Frogs in Love

I rarely  heed what the calendar says, I go by what is going on in the garden . . . .  but even then I have to be on my guard.  The first day of spring isn't until the 20th of March .. . .but with lambs in the field and frogs in the garden, spring has most definitely arrived in my garden.

Experience tells me that the risk of frost is going to hanging over my head like the sword of Damocles so I had better not plant a single thing in the garden until the end of May.   I've been lured by balmy breezes in the past only to have my tender plants killed.  They are knocked right back by a late frost or burned by the high winds that always show up for a few days at the end of May.

On the 28th of February, The Man of the Place showed me a frog that had found its way to a log on the top of the woodpile.  We usually find toads hibernating in the firewood, but this was a frog . . . .We let the frog hop away into the garden.  Naturally I went down to the bottom of the garden to check the pond for more frogs and possibly some frogspawn. . . . .There was nothing.

A few weeks later and the activity levels have picked right up.  I was in that part of the garden filling the bird feeders and heard the low, gentle croaking of frogs.  Squelching over to the pond (the ground is sodden and it is almost too wet to walk on) I heard panicked frogs leaping into the water to hide from me.  I also saw this!

Evidence of frogs wantonly breeding in my garden.  I walked around the pond, inspecting things.  I found my old pond sieve in the water.  I reached in to get it and banged it on a rock to get rid of the blanket weed that was inside the sieve.

Inside were two little newts!  I'm so glad I didn't hurt them!  They are such delicate little things.  These looked to be last year's babies.  I hope they survive the horrid great diving beetle larvae that predate tadpoles in our pond.

When things dry out a bit more, I'll be able to give the lawn a cut.  In the meantime, I'm tackling the greenhouses.  There are panes of glass to replace and an awful lot of scrubbing to do.

Spring IS Coming

Every Wednesday I drive to Dumfries at about 7 pm to go to the swimming pool.  Last week the temperature was about 9 C.  I noticed that there were a few toads on the road. I almost stopped to take a photo of them, but I was in a bit of a rush.  I thought to myself . . . spring is coming!

Last night we had a frog on the woodpile.  He (or she) was just sitting there.  Toads last week on the road and a great big frog last night tells me that spring is on its way.   The next time I go to the front garden to fill the bird feeders, I'm going to walk over and see if there is any frog spawn in the pond.

Sure we may get one last bit of snow before it is all over. . . .but the teeth have been knocked out of the beast.  I've been less cold in the house too.  I didn't realise this until I started writing this . . .but I haven't felt the need to have a cardigan on at all times.  I may go and scrub the greenhouse this weekend.

Spring Can be Cruel

We started the month with two lovely sunny days.  The daffodil spikes have started to show the lumps that will eventually become buds and then flowers. 


There is one hen that needs to have her wings clipped.  She flies out of the chicken run every day, lays her egg in the big plastic tunnel and then flies back into the chicken run.   From time to time she'll have a wander around before going back.  If she is out and needs some company or is bored, she'll peck at the back door.  I'll hear a faint tapping at the kitchen door. . . . when I open the door.  This is what I see:



Hello nice lady!

I have a strict no-chickens-in-the-house policy so this one is wasting her time.

I was outside this morning in my pajamas and wellies dealing with the aftermath of a visit from a fox.  Polly, our dog had been barking.  Instead of going to see what she was barking about, and Polly is not normally a barky sort of dog I told her to be quiet.   When I finally got off my backside and looked out the window, I let the dog out immediately.  The biggest fox I have ever seen was bounding away from the place.  There were feathers all over the inside my chicken run.   I thought that run was fairly fox proof.  It turns out that the run is merely fox resistant!  We lost one good laying hen and another has been bitten but not badly.  The bitten one has just lost some feathers and didn't want to come out of the chicken coop for a couple of hours.  

This is the remainder of my hens - the bitten one is the one at the top, all muddy and upset.  Six chickens is still plenty to be getting on with.  I'll not replace any just yet.  To cheer myself up after all this fox trauma, I filled the bird feeders and checked the pond.  There is a big new clump of frog spawn in the pond.  As I was hunkered down to see the state of things, I saw the BIGGEST great diving beetle I have ever seen.  He really is The Daddy of all diving beetles.  It sort of figures.  Do you know what great diving beetle larvae like to eat best of all?   Tadpoles.

There are new catkins dangling off the corkscrew hazel.  I think they look lovely.  Smaller and far less showy are the little red female parts of the plant, the part that will eventually be edible hazelnuts. 

The plump and delicate little flowers can be seen dotted around the hazel. (In the centre of the photo) They are so small that they run the risk of being covered by the lichen.   

The moles are renewing their efforts in the front and back gardens.  With the fox and increased mole activity, it is time to make a call to my friend Mike the Gamekeeper.

So, that's the news around the garden.  In other arenas, I have completed my 100th dive.

It was cold, murky and almost devoid of underwater life but I had a great day out. 

Autumn Love

Firstly, let me say that I am very sorry to have neglected the blog for so long.  I had a cruddy summer job that sucked all my time and creativity - for very little pay.  I don't work there any longer so, I'm back now.

I have been enjoying evening walks with the dog.  As the days grow shorter, the walks are getting darker.  I'm going to have to dig out the hi-viz vest.

George includes his hand so we have a sense of scale

The mushrooms this year are bigger than I have ever seen them.    These seem to be the size of  . . . oversized mushrooms.

Fly agaric

This one looks as though it should have an elf sitting under it.

