Sunday 21st March 2021 - A Year On, Spawn and Spring Equinox

I have just been reading my blog, written on the 20th March 2020. At that time I was not long back from Bucks where my Mum was not coping well in her home. It was also the time when Covid-19 (yes I know we are fed up to the back teeth with hearing and reading about the virus) had started spreading and virtually every day, restrictions were being put in place by the Government to try and control its increase. The twelve months that have followed have certainly been ones that will make their mark in history. For those of us in the UK, with infection rates on the decrease (big cheer here), we are looking forward to the end of the current lockdown and the return of some kind of a normal life (let’s have another cheer). Not so for some of the EU countries who are facing a third wave of the virus. If media reports are to be believed, the vaccine rollout in the EU has been a bit of a farce and their low vaccination rates, may account for their third wave. However, here in the UK we must not be complacent; things could for whatever reason all go horribly wrong leaving us with nothing to cheer about!

Earlier this month I wrote about the cats frogging, saying ‘I keep thinking how lovely it would be if there are both a male and a female frog in the pond, with spawn to come in a few weeks.’ Well, to my absolute delight, I spotted a good sized mass of spawn the other day, floating in our pond. Unlike Peter, as a child I never frequented ponds or streams so my only experience of frog spawn and tadpoles is jars of them being brought into school. I am going to be closely monitoring our frog’s spawn, in anticipation of the first tadpoles emerging. As far as I am aware, we have little in our pond that is likely to pose a threat to the developing tadpoles, apart from their fellow tadpoles. It’s going to be interesting to see how many develop into frogs and hop off into the garden to eat nasties, such as slugs.

It’s still a bit on the chilly side and there’s been plenty of cloud too. It’s probably best not to talk about Thursday when it rained most of the day, but to make up for this, Friday was glorious. We didn’t get to do much at all in the garden as Barney was booked for a clip and his annual booster and check-up at the vets, plus we did our usual shopping in Mundesley. Also, we took a walk in the afternoon along the footpath at the back of the Sea Marge where we were told the pond on the cliff is full of toads. Whether it was down to the pond being in the shade or the toads moving on after mating, but we didn’t see any, not even movement in the water or surrounding vegetation. I did take the opportunity of photographing the back of the Sea Marge, which hopefully as lockdown eases will be opening again. Yesterday was the spring equinox, signalling a change of seasons and hopefully some warmer temperatures when we can once again enjoy barbequing in the garden.