I've created a monster....a fame monster.

I figured out the reason why I hadn't seen Willard in so long; with the rainy weather I wasn't automatically bringing my camera to the greenhouse with me whenever I went in. The first day I spotted the frogs again, I happened to have the camera because I wanted to photograph the beautiful nectarine blossoms. Now I always have it with me since the plants and trees are starting to sprout, and I don't want to miss a photographic moment. And apparently Willard doesn't want me to miss getting him from a single angle, because now everywhere I look he's artfully draped himself against a contrasting background. I swear I see him waving to me out of the corner of my eye if I happen to miss him posing. But if I don't have the camera? It's a froggie ghost town.

Sadly, as much as Willard is the world's biggest camera hogging amphibian, the quails are proportionately camera shy. They shun my go-to paparazzi moves, and even manage to thwart my stealth mode. Every picture I have of them is blurry, or it looks like they're glaring at me in a way that can best be described as demonic thanks to the angle of their faces. In a good picture they manage to merely look constipated. I'm vexed for two reasons - Bessie really wants a picture of a cute, fluffy fat quail, and I need a good picture for the label on our quail egg cartons. I also need quail egg cartons to put said label on, but they're almost impossible to find for less than $2 a carton. That's like $2 without the eggs even in it. Sigh, obviously I'll have to buy the cartons out of the proceeds from my 2014 "All Willard, All the Time" calendar. (I wanted to go with "It's Willard Time!", but I didn't want people to associate me with that particular brand of beer).