I've been on numerous evening walks with Polly up to the woods. 

Since August, our cat Julio has decided that he needs to come with us.  So now there is this strange American just outside the village who walks both her dog and her cat.  Julio is one odd cat.

The mushrooms are as numerous as they are plentiful as well.  They are under every single large beech tree. 

Mushroom with purple gills

-unknown red capped mushroom -

We had taken delivery of a load of logs the other day and the new logs need to be stacked on the big green plastic tarp.  This morning,  The Man of the Place was re-arranging the firewood and discovered some beasties that have already begun their hibernation.  Frogs, toads and two newts were sleeping in last year's logs and old bits of bark.  We didn't want to disturb them my desire for organisation overrides.  I demand that all logs be put neatly on the tarp and the tarp folded over the logs to keep the rain off..  It is so nice to have dry logs when we need to light a fire.

The frogs were still jumpy but the newts barely moved at all.  We have relocated the critters to a spot the poly tunnel under some black plastic that won't get stepped on.

hibernating newt

 My newt was quite plain.  The other newt had a few dark spots and a very red belly!

This frog was very handsome.  I hope the hibernation is successful for these small and delicate creatures.  When moving the logs, we found earthworms and wood lice.  When relocating the frogs to the new hibernation spot, I put a fat worm next to each frog.  They might want a snack later on.  :-)

I'll report on the state of the garden next time. . . . .

Easter Weekend

At the bird feeder this weekend we had a beautiful pair of goldfinches and a lovely siskin. I'd not seen a siskin before. Beautiful birds - naturally they flew away before I could get a photo of them.
I had a good look at the new hen house that was delivered by tractor by the neighbours on Saturday. I swept it out and inspected what needs to be done first. (photo taken before grass was mowed)
There is more rot than I thought. I never had a good look at the nest boxes as they were wedged against the barn when I first viewed it. The floor didn't have a big hole in it either, so that will have to be replaced. You can see the sunlight streaming in through the cracks there. I'll tack lathe between each board before I paint to make it more weather tight.

Chris (the neighbour with the tractor) accidentally put a hole in the side when lifting the hen house with the tractor. Oops - another patch needed there!

I will have a bit of job here - but if I can get the work done properly, I'll have a nice hen house on my hands that will be easier to clean out than the one that I have at the moment.

We had a glorious Easter weekend. It was all blue skies and sunshine the entire time. Henry and I got loads done around the house. Some parts of our house that get neglected (dusting baseboards (skirting boards) were given attention. We also went about finding all those hidden dust bunnies. You could call it a good spring clean. It was so nice to have doors and windows open again. All the laundry was washed, dried on the line and put away. Don't you think line dried sheets smell great? They are sunshine for the nose!

I mowed the lawn, planted two rows of potatoes, trimmed the box hedges (smells of cat pee) and cleared one of our drains.
The drain below the kitchen was clogged and the water from the dishwasher was spilling out over the back paved area. I hate going to unclog that drain because, frankly it is a smelly, nasty job. I stuck my arm down the drain and found the problem immediately. A portion of the PVC pipe came off and was wedged in the larger drain pipe. Normally this doesn't cause a complete block but when it is then FILLED WITH FROG SPAWN we have a problem.
It was the most disgusting thing to feel. Eww!

I threw the frogspawn into the pond. If the eggs are still viable, they will survive much better in that environment.

Spring Frogs and a Hedge

Last week I was prompted by a posting of a frog photo by Dean on his excellent blog Mostlymacro to go and check the pond in our front garden. Sure enough there were a couple of frogs in there laying eggs. I just knew that if there were frogs in our little garden pond, the large duck ponds up the road will be heaving with frogs. I was looking forward to getting the dog up to the ponds and see for myself.

The days are getting longer now. It isn't dark when I get home from work and I can once again, walk the dog in the evening. George came with me tonight as I made my way up into the woods with our dog Polly. The side road we turn onto to go up to the ponds has had some improvement since I was last on it. Someone is laying the hedge.
It is a skill to lay a hedge properly. One of our neighbours does this for a living and as this is the very road that leads to his house, I suspect that this could quite possibly be his handiwork. You can see that the hedge shrubs have been cut but not sliced all the way through and woven horizontally. The fact that the shrubs were not cut all the way through means that they will not die and they'll grow and make a thick and impervious hedge along that roadside. I remember being told that when the shrubs that make a hedge are cut and being laid down, they must always be laid straight across or uphill. If laid downhill, the plants will die. The frogs were very busy doing mummy and daddy things all over the place! We had to watch where we walked for fear of stepping on copulating frogs! They were in the grass, on the paths and in the road. There were frogs in the puddles as well as in the big ponds.
This water in this part of the pond has been almost completely displaced by frog spawn! George and I heard far away noises that I initially thought were geese flying north, but then we discovered that it was in fact the frogs singing! They're not the loudest frogs I've ever heard, but they do make some noise.


In the above clip you can only hear me bashing around and Polly splashing in the water. You can only hear the frogs if you turn the speakers way up. George, who is very observant, came upon what looked to be a ball of copulating frogs. A froggy orgy if you will. The faint frog calls are much easier to hear on this clip.

In nature, when there is a mass spawning of animals like this, the predators will be out in force as well. We made a couple of large pterodactyl sized herons fly off when we arrived at the ponds and I saw many prints that look like this:and this:
These are not fox paw prints. They are either badger or otter. Otters have been seen in the water near us for a number of months now. I'd love to see one!

So, spring is is here! Yipee!!