SKETCH OF THE FROGS IN MY LONDON POND

MARCH 6 WAS THE DAY I NOTICED FROGSPAWN IN THE GARDEN POND

I usually make a note each year in my Gardening notebook, when the first spawn appears. This year it was early, due to the warm weather.  Here is my colour crayon sketch of the hopeful frogs.  It is one of my Urban Sketches which I put on the Flickr pages 
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FROGS AND FROGSPAWN IN MARCH, GARDEN POND

The male frogs congregate in numbers in the hope of finding a female.  They pop up their heads watching out, and some of them even sit on the mass of frogspawn.  

OBSERVING THE FROGS

You have to creep up on the pond to be able to draw or sketch them, as they are very vigilant and quickly disappear under the water.


TOADS AS WELL

I was pleased to see two pair of toads in the pond last weekend, 16 March.  It is the first time I have seen toads in my pond.  We see toads in the garden, creeping about, usually hiding under a log or bit of plastic which I have not cleared away, where it is damp.  They move very slowly and I am always so pleased to see them.  They seem much rarer than frogs in London.

TOAD SPAWN

Yes there are some strands of toad spawn in the pond as well.  Some of it has black tiny dots, which I guess are the fertilised eggs, while most of it is white dots, again I am guessing these are eggs which are not fertilised.  

NEWTS

Unfortunately the newts are out in force in the pond as well, and I know they eat the tadpoles, as do my few little stickleback fishes, and herons swoop down and carry off frogs. Its a hard life being a frog!  I am on the side of the toads, but have no intention of hunting for the newts, its just a big battle, 'tooth and claw', as they say.

ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY SHOW LONDON, SCRUM TO SEE THE EXHIBITS

FEBRUARY 21 and 22 - HORTICULTURAL SHOW IN CENTRAL LONDON

I went to the RHS London Plant and Design Show yesterday, which gave me the chance to spend more money, this time on two lots of potatoes, Sharps Express and Winston, both 'earlies'.
You can buy  a wide variety of seed potatoes at the show, including some unusual ones.

SKETCH OF THE HORTICULTURAL SHOW - BLACK PEN
Here is the sketch I made of the hall, sitting on the balcony at the end at the top of of steps.

RHS Plant and Design Show, February 21

You can see that there were crowds of people milling around, admiring the snowdrops, irises, begonia, bulbs, shrubs -  all the things which seem full of promise at this dark end of the winter. It was difficult to get close to the plants sometimes because of the eager crowds.

Everywhere I looked I saw people clutching carrier bags with their leafy purchases.  Yes, I succumbed to temptation as well.

LILY

I love lilies and I bought a bag of three lily bulbs from the stand of H. W. Hyde and Son, the Lily Experts.  The stall holder advised me that on my sandy, acid soil I should  plant Oriental lilies and I bought a little bag with three nice lily bulbs, of Speciosum alba; they look lovely in the illustration on the stall,  white with curled petals, and they have a scent.  They have to be planted soon, so hope the sun returns next week and dries the soil a bit.  The Asiatic lilies do not like acidic soil so I plant them in pots.  This year I bought some more Asiatic lilies at the Pound Shop, only £1 for three, so it will be interesting to see how they compare with the more expensive ones.

Lily and spider, London garden