March 16 – Fishes, Frogs, and Newts

An afternoon of fun, frogs, and mud! Adrian’s garden pond was to be refurbished, and suddenly, Ivan was there to do it. The frogs, fishes and newts were scooped out of the pond and into a large green basin. Grace, dressed in overalls and wellie boots, was given the task of keeping the frogs in the basin; but every so often one, or more, would escape from the basin and hop its way back into the slowly emptying pond. Eddie chased after the truant frogs, to catch them, and plop them back in the basin. It was lots of fun!! When we thought all the frogs would escape, Stan appeared with a red, plastic bucket, with a net over the top that he used for transporting fish. Soon everyone was covered in mud, all the frogs, fishes and newts transferred into the red bucket, and the bucket carried to Stan’s garden pond. The frogs went in upper pond, the newts in the lower pond, and the fish in the middle pond. I can’t say they stayed that way, because before we walked away, we saw handfuls of frogs gushing down the water pipe leading from the upper pond where the frogs were, to the middle pond where the fish were!! Stan issued his bill for lodging to Grace, 50 p for each fish and frog for one week. Newts were free. Grace duly paid with monopoly money. We are hoping the frogs survive and don’t try and make their way back to their original pond before the work on it has been completed. Apparently, they do try that.