28 February 2021 in the garden

Holey crocus

Lichen on a rotting spruce stump

Forgsoawn at last!

Hazel catkins

Toad thinks the nibblers might be beetles

Polytrichum/Haircap moss sp on rotting spruce

 

Rotted roots and a frog throb

Today I've been digging out rotted roots of big fuchsia plants. Also healthy ones. I'm removing the fuchsias from the centre of the garden's north triangle where the pond is. My spade went right through a huge rotted mass of fuchsia root. I found a frog hiding in among the stems so I picked it up and moved it to safety. It gave my hands a kick—frog throb.

The pond water seems to evaporate quickly these days. It could be the transpiration of the Greater Spearwort plants that a neighbour gave me last year. So the water is shallow but the frogspawn is deep. It's piled at the northern end of the pond this year. In previous years most of it has always been at the south end.

Between root diggings and tuggings, I sat upon my sheepskin sit-upon-ery on the garden wall, sipping tea. When I picked up the sit-upon-ery when clearing things away, I found a ladybird sitting upon the waterproof side. 

It was frosty here this morning but comparatively warm in the sunshine ~11°C while I was digging. Lovely weather. More of the same, please.