Spring comes with frogs…

I really do love these writing workshops. Most of the prompts tend to fit in with things I want to talk about anyway. This week I’m going for prompt number 1.

Like most people my moods are affected by the weather, when it is bright out I feel brilliant, when it is grey and cold I feel stressed and grumpy. I don’t think this boarders in seasonal affective disorder but the feeling I get when spring rolls round is immense.

Especially after such a long, cold and snowy winter I am grateful for some sunshine! My commute is 60 miles along country roads, when it is snowy and icy it is a nightmare. I put my car in a ditch over the winter, slid across round about and almost crashed into the back of a few cars because I couldn’t stop. It was horrible and I would be quite happy to never see snow again unless it is at the top of a mountain and I’m snowboarding on it.

March 1st hit and we have sunshine. Every sunny day I fall more in love with where I work. I’m next door to a farm in the middle of nowhere, the door to the house I work is in left open, people pop in and out dogs come over and have a fuss.

I know spring is here because I want to be outside, I want to drive to work and I want to try and sort our our horrific, overgrown, tiny garden.

At the weekend Ben and I went for a walk. Because I haven’t been running for a while I though a long walk around Mousehold in Norwich would do the trick. On Saturday we walked 2.6 miles in just over an hour. It was sunny at first but managed to rain. The beautiful thing about spring is that you can walk around in the rain without being cold. As we were in a wooded area we were rather well protected from any wind and because we were walking quickly it was warm.

We came to some open heathland and walked past a small puddle. There was movement in it and I questioned to Ben if it could be fish. It wasn’t fish but frog. Hundreds of them breeding! There was no pond here or anywhere nearby but the puddles were filled with breeding frogs and their spawn. It really was a sight to behold and you had to watch your step.

I couldn’t work out what would happen to tadpoles when they hatched, these were simply puddles, certainly not enough to house such as vast amount of growing froggies.

It’s a shame and I hope they do well. I’m not one to interfere with natural selection but I did make comments to the frogs hopping in the wrong direction were doing so and that potential mates and babies were the opposite way to which they were going.

We came back on Sunday when it was really hot (we did a 2.3 mile walk/run in 45 minutes) and there were no frogs around, just their spawn. I hope they were sheltering in the shade of the gorse bushes and hadn’t all fallen prey to the crows that were hanging around on Saturday.

Then on Sunday evening we had a BBQ! The first of the season. It was warm enough to stand outside and watch our food cook in sync with the sun setting. We then ate gateaux and watched Jurassic park.

Hello, Spring! You make me happy.

Related posts:

1. Esty finds for a cosy spring