So we had half an inch of snow down here in Sussex and the roads became impassable, so a day working from home meant a chance at lunchtime to go and see how the garden was faring.
My Crocus tommasinianus, which are planted in part for early spring colour and in part because they are fairly well liked by some early pollinators, were certainly not open for business, although they did look rather fetching against the dazzling white. They're really easy to grow, cheap to buy, and naturalise and spread well, so I'd certainly recommend them, but plant them where they will get sun and hence open up wide to invite insects.
In the woodland garden,the 'Wild' Daffodils were looking very chilly indeed. Daffodils don't rank highly when it comes to wildlife, usually hosting just some pollen beetles, but even these were nowhere to be seen yet.
But the thing I really wanted to check on was the pond, where the Frogs laid their first spawn last Saturday night, again doing so synchronously with those in a friend's pond half a mile away. Last weekend it was like a jacuzzi in there as male Frogs thrashed about at any sniff of a female like water polo layers sprinting after the ball.
Well, winter's lid had firmly closed over the top of the spawn, which is always laid in the warm shallows at the right hand end of the pond. But I'm not worried - Frogs in Britain have had to cope with frosts since the year dot, and although I might lose some of the spawn, I'm confident that plenty of it will be fine.
Our frogs laid spawn on 1 and 2 March and snow soon followed (even here in Sussex) and when things warmed up temporarily, some more frogs were back laying more spawn. Last year we lost most of it to cold, or anyway it did not hatch, so I did not cover it with bubble wrap (though I might next year!) but put it in a bath in the shed and when it hatches and the sun comes back, they tadpoles can return to the pond. When I lifted up the batch of spawn, two newts dropped off, obviously having lunch. Sorry mates!
Does that mean I'm the only one who covers my pond with bubblewrap to protect the frogspawn? I wondered why my neighbours were giving me a funny look!