Nature is fascinating. Too big to ponder without getting lost in waves of un-reality.
One of the first things my young son Ronan and I did after moving into our new house in South West Scotland (20 years ago now) was to dig a pond!
It took a lot of research and hefting and hard work, but after lining the hole with old rugs and things before laying the pond-liner, we filled it watering-can by heavy watering-can with rain water from the butts. My neighbour had kindly fitted a gutter to our shed, so it replenished the massive recycled plastic oil drum fairly quickly.
We had always planned for it to be a wildlife pond, with shelved edges, a pebbly shore and lots of native plants we’d read about in books. We had hedgehogs visiting the garden (we decided they lived under the hedge) and wanted them to get out if they fell in. We dreamed of dragonflies and newts and diving beetles and banded demoiselle.
Ronan loved lying on his tummy watching for signs of life beneath (and on) the surface in the pond at Threave Gardens, near Castle Douglas. He would be there forever on balmy spring days, utterly content to stay completely still whilst other visitors came and went, his little chubby legs stuck out behind him.
It was with utter delight and astonishment that we returned from an Easter holiday with my parents to find a clump of frogspawn in our new pond! It was only a week or so old (the pond, not the spawn)!
I’m not sure if ‘clump’ is the correct collective noun for a gathering of amphibious eggs. A bit of research reveals that group of frogs is an ‘army’/ ‘colony’ or ‘knot’, toads are also a ‘knot’ or a ‘knab’, and a few tadpole friends are a ‘cloud’. But I cannot find reference to a collective noun for frogspawn… (Nor, interestingly, newts – though one slightly dubious source refers to them as a ‘novelty’.) Incidentally, a group of axolotls is termed a ‘harem’. And an alternative plural [rarely used] is axolomeh.
Moving on, I have felt the same thrill (relief!) every year when the frogspawn ‘arrives’/ frogspawns arrive! I have yet to see it in progress, though have found some very newly-laid spawn! The jelly has yet to hydrate, so it just looks like a clump of the little dotty tadpoles!
My Facebook ‘memory’ informed me this morning that this day last year was my first frog sighting of 2018. I spotted our first frogspawn this weekend – it certainly does seem to have been a very early spring in 2019, in many ways. In fact, with my contact lenses in, I actually spotted a 2nd clump underwater which may in fact already have been there for a good week or so.
Just like the different stages in a frog’s life, there are distinct stages in my own life. I might write about a few of them here. Meanwhile, I have many photos of ‘our’ frogs and spawn going back over the years (there are certain responsibilities that come with digging a pond); I’ll have to do a drawing, or two when I can!
