My pond, the frog nursery!

This is the scene from my window - the pond looks as if it's boiling as the frogs jostle for the best position! Click on the pic to enlarge it and see how many pairs of froggy eyes you can spot.


The moment I go outside they all vanish - except today one decided to stay and pose for the camera.


And this is why - look mum, look what I've done!


On Tuesday there was just one small blob of frog spawn - today (Thursday) there are SIX!



We'll be moving house next month so won't see them grow up this year, I've got enough packing to do without working out how to transport amphibians! In any case, it's not advisable to move pond life around, it can unwittingly spread invasive non-native plants. I'm sure we can soon attract some frogs to our new home.

What a wonderful world

(turn your sound on)

Nature's Art

Walking through the woods today we saw a fallen tree - to me it looks like a big beached fish. Can you see what I mean?



Looking more closely, the wood has weathered so beautifully with ripples and whorls - what sculptor could better this work?











Wish I could have taken it home for the garden, but it looked a little heavy.

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Nature's influential circle

How many of us are inspired by Nature? Quite a few, I'm guessing! My pictures from Rye seaside inspired Charlotte to blog about Barbara Hepworth, and I'm guessing Barbara was influenced by Nature, judging by the organic feel of her sculpture.

Here's the circle the other way around!

Yesterday my friend LeapingGazelle shared her beautiful new piece "My Secret Garden" with me:



Stunning, isn't it? Ethereal yet grounded in Nature. She calls the flowers columbines, I call them aquilegia - and I have lots in my garden!

The purple one is how they're supposed to look...



yet some of them seem to have been on steroids!



I read somewhere (can't find the source now of course) that the extra rows of petals are due to disease - but aren't they lovely?



Oops - I can see I have some dead-heading to do! I always allow the flowers to self-seed, but not just yet. I've found if I dead-head (for as long as I can be bothered) they will carry on flowering, knowing their season's cycle isn't yet complete.

Nature's sculptures

We had a picnic lunch on an empty beach at Rye today, sitting next to a row of groynes that had been sculpted by Nature.













It's not "fine art" photography, but it quite definitely is "fine art" - aren't they lovely?

It's definitely spring!

Some of us are busy making babies:



Not entirely sure the frogs realise the pond isn't the size of a young lake, but we spotted 15 frogs busily doing what comes naturally. 14 of them swam away when they saw me.



some of us are still searching for our dream home:



We just want our mums :-)



Are you my mum?



No, you're not. Mum? Where are you?



My final photo comes with lots of warnings and disclaimers! We were on a public footpath, we did not approach the sheep or disturb her in any way by straying off the path, and we told a farm labourer what we'd spotted....




you might not want to look if you're squeamish or eating your lunch...





but this mummy sheep is just doing as nature intended...

Strange creations in the forest

Geocaching in Kings Wood we discovered huge sculptures.

The first one we saw brought out my "grumpy old woman" because as far as I can tell it is *just* a fence. In my opinion Art is about communication, and this says nothing to me except "Why bother?"



After getting home we looked up the artist on the website (I'd have liked to have been able to read this at the time, why weren't there info boards in the Forest?)

"Peter Fillingham: The Last Eleven Years, 2004/5

Peter Fillingham has designed a railing to lead you through the forest, but it doesn’t lead anywhere in particular and is at times quite hard to follow. As a fence it keeps nothing in or out but disappears into the trees its end unseen. Made by a local fencer in softwood it sits lightly in its forest surroundings drawing a line through the forest and raising the question, Is it an artwork or is it a Forestry construction? A piece for your imagination to play with."

The next piece, Ring by Rosie Leventon I liked.



The reflections of the trees in the water were lovely - but I can't help feeling they'd look just as lovely in one of the numerous natural ponds.

Score for a hole in the ground by Jem Finer looked interesting, but again no information board meant we'll have to wait till we go there again (now that we've read up) to fully appreciate it.



Jem says "it is a post-digital work that relies purely on gravity and water to generate music. Inspired by suikinkutsu, water chimes found in temple gardens of Japan, Score for a Hole in the Ground uses tuned percussive instruments, played by falling water, to create music."

We thought maybe you were supposed to chuck stones in it...sorry ;-(

Most beautiful *art* we saw on this walk?



This communicates with me. Awe, wonder, fragility of nature, delicate colours, the softness and texture of the wings, the ephemeral nature of life...

Nature's beauty

We walked around Hurst Green (just over the border in Sussex) yesterday.



The world is so lush and green right now!

I thought the highlight was going to be a patch of stunning wild orchids. I've left my finger in the shot so you can see their delicate size.



Later though, we saw a pair of buzzards (not that common down south) circling hig above and calling to each other. I did my best Ray Mears impression and called back to them, and I'm sure they answered. Husband not quite so convinced!



And later still - husband was in front and stopped dead, signalling to me. Sadly i thought he was telling me to stop - he actually wanted me to catch up! There in front of him were three little fox cubs playing in a clearing. By the time I got there I just saw the last one chasing his brothers. He barked at them to wait for him! We'd never heard a fox barking before.

I suppse we walked for 2 or 3 hours - didn't see a human soul in all that time. Bliss!

OLd McNifty went to the farm, E I E I O...

My local farm SILCOCKS had its open day yesterday.



The stars of the show were of course the animals, and these tiny piglets grabbed everyone's hearts. They're four days old!



Only one was brave enough to venture out of the trailer - and then he discovered that the ramp was too big a leap to get home.



The farmer told us each piglet likes to return to the same teat - they certainly weren't gentle! It brought tears to my eyes....



The older piglets were busy playing football or sleeping...now what does that remind me of? The little stuffed pig in this picture is a geocache travel bug whose mission is to visit farms. Now her task is done, we can move her on to another geocache.

Natural bondage

Bet my title got you wondering, didn't it?




I love the way Mother Nature just carries on, regardless of what life throws at her.






The silver birch has been thoroughly tangled up by honeysuckle, but if anything is more beautiful with her corkscrew patterned trunk.



This tree looks quite dead, it's riddled with woodworm and you can see right through the hole in the trunk. Yet when you get closer (you might need to click on the picture to enlarge it) you can see there is new growth.
Mother Nature, the eternal optimist.


Finally - another couple of pics of the bluebell carpets in the nearby woods.
So, so beautiful.

Blooming marvelous!

It's bluebell time in the woodlands of Kent, south east England.



They've just started to come to bloom, a few days and they'll be past their best. Right now though, they're in their glory, blue carpets everywhere.



No bluebells in my garden, but my pond plants have started to flower




and the very first of the aquilegias is out - isn't it stunning?



Their folk-name is Granny's bonnet, you can see why.