Some of you may remember that I am very happy with my tadpoles. They are getting unfeasibly fat - they look fully ready to pop - and have finally grown little tiny froggy legs. (pictures will enlarge if you click on them - go on. look at the little legs!)
No further newt news - Tiny Lorraine Isaac Newt has not been sighted again. But she clearly hasn't eaten all the tadders (phew) - there are still at least 10 of them lolling about (with the odd wiggle here and here) and waiting for their transmogrification.
In the meantime, a local frog has popped in and splashed about once or twice. I hope it will eat some of the little gnat larvae which are also squiggling about in there.
I'm very pleased with my frog pool. Here it is in its early stages:
Once a builders bucket-thingy which Dizzy and I lugged up the road late one night after liberating it from a skip.
Next to my fabulous shed, with which I am still just as pleased. (for the full story of my girl shed, click here)
The pool is already started to look more at home
though it has quickly developed a coiffure of blanket weed and duckweed which I think I will have to deal with if I want to go on being able to watch the pondlife (no unsightly mullets in my pond, thankyou very much).
[spot the surreptitious snail in that second pic]
{hate the little blighters}
So I' m also very happy with the transformation of this end of my garden.
This is what it looked like a year ago:
(more"before"
pics
here)
and here
it
is
now.
thankyou to all my friends and family (agent, script-writer, producer everyone who knows me blah blah blah) without whom I couldn't - or at least wouldn't - have done it.
I just couldn't get motivated to do much in the garden last year - other than the big clear up - and I wouldn't have done anything, i think, without friends and family helping out. This year I can't spend enough time out there, it soothes my soul.
And having some water in the garden is wonderful - I'd not anticipated how much of another dimension it would add, even such a little and static tub of water. I got the idea from this book - if you have a garden, think about having a go, its easy and quite exciting. (tubs like the one I'm using can be bought pretty cheap in garden centres)
[notice how I resolutely ignore the implicit suggestion that frog pools such as these are ideal for kids]
I now have plans for a larger pool, near the house, hopefully with some kind of moving water.... a project to keep my father busy in the Autumn i think.
25 comments:
Aren't you the clever one, though! Love how big they're getting. One almost looks fish-like in the second photo. I'll investigate that book, though I'm sure all I do would be to start a farm for mosquito larvae.
I've always had a soft spot for tadpoles. I once transported a jar full of them from Yorkshire to Kent on the train when I were a lad. And some transmogrified into frogs and were liberated, croaking "ee bah gum," into the Kent countryside.
Last year, I fished out some tadpoles in a stream in Bois de Vincennes and brought them home for the kids. Turned out they were toad tadpoles and they didn't last too long in our backyard.
And from being a little boy with tadpoles, I ended up marrying a Frog. Funny old life....
Even though we all studied the life cycle of frogs in grade school, it's still astonishing to think about how completely they transform themselves. Woww!
Your garden is lovely. Work with the earth is always a good thing, and water? Oh my, YES! Still and reflective, or moving and cleansing, or both, as you'll have in your garden - I love water! I was going to say it's my favorite element, which wouldn't be true. I don't have a favorite element, but I do love water.
Well I don't know what happened to that post but I guess I lost it. I love tads too and am making a t-shirt to reflect that. I will post it on my blog when it is done.
Greg
What's that I see on your girly shed wall, a chippendales calander?? I love to sit on my garden bench (in the sarf of france) the one that I found in lovely catford, glad to be sitting here and not there, although it's nearer to you... booked that flight yet??
Great blog. I will be back for more
Love your girl- shed, need to re-name mine so the boys stay out.
I love to sneak out to my shed, I can sit there for hours and hours.
What a great job you've done! We did have a small pond but then a frog appeared! I made MWM take it down the park lake in a bucket and fill the pond in. We now just have a lion's head water feature on the wall. :(
What FABULOUS photos! How do you manage to get such clear shots of wildlife etc?
This has put a big smile on my face -
~(:o})= see?
i didn't know you were a fan of the chippendales!? tee hee. would love to come and have a proper look. you have done so well. i am impressed. i would love to have a garden. perhaps lorraine did indeed fly out from newton airport?
;0)
Reya mentioned studying tadpoles and frogs in grade school and that is precisely what is happening in first grade in NYC, along with butterflies and meal worms. Very interesting stuff.
The garden is coming along beautifully. Isn't it amazing how these projects take on a life of their own?
Also, nice features (hidden comments on the words, crossing out on past blog posts) I have to learn how to do all that one day.
Lovely tad pics and I adore your girls shed. I have a parcel to send you which I will do real soon. Have a lovely half term sweetie x
Hate to say it but you're a lot handier around the garden than I am.
What great pictures of the fat tadpoles! I don't see that every day, that's for sure!
I love your little pond, unfortunately I couldn't make one like that in my garden cos we are discouraged from having and standing water about..... too many mosquitoes that are carrying West Nile disease, which is horrible.
I love your girly shed. I want one too.
Aaaw,
aren't the tadpoles cute!?
Hi tut-tut - yes, dododo! other pond life will eat the mosquito babies, I'm sure..........
i laughed, dum-dad, at the thought of those yorkshire frogs in kent.
Reya i think its impossible to have a favourite element. I know what you mean tho.
looking forward to it, Greg.
Chippendales? of COURSE Tat!
hello mike m.
Queenie i hope you will post pics of your shed. Love the thought of you sitting in your shed while i am sitting in mine. :o)
oh dear. Sad story Akel. I guess if you don't like frogs then a frog pool is not for you. :o(
Glad to see your smile GOW. I put it all down to my lovely little happy snappy camera.
pod maybe you will come and sit in my garden some day?
Gary i think i would enjoy first grade.
(let me know if you want advice on the blogger tricks...)
arrived today Donna, you are lovely.
paul - is that just a surname? or an aspiration? i couldn't see anything about gardening on your blog.... ;o}
Jay do you not? i'm sorry :o/
well ptb ex-s. thats not fair. Get yourself a girly-shed instead!
nat-att - aren't they though?! more pics soon, they are growing/transmogrifying so fast!!!
I am sowing the seeds of free thought on my blog. Isn't that a worthy endeavour?
let's hope so hey?!
x
I know a local band called Pondlife... Honest!
A tad croaky, though ;o)
Moving water? With a fountain?
Thanks for the comment. Classes are over now...ugh....let's see how it all turns out. any advice?
I want one... a girly shed that is, then I could keep all my precious clutter in there.
The taddies are coming along very nicely, tails off soon!
Easy to see why you are interested in tadpoles; you have a gift for them. And in a real sense, weren't we all tadpoles at one time, racing to be the first to reach THE egg?
Enormously flattered you liked Lost/Found format. Feel free to borrow as the mood strikes you.
indeed it is Paul.
(so is champagne)
i'll keep your chair warm pod.
haha cream. croaky is good...
um... maybe not a fountain James. dunno yet.
Advice? about what?
how about this: "wear a hat".
aren't they, Dizzy? I'm working hard at NOT cluttering the girlshed, actually.
hmm Shelly, or would I have been the egg rather than the tadpole?
I absolutely match with everything you've presented us.
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