A common man marvels at uncommon things. A wise man marvels at the commonplace. CONFUCIUS

Saturday 15 March 2014

A Promise Of Spring

Frogs doing what comes naturally. (Click on the pic for a closer view!)

There's a promise of spring in the garden: the first butterfly yesterday; the first bee today; robins singing; water boatmen, whirligig beetles and frogs in the pond.

Frogspawn, looking for all the world like tapioca pudding.

Hardening off foxgloves grown from seed. On the right are mail-order scabiosa about to be planted.

8 comments:

The Weaver of Grass said...

You are going to have a good show of foxgloves there Robert.
We always called tapioca pudding frogspawn at schoo. - can see why when I see your photograph. Hope the tadpoles survive.

The Solitary Walker said...

I'm doing a study of the frogs in our pond, Pat, as I think they are absolutely fascinating. The female lays between 1000 - 4000 eggs. Astonishing! Re. the tadpoles — which will emerge after about a month — only 1 in 500 will survive.

Rubye Jack said...

I suppose we contributed to the poor survival rate of tadpoles as kids, but they were just so irresistible.

We see spring here in the city as the dog park filling up in the late evenings. :)

The Solitary Walker said...

There's plenty to spare, Rubye. If all of them, even most of them, survived, it would be Frog Central in every place on earth! Tadpoles provide great food for birds, fish and the larvae of water insects. It's all very Darwinian.

Ruth said...

I'm impressed by your foxgloves from seed!

You'll have quite the ecosphere in your small spot of land. This is so good! Whatever pool of frogs survives, they'll take care of mosquitoes, perhaps? If they beat out the mosquito larvae, maybe they'll gobble them up straightaway in the water. One can hope!

The Solitary Walker said...

Talking of the food chain, Ruth, I'd like more predators for the blasted pigeons which eat our tender brassicas — though the odd sparrow hawk occasionally does the job.

Goat said...

Happy to learn it's spring somewhere in the world! We have sunshine today but like yesterday it's still freezing: minus 13C right now (10:57am). Good to see some shrubs in bud on our snowy mountain hike on the weekend, though.

We're planning some serious vegetable planting if the snow ever melts - very weird for me to contemplate not just the vegies but the whole damned yard disappearing for several months each year!

(I seriously think I may be suffering from SAD: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasonal_affective_disorder) .

The Solitary Walker said...

Don't be SAD! Spring will come, my friend. Eventually.