The Pond

21st March 2005

A Pond View

All is looking quiet in the pond. However, don't be fooled by how it looks. Already there are insects moving into the Pond. The Green Club volunteers have been busy too, bringing some life over from the old pond. You may wonder where it is. Well, do you see the tall plant in the far corner...

Who's Living by the Plant?

...if you look closely you will see that the Green Club brought some frog spawn into the new pond. The frogs are probably not aware that a new pind has been built and so this is a way to let them know. To the tadpoles, it will be like they have always lived there.

Do You See Spots Before Your Eyes?

In the middle of each jelly egg, there is a tiny black spot that will grow into a tadpole and then, hopefully, into a frog. How many of these will make it to be adult frogs I wonder? There are many dangers to a young tadpoles, especially from birds and other insects in the pond.

The Changing Landscape

The area around the pond is greening up quickly. Many of the weeds that took over lasy year look as though they will take over this year. The Buddleja on the right will attract a great number of butterflies and bees to the garden.

Nettles -Good or Bad?

One of the weeds that will try to take over are the stinging nettles. For anybody who has fallen into a patch of nettles, they will know that nettles are not the friendliest of plants. Should we get rid of them? Although they are not friendly to us, they are very important for butterflies such as the Peacock, Red Admiral and Comma butterflies, whose caterpillars need their leaves to eat. So they stay!

What's Down the Path?

After looking around the new pond area, I set off down the path to the old pond, to see what I could find.

Sound Out the Trumpets

It was looking very colourful as I walked to the pond. The Green Club had been busy planting all sorts of plants for us to enjoy - the primrose with striking red flowers, the daffodils and a plant with blue flowers which you can't quite see yet until you...

Take a Deep Breath

...look at it closely. This plant is called Lungwort and you can recognise it easily as it has big white spots on its leaves. The flowers start off pink and then turn to blue as they get older. The white spots on the leaves gave some people (many years ago) the idea to call it 'Mary-spilt-the-milk'.

Don't Forget This One!

A close relative of the lungwort is the Forget-Me-Not, which got it's name from, er, um, I can't remember why. Actually, it probably came from an old German folk tale of a knight who, still dressed in his full (and heavy) armour, stooped down by a riverbank to pick his sweetheart some of the blue flowers. He fell in! Just before he went under, he threw his sweetheart the flowers and yelled 'Forget Me Not!'. A sad tale. Mind you, I'm sure there's a moral here about wearing suits of armour near rivers...

The Old Pond

A new pond was built because the old one had a leak in. Fortunately for the wildlife that still lives there, it is a slow leak, and so there is still a lot of wildlife hiding below the water. I know this, because as I approached the pond, quietly, the water suddenly seemed to boil and then go quiet again, as lots of little bodies jumped to hide from me. I wonder who they could be...?

It's There Somewhere...

As I sat and watched the surface of the pond, lots of tiny little bubbles rose up to the surface from the mouths of the little bodies below. I had this feeling as though I was being watched by lots of little pairs of eyes.

I'm Watching You

I was right. I was being watched. Although most of the little bodies were not as bold as this one, I knew they still had their beady eyes on me. A frog was right below me, staying absolutely still, in the hope I would not see it. I leant down as slowly as I could to take a photo. This is as close as I could get before, as quick as a flash, he disappeared below the water with a splash. It is not the last we will see of them this year, I'll bet.

A Lost Home

I found an old snail shell lying on the path. It must be a water snail as we don't have land snails with shells like these. I wondered how it got there. Where was the snail? I always wondered if a snail left its shell, would it become a slug? If I ever find the snail who left this shell, I shall make sure I ask it.