Un artículo del periódico que me encantó

Hop into spring with a moo Tuesday, March 19, 2013 I don't need a calendar to work out when spring is around the corner - probably the best thing anyway - as recent mornings, cold enough to show my breath, with afternoons hot enough to raise a sweat, are not a good indicator of the arrival of the season.What does work, though, are the first hollow sounds of mooing floating up from empty plant pots in my garden, or the eerily echoing, booming sound coming from drainage ditches along the edge of the river. Each time a new dog joins the family, its first experience of frogs and toads tends to be a bad one - catching an amphibian is not a good idea - as they all taste rather nasty. So while the dogs and cats will happily chase the frogs around the garden or along a footpath, they quickly learn to make sure they don't actually catch anything. It was just a week ago, when the first plaintive moo of the Asiatic painted frog and the deeper bass note of a bullfrog enhanced my early morning ramble with the dogs, and told me that spring had arrived. But I have to admit I have never seen either of these frogs while they are actually calling for a mate. Two days ago, I watched a painted frog make its stealthy way around the edge of the garden until it settled on an upturned pot as a shelter. Some hours later, I heard the distinctive and highly misleading sound of mooing and knew that Freddy frog decided he had found a safe place to live. Now he just needs to attract someone to share it with - preferably of the female frog variety and not the inquisitive gingery face of Amber the cat. The first time I heard the eerie mooing sound, I looked around for a cow or water buffalo - everyone in Europe knows that frogs go "ribbit" or "croak, croak" - so discovering that frogs in Asia, despite their small size, can make a sound like a herd of cows at twilight, was just too laughable to be believable. So spring is here and my garden sounds like a farmyard at milking time, even though all I have is half a dozen palm-sized frogs looking for a bit of loving. Georgina Noyce is an equestrian judge, and has a menagerie of adopted four-legged waifs and strays. He estado preguntándome si traducir este artículo; intentaré más adelante, pero por lo pronto se los dejo en el original para que tengan una idea de cómo suena la parte menos urbana de Hong Kong durante la primavera. Por cierto, como la temperatura ha vuelto a bajar, las ranas y sapos están esperando un poco de calor antes de volver a cantar como un rebaño de vacas.