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:

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.

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:

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.

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?

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: