Sunday 5 June 2016

Blooming - 5/06/2016


The Yellow Flag Irises have flowered
 and the pond plants are thriving.


The Winter Mint plant has
done very well this summer
and I've had to cut it back a bit
to stop it taking over completely.


The pond looks much more established now.

Frogs Galore - 5/06/2016


I spent today watching frogs in the pond.  Most of the tadpoles which hadn't developed last Summer have now started turning into froglets and therefore there have been lots of little froglets in and around the pond during the last few weeks.


Lots of places to hideaway
in Wildlife Pond #2,
look close and you start to see
them climbing up the plants:


A closer view:


I watched a few of them
swim across the pond:


I must have counted
around twenty in total.


The frog in the following photo
is the biggest visitor to my pond as of late
and I think he must be from the first batches
of tadpoles I had back in 2012 or 2013:

Wednesday 13 April 2016

Hidden Delights - 13/04/2016


Look what I found hidden behind
the Scirpus Cernuus plants
in the small wildlife pond.


FROGSPAWN!!!!


Two clumps of it.

Also, hidden behind the same plant
in the bigger pond another clump!


Not as noticeable in the bigger pond
but get your hands in amongst it
and you can see quite clearly
that it is indeed frogspawn.

Tuesday 12 April 2016

Still No Frogspawn - 12/04/2016


No signs of any frogs so far,
and the chances of frogspawn
now looking very slim. 

There's been more rain here and so
the lawn remains somewhat soggy.


However, the grass seed I put
down as now started to grow:


It looks like the birds
didn't eat it all after all!


The Bug Hotel still open for business:


The feeding stations on the
Acer tree are being well used:


In particular, I've lost count of how
many times I've had to refill the
Sunflower Hearts feeding station:


The Goldfinches are 
never away from it now.

On one occasion I counted
seven of them on the Acer tree. 

We added another station too:


This one is closer to the house
 and gives us an even better
view of the Goldfinches
from the kitchen window.


For the first time too,
we had Long Tailed Tits visit.

I think they were looking
for somewhere to nest.


All the rain we've had means
the ponds are well topped up.


I wonder if any frogs
are hiding in Frogitat:



The Monkey Bird Bath
looks more like a Bird Toilet!


The pond plants are doing okay:


Lots of new growth to be seen:


The Yellow Flag Iris have
started to grow again:

Friday 25 March 2016

Sunshine at Last - 25/03/2016


Finally we had some sun today
and the puddles dried up.


The grass (whats left of it),
took a good hammering this winter.

All the rain has left the lawn
extremely waterlogged.

My Wife planted some new grasses
and hopefully by Summer they'll be bushy:


No frogspawn in the pond yet,
not sure I'll get any this year now.


There are still some tadpoles
 in the pond from last Summer.

They have now started
to grow their back legs.


Nothing to report from Pond Project #1:


The Bug Hotel is starting to look weathered:


I did spot odd one or two creepy crawlies
 moving around in it when I checked today.


I added some twigs to the top of
the bug hotel for the birds to use
when they start building their nests:


Spent the afternoon forking the lawn:


After what seemed like forever, 
when I'd finished grafting I
put down a load of grass seed.


We'll wait now
and see if new grass appears.

Friday 4 March 2016

More Rain - 4/03/2016


It's been a milder winter
but the rain seems never ending.

I've not been out to my pond lately
as it's far too muddy outside.

I wonder how it's doing?

Sunday 10 January 2016

After the Rain - 10/01/2016


Having removed most of the leaves out of the pond back in November, I'd not been out to look at it much since then as the garden had been too wet to venture out onto.  

However, I had to go out into the garden today to fix the washing line which had broken recently when we left clothes on it one night during heavy wind and rain. As you can see from photos taken today, the pond is doing okay:




Thanks to the amount of rainfall we've had, 
Wildlife Pond #1 is looking healthy:


The front of the Bug Hotel
got a good soaking:


A rather muddy and waterlogged garden: