The Bullfrog Pond...

...is full of newts, dozens of them, and millions of eggs in sacs. People coming down the trail from the meadow often politely 'warn' us that there are lots of newts in the pond when they see Spike running ahead of us up the trail. We always politely assure them that we keep him well away from the 'Bullfrog Pond' as one fellow on a bicycle called it this morning. As a result, I've never stopped to take a picture.

I decided to rectify that this morning, so I waited  for Spike to get well involved with his meadow explorations before diverting to the pond. Everything in this picture is underwater which gives it it's interesting light and color. Two months ago there wasn't any water here, only bullrushes. One of the things I like best about newts is their ipsilateral gait which doesn't really show itself when they are swimming, but I also find their bright yellow underbellies quite fetching. There were five or six swimming around their clutches of eggs. Protecting them?

Dana arrived this morning with Blake to prune our roses. She doesn't think John prunes them severely enough and I'm inclined to agree with her. He was happy to let her at it. There are plenty more roses for him to prune. We continued our cleaning/mouseproofing of outdoor spaces and furniture and purchased a sealer for the deck which will be applied soon before it gets dirty!

We were accompanied by a daft bird that could see its reflection in a metal trash can we had moved off the deck, attacking it furiously for the entire time we were out there. We finally moved the can to the garage just to spare its repeated attempts to attack the imposter

I spent a frustrating hour on the computer trying to order 'square' knitting needles called cubics. I got some at our local knit shop but she isn't carrying them anymore and I like the way they knit and feel. They are recommended for people with arthritis which might be why i like them as I seem to be developing arthritis in my thumbs. Any knitter knows there is an alarming and complicated array of sizes and types of needles. I have both English sized needles and American numbered ones. there are straight needles, double pointed needles, and circular needles, all in the same array of sizes. And the circular needles have different lengths of cords as well. 

Anybody who knits also knows that there has to be a way of organizing the huge number of needles they inevitably end up with. This can range from randomly sticking them in an old mug with a broken handle, (although this approach works better with paint brushes than with needles with sizes printed on them or on the packages in tiny numbers) to cleverly designed cases with numbered slots for each size. Neither of these methods works with circular needles which are, well, circular. They must be filed away in a box according to needle size which stays that way until a certain size must be found and the rest get shoved randomly back into the box.

Once I calibrated the required sizes in the pattern with what I have on hand and started trying to order the square versions of what I needed on line I found that they don't have all the sizes and tend to be out of the sizes I think I need.

I gave up, deciding that I have enough needles to get started on my next project and get a better idea of what I need. So much for ordering ahead so I will have what I want when I'm ready to start....