Froggy Would A-Wooing Go

I can tell it's getting on towards Spring in this corner of Ewell, as my garden pond is wriggling. No, I do not have the Loch Ness Monster in residence -- but I do have a significant number of frogs, plus the occasional toad, who turn up at about this time every year, get down and dirty in the pond, and then hop off to who knows where, leaving only their spawn behind.

It doesn't seem to make any difference that the pond's badly in need of a clear-out (and a new pump); back they come each year. In a small piece of evidence that Spring is unusually early in 2008, the frogs themselves are somewhere between ten days and two weeks earlier than I'd usually expect to see them.

It can be very disconcerting to glance out of the kitchen window and spot shiny amphibians writhing -- or maybe that should be mud-wrestling, given the state of the water....