Search - Articles

“I heard some growling from the shallow pond”, said the text message, from my mother. Frogs have been hiding under rocks and shrubbery in my mum's garden since she moved in nearly 17 years ago; but this is the first time there has been any 'growling

she hadn't dashed off into the depths. Today, though, when I nip out into the cold wilderness of my garden to have a little look around, I find there is a thin layer of ice on the pond.The rational part of me suspects that even though our pond is very

from memory I’d have to say that frogs outnumber toads 10 to one.Whenever I speak to anyone about frogs or toads, they are always slightly amazed that their pond-free garden should contain them. But, of course, amphibians only need a pond during

While the growling frogs in my mum's shallow pond have gone quiet (“and who can blame them, the pond completely froze over last week”, observed my mother), a pair of robins has been busy in the garden of my mother-in-law. Despite the bad weather

about — the stuff of legend, warm sunshine on my cheeks.There was still a slight chill in the wind though, and when I examined the pond there was a thin rind, perhaps half a millimetre thick, of ice. By 11, though, not only had this vanished