Frogs Last Night

 

Garden 3: Pretty Much Finished

Martin and Sam finished a few days ago (just some fixing to do from next-door's side.  Not bad!!
And the frogspawn seems to have survived unscathed.

Garden 2: Work in Progress

The frogs spawned since the last post, so we needed a bucket to protect the glutinous tapioca.

... and then the garden was razed. 

Garden 1

This is going to get sorted out.  But here is the starting position....
The fence blew down well before the storms, and the ivy over the frog pond is pulling down another fence panel. 

The Trees on Tour: France

Back in France again, scarily close to Ste Catherine de Fierbois (and see the other posts here and here from  2010). We decided to try and avoid the places we visited then.

In any case this is a different sort of visit.  Further South, in a cottage in the village of Le Petit Pressigny.

The village is in the middle of the countryside.  We have had hot sunny days.  A lazy time.

We've seen lizards and squirrels, grasshoppers and other creatures around the cottage.  We also went to an  étang in the Brenne conservation area, and saw a cormorant, kingfisher, dragonfly and other creatures.

We went to the prehistory museum in Le Grand Pressigny (I finally believe I understand flint napping).

And we briefly visited the Chateau de Montresor.

More adventures tomorrow!

Basking

A slow, gray day in Nunhead today, enlivened in a quiet, modest way by a bacon sandwich with brown sauce in Bambuni's.  The only creatures who seemed at ease with the world were four frogs basking on the edge of our garden pond.

Spawn of Nunhead

It is that time of year again.
Time for sex in the garden.
For the frogs at least - we now have a pond full of spawn...

Spawn

With the very cold winter, we had been harbouring doubts about whether the little froggies in the garden had survived, given that their pond was frozen over for some time.

Yesterday, however, I spotted some movement in the pond and a huge mass of glistening gray frogspawn.  So they've not only survived, but (...insert vaguely bad taste or lascivious comment here).

Down South: III

A few remaining images from our French holiday last summer. This frog was surprised by us one evening as we walked around the lake at the Parc de Fierbois.

Daytime shot of the fields around the camp...

... but we didn't take any during the cycle ride around the area, which included a really interesting artistic metalworker/smith, whose work was later spotted in the gates of a nearby village building. 
Anyway. Going home.

At Calais we were amazed at the narrow space the ferries had to turn in.  No wonder things can snarl up so badly during strikes...