Newts!

This week I have had the delight of my beloved daughter's company, as she gave us a week of her time. We went for a walk down to Gilham Woods as I wanted to show it to her - when she was little I and her father spent many hours in woodland with her, hunting giants and wood monsters.

While we were there we discovered, to my delight, newts! Yes, I know they are deeply familiar to any little boy who spent time in woodlands as a child, but i have managed to get the grand age of fifty without, to my knowledge, having this pleasure! So today, Jen having gone back to the frozen north - well York anyway, I took my dear one there as well, this time with camera to record the pleasure and share it with you!

First there was blossom and shadows,





















Then wood anemones and celandine - such a lovely name for a sunny little flower

Finally we found the tiny little pond - created by  Luftwaffe bombing according to the information board.


There amongst all the gloopy, bubbly, frothy water there were tadpoles, easy to see as they shimmer along the margins of everything.

The water is fragmented into lots of greens and browns, reflections and little movements at the corner of ones eye. Then suddenly you get your focus right, just below the level of the water and become aware that these little brown wrigglers are all over, soaking up the sunlight on the submerged wood, rising lazily to the surface to peck at invisible tasty morsels, and generally schmoozing about, rather like a pride of lions in the Savannah, but wetter and smaller, OK altogether different really, but you know what I mean!