Toad ball

This morning toads are everywhere. The pond was alive with balls of mating mayhem. I was able to photograph this one which was on a shallow shelf near the edge of the pond, others have rolled down into the dark depths of the water.

I spent much of the day rotavating in the kitchen garden. There is something deeply satisfying about well rotavated and raked soil. I got just over half of it done before the blue skies turned grey and the sleet started to come down.  

Main news of the day is that our daughter has been awarded a fully-funded PhD place to continue her research on newts. She will start in the autumn when her current maternity cover job with dragonflies comes to an end.