In the net

I needed a bit of help, because a human put some netting in the way.

Metamorphosis

        First of the year's tadpoles contemplating life as a frog.

Slug Patrol

Frog in the bed

       Always heartening to see a young frog in the strawberry bed

Grubs up

At first glance it looked like cat shit, but on closer inspection it was a frog nestling in the soil at the base of an olive tree growing in a pot. The olive leaves have been nibbled by vine weevils in the past couple of years and although it doesn't affect the tree, the small white weevil grubs that live in the soil and attack the roots do. Fortunately, frogs and toads like eating the grubs, so this one is providing an important service.

Dubious Amphibious

Not sure if this fella's a toad or a frog. Unhelpfully, it wouldn't turn to face the camera and was probably feeling a bit stressed by the unwanted attention of one of the neighbourhood cats.

Little helper

Always a good sign to see a frog in your strawberry patch munching molluscs.

Squatter's rights

This frog made me feel like a bailiff or bulldozing land-grabber as an autumn clear up disturbed its place in the sun.

Hop Off

A couple of froglets have already hopped off, leaving just a couple from the original batch of frogspawn to complete their metamorphosis.

Winners & Losers

So it goes.

The frog hopped out as I was picking the last of this year's 20+kilos of strawberries and a blackbird deposited the still warm body a few feet away, presumably clearing the nest of one that didn't make it.

It's one thing to lose when you're in nice surroundings and you think you've given your all, but when the drone of the M5, drizzle, the peculiarities of human behaviour and the frailty of the aging human form make the afternoon not all that enjoyable you sometimes wish you'd been at home to answer the call from your crying teenage child, which must have come close to the moment that the ball, destined for a six, held up on a strong gust of south-westerly wind and found its way into the fielder's greedy hands.

Oh. You want a proper match report?

Brislington won the toss and inserted the Cowboys on a lively batting wicket and despite losing Wayne and his toe early on, the run rate was gurt awesome for a long while, thanks to Mister Higgins' masterful display of square cutting and stuff, ably supported by the early order. After his departure for 70 the team rallied to bat out the 40 overs, ending up on 220-8, some 20 or more runs short of what might have been possible but respectable nonetheless, give or take the odd, remarkable run out.

Drizzle interfered a bit towards the end of the innings and continued throughout and after tea. Brislington didn't appear to want to come out to play. Was it a bluff? A tactical delay within the rules pertaining to weather? A ploy to make us round off our almond slices with a(nother) pint? It didn't seem any worse then than when we'd been batting. Pass the rule book. Oh, it's stopped.

OK. Set mental calculator to 5.5 an over. Anything less, we're winning. Some tight, aggressive opening bowling from Hidayat, supported by Andy C saw to that and kept the openers down. Then, in the skipper's own words 'it went a bit pear shaped'. This was directly related to said skipper's plan of coming on to bowl and offering up ripe strawberries for the batsmen, one of whom eventually filled his punnet to 111 not out. There was a glimmer of spirited and wiley resistance to accompany the frequent trips to retrieve the ball from the hedges (three were found in one, the true one the soggiest) but against a very solid batting performance the bowling lacked the penetration and depth blah blah, especially as some shirker was claiming incapacity and in others it was quite apparent.

The opposition completed the task within 27 overs for the loss of only 2 wickets.

Scorecard

Ring Of Bright Water

Just four survivors from the batch in February



Previous tadpole & frog business here.

Early Springers

Despite the coldest winter for thirty years there's frogspawn in the allotment pond, possibly even a little earlier than in previous years. I took a little home to put in a big jar and try to repeat the success of a couple of years ago. (Click the Label links below to see previous photos)

Hand of Frog

Much in the news at the moment about the Hand of Frog incident involving Thierry Henry. This one wasn't available for comment today.

Amphibian

I was going to blog about accidentally deleting some important preference files and losing my internet connection, email, trackpad and whole set up, which required half the night to rectify, but then I thought I'd post a photo of this frog, who hopped out of the strawberry bed this morning, instead.

Frogwatch

Saw two frogs today, but only managed to photograph this tiny one by the pond. The other was in the garage at home, of all places, looking a frightening grey/black colour and startling me as I picked up a bin bag on which he was sitting. I'm guessing that he was the healthy green one I'd seen in the garden last week and he could have crept in there when the door was left open recently (though it's a bit early to hibernate) and changed his appearance to suit his surroundings. I put him outside in the undergrowth and hope he might get his colour back and pop up again soon, bored felines permitting.

A pity my carrots haven't done as well as the beetroot, even though they're just thinnings, they all seem to have some degree of carrot root fly damage. Loads more beans, chard, kale and spinach and the first ripened tomatoes too.

This Year's Frog

This is the only one of seven froglets that survived this year. Then he hopped out of the jar in the garden one day.


A bit blurred - didn't use a tripod.



Coming up for air.



I probably should have kept them out of the sunlight.



Beginnings in the allotment pond.

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