Torrential rain this morning, when I was at home. Beautiful sunny afternoon, when I was in meetings. My hands on ‘wildness’ has been limited to persuading a reluctant dog that it is better to get soaking wet for 20 minutes than to stay inside (as I thought) all day. So the best I could do was plan how to rehabilitate my pond. In previous years it has been home to three healthy looking frogs, although I’ve never seen any spawn or tadpoles. This year I haven’t seen any signs of amphibians at all. I suspect there is too much silt and general nastiness in the bottom of the pond for it to be as attractive a habitat as it has been in the past. So it’s time to cut back some of the overgrowth and let the whole thing breathe more easily. This could be messy!

There is actually a small pond under here, but it is suffering. The iris has escaped from its container, with the  earth settling at the bottom. Leaves from the sycamores on the embankment have fallen into the water and , again, eventually settled into the silt.

The honeysuckle is a bully and is taking over much of this side of the garden and the blue-flowered alkanet (I think) has wicked soft prickles on its stems which get under the skin, despite being almost too fine to see, which always adds a little excitement to gardening. Watch this space for progress later in the week (for the next two days we will be ‘beyond’ the suburbs).