The sun is shining!!
Here is a picture of this years spawn. The frogs got busy on March 1st (two weeks later than last year) and the middle pond is FULL. However one imaginative pair decided to use the pebbles round the lower pond for their maternity ward.



Tazz

Very nice of them. Nice shot.

Gee. does that make you a Auntie to a thousand tadpoles?

Thanks Dave and Barbara,
As they start growing, I fill an ice cube tray with simmered lettuce topped with water, then throw some cubes into the pond. As a treat I tie cotton round a small cube of steak and lower it into the water, and they soon cover the meat to suck the blood. We also have newts, so I googled to see if newts ate tadpoles.....Back came the answer thet 'yes, newts do eat tadpoles, also big tadpoles eat small tadpoles.'

Tazz

Hmmm....Sounds like some nice interaction there.  

Very nice photo, Tazz.  I am surprised that the British frogs* are spawning while those around me (farther south than you, more sunlight) are not.  Wisely, since we could get 6" of snow tonight.

* Here are two of them; well, three, if you count the onlooker to the right.

Soon my deserted swimming pool will be jumping with frogs and tadpoles. I look forward to it. They keep the misquito population down.

That is a great photo DS. Our frogs are always black when they come out of Hibernation.( they hibernate under the flags surrounding the pond, where the pump is located, and it is pretty filthy with all the decaying leaves.)

And I didn't know they changed colour when mating, ours just make a lot of noise.

Tazz

Great photo. Seems you may have a lot of croakers this summer if the newts don't get them.

      

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<--- click on it to see the larger version The other day I went out looking for signs of spring, and I didn't find any till I was almost back home.  I think this will become a tulip.  The black background is added, because the area around the shoot was cluttered with lumps of dirt, pieces of straw, old dead leaves, etc., and I tried  using noise-removal and then edge-preserving smooth (these will often give a good impression of out-of-focus, whereas just using Gaussian blur makes it look like Gaussian blur) on them, and then a little Gaussian blur, and then I darkened them a little, and none of that worked.  So, since I had masked off the background to blur, etc., I just flood-filled it on another layer with black, and smoothed the edges where the shoot and the background merge. (Even though this shoot has been snowed on since I took the picture, it has grown to be almost twice the size it is here in only two days. I visited it today.)

Nice work D. Let us see what it is going to be please

Very nice D.

Very nice indeed D. Sure would like to see that one in full bloom.

Is your tulip out yet D? We saw our first tadpoles this morning. They must have heard that we altered the clocks last night for 'British Summertime'. They must have been  surprised at the temperature...-1C, and a lovely frost.
It has been a sunny day and I love the Garden in Spring, with all the shrubs in flower, primroses,Marsh marigolds, and of course the Daffs.
Here is a pic of some of our Miniature daffs.



Tazz

Very nice Tazz

My 'Early Morning Teardrops' have come and gone. Lots of things breaking ground. I think our sudden winter mix may have disturbed the {obscenity deleted} willows but we'll see come Monday.

Nice daffs.

Very nice photo, Tazz.  I saw some daffodils today, but they had been transplanted from indoors.  Tulip isn't up yet.  Only two native flowers are (I live at 4200 ft; spring takes a while to climb this high; it is 20^o right now).  Oh!  I don't know if sedum are native or not, but they're flowering even though nobody notices.   Here is a super close-up of some pudgy sedum flowers.  I think they're cute.

Pete, what are Early Morning Teardrops?  I googled them and got only links to pop music and some very bad poetry.

Thanks for looking everyone.
I love sedums D. and that is an excellent photo of them.
Pete I have only heard of early morning teardrops in connectyion with the 'Parijat(?) tree' which flourishes in India. It's flowers open during the night and then the petals fall (like raindrops) in the early morning.

Tazz

Ladies, both of your photos are great. Love your spring blooms. Our Daffs and Narcissus have come and gone but many of our shrubs and flowering trees are in bloom. The Dogwoods are about to open any time now.

Barbara, that poor little tulip hasn't come up yet.  I think it was dissuaded by the snow and cold temperatures.  But it is nice and green, and it is growing, so pretty soon it may dare to become a flower.

In the meantime, open ground that is not planted in grass is covered with these very tiny (quarter-inch across) flowers; they were the very first to appear last week, and now they are having a good time blooming before bigger plants wake up and grow and get between them and the sun.

What beautiful flowers ......and a great photo.

Tazz

Pete could the "Teardrops" be "Snowdrops" ?  Snowdrops are very tiny bulbs and are the first to come up in the spring. They will pop up through the snow. They don't do well here but I wish they did.

D.  Mother Nature abhors bare ground. She is going to cover it with something. What a blessing if it is with flowers.

Yes, Barb: that's it!

Gosh Pete, I never thought of snowdrops, and I just love them. We have some planted in our lawn and they are so brave, flowering in January amidst all the snow and frost.



Here is one of my Eastertime favourites, the fritillaria. they are only just coming out now.
Tazz.

Quoted from admin

Mother Nature abhors bare ground.

Unless she has designed a desert.
Technically, with 14" of precipitation a year, I live in a desert ( when you tire of humidity, click this link).