April 2005

April started off cold and wet but with very little ground frost. The plums, pears and earliest apple trees flowered profusely. The damson is still alive after its diseases of last year but didi not floower. The peach seems to have set a few fruit but the apricot while leafing up well produces a few insignificant flowers. The earlier tulips disliked the constant rain , flopped and hid themseves in forget-me nots. The tall lily shaped tulips that usually flower in May came into bloom in the second half of the month. At first it seemed that they too were going to be disappointing but they grew stronger as the weather warmed and now rise proudly above the sea of blue forget me not.

The saga of my pond continues this month, but don't read it if you are squeamish.

Pond records

6th April

The tap water I used to fill to fill the pond has now turned so opaque a green I can no longer see the bottom.

15th April

Chris finished laying the bricks on top of the pond liner today. The surface spawn keeps disappearing but I can't see tadpoles. The pond is so opaque though I can't see more than about 2 mm below the surface.

17th April

Ten dead frogs on the lawn today. I just hope there aren't any in the pond. If there were, surely they would float to the surface.

21st April

More dead frogs on the lawn. Huge bubbles on the surface of the pond. And a horrible smell. I am sure there are corpses on the bottom.

22nd April

Chris said he would try to bring a pump to empty the pond next week.

29th April

Chris came without the pump. He used the plastic rake to sweep the bottom of the pond and brought up about twenty frog corpses in advanced states of decay. Most of them female with spawn still attached which dripped from the rake. I felt terrible. Instead of providing a safe haven for wild life I had creted a death trap. The smell was terrible. Can't think why the bodies hadn't floated to the surface. I buried the corpses and planted a lupin on top. In the afternoon, a swarm of very large yellow coloured flies congregated on the bricks where debris had dropped until I scrubbed the bricks clean.

30th April

The fox dug up the mangled corpses I buried today leaving a large hole. He had kicked the lupin under a bush. Oddly, although most of the bodies fell apart while I was burying them every scrap has disappeared and the excavated earth held no whiff of frog decay. If foxes like dead frogs wonder why it ignored those on the lawn ten days ago, unless, of course, the ones I found were only the ones left after he had had his fill.
I replanted the lupin