Pond Dipping

I get a little bit too excited whenever I am near ponds or rockpools. When I was wee I loved going to the Valley with family and friends. The Malago ran through it, and I would spend all day fishing for minnows, tadpoles, frogs.....and rock pools would blow my mind!! Crabs, anemones, shrimps, fish and once a hermit crab found in a rock pool at Ladrum Bay in Devon.

Of course summer was always sunny in the seventies, and my memory is one of Halcyon days played out in a cine camera vibe (you get what I mean). Think 'The Wonder Years,' 'Happy Days,' 'The Double Deckers.' Don't think 'The Tomorrow People,' 'Logans Run,' 'Space 1999.'

So Olly and me went pond dipping. It all started as a simple exercise in sweeping some of the weed from the top of the pond, which inevitably led to me screeching at Olly to come, look, see what Sas had found ("Sas" bieng his generic catch-all name for me and everyone else. Apart from Dad da & Taff).

We spent a precious hour together harassing the creatures that live in our little pond. I kind of hope that this will ignite a future love of wildlife, or at the very least a healthy respect for it. It's one of the reasons I have planted so many bee-friendly plants. It's not just so that the impoverished insects have somewhere to collect their food. It's also to allow Olly to get used to the buzzing, and not be scared of them as so many of us are. And I love the fascination you only get with a two year old. All wide eyed and intense.

Bit like Spot The Ball. But a frog..

Olly & Olivia NEWTon John (see what I did there)

Two frogs & a newt!!!!!!