Yep, Definitely Spring!

G and I went for a bimble to the pond on Kelling Heath this morning. G went a week ago and there were lots of frogs. There were only a few today, the nice weather has clearly been good for mating and I saw more wandering away from the pond than in the pond. Lots of frogspawn in the pond as you'd expect. We took it easy as I wasn't feeling great, but on the way back I started sneezing and realised it was hayfever - helped by an antihistamine when I got home, although I nearly felt asleep in the garden this afternoon after taking it. I've also attached a photo of a comma and a peacock butterfly on a very popular shrub (anyone know what it is?), and a coal tit.

Day 738 / Day 29 of no Legal Covid Requirements in England (for my record only)
The National Audit Office has found that the Govt did not properly document key decisions made around procuring Covid-19 tests. It said 'The gaps in the audit trail mean that the NAO is not able to provide positive assurance in the normal way, but it has not seen any evidence that the government's contracts with Randox were awarded improperly.' They said that 'some private correspondence exchanges' between Health Secretary Matt Hancock and MP Owen Patterson on private email and What's App had only 'recently been made available to the department'. Owen Patterson resigned in Nov after he repeatedly broke rules by lobbying on behalf of Randox (awarded 22 contracts) who paid him to work as a consultant.