Having (hopefully) cleared away the especially cold weather for this end of the year, Spring has been getting going with full effect on the sunny South Coast. I say cold weather, but we heard via Facebook friends who have emigrated to Calgary in Canada were basking in minus quite a lot degrees centigrade temperatures, so I suppose it’s all relative.

Having put in a wildlife pond last year, we were delighted to see that the local wildlife had taken the hint and pretty much choked up one end with frogspawn. Our excitement retreated a tad when we went through that short sharp cold snap after we’d been lulled into a false sense of security. I have to confess I have never seen frozen frogspawn before and it wasn’t boding well for Frogs: The Next Generation.

Goes to show what I know. We now have hundreds and hundreds of elongated commas swimming around the pond, and we spotted the most likely culprit when a fairly large frog surfaced only to take fright and crash dive. So a quick census ensued and we concluded that we have enough tadpoles to remake that Star Trek episode with the Tribbles only with tadpoles. Except it would be under water so maybe it would be 20 Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, or in our case a couple of inches under the pond surface. Anyway, there’s an awful lot of them.

As of today it looks like there are a few less as we seem to have a newt moved in as well. A newt with a fondness for tadpoles. And I don’t mean liable to adopt them either. Ah well, as the circle of life goes on, we now have quite a number of snails which we think were seeded when we got some pond water from a friend to accelerate the balancing of the water. Just after the frogspawn was laid, they were gently grazing the spawn so what with the newt and all, we’re beginning to realise why frogs lay quite so many eggs. They have joined a number of pond skimmers and something that looks like an aquatic wood louse, although we don’t think they are involved in culling the tadpoles.

Whisper it quietly, but when the little frogs finally get big enough to leave the pond, they may face yet another ‘life challenge’. In London we had a wildlife pond, frogs came, spawned and we had half a plague full of tiny frogs. As Tiny Cat was still around at the time, and was pretty quick, he was inclined to have some sport with them. Yes we sat him down and explained the issues involved, but since he was a cat, he didn’t get it and continued in his merry way. We still have our other cat, and truth be told she was more likely to suffocate them by sitting on them being somewhat over weight at the time. She is now quite svelte, so it depends on whether her lack of frog hunting ability was size related or just a matter of genetic makeup. For the frogs’ sake you have to hope the latter.

If we get any more wild life in the pond we may have to build an extension or else we may be done for wilfully overcrowding a pond. In the meantime our expectation is a visit from either Kate Humble, Ray Mears or David Attenborough is merely moments away.

On Tuesday 6th April 2010, our friends at the Park FM celebrate their first anniversary of ‘The Park On-line’ launching as an Internet Radio Station. And it only seems like yesterday that there wasn’t any sort of local regular programming dedicated to the Forest. Where does the time go….

*Cough*. Back from sepia-tinted revery. They really have to be commended on how far they have come, and if you listen you’ll realise that not only will they be shortly broadcasting in FM, they have plans for a video channel. Of course if I was any kind of a proper writer, I’d have asked them where that would be. Probably not Sky HD, but may be their own YouTube channel? No doubt we will hear when we need to know.

Now they have moved to the new HQ in Lymington (yay) all is go and the magic number has been confirmed as 96.9FM by Ofcom. If you are feeling just a tad left out that you didn’t know all the Park FM news, why not become a fan of their Facebook page . It’s quick, it’s easy, it’s oh so now! If you don’t have a Facebook account then you’ll wonder what the heck I’m on about. But then I’m told that’s quite a normal reaction when I communicate, so don’t feel bad.

Just in passing, listened to Louisa and Stephen yesterday afternoon, nice job guys. So back to the plot. They have beautifully crafted six hours of special programmes, featuring archive interviews from over the last 12 months, so lend an ear tomorrow (Tuesday) and listen to a little bit of history!

Wife and I go regularly to swim at a local leisure club here in Lymington as, being low impact, it’s the only exercise she can do without causing an FM (Fibromyalgia) flare-up. During the winter months we get used to having loads of room to swim without many other swimmers. The only time it gets kinda busy is when our visit coincides with a school holiday or worse as today, the first day in a long Easter weekend and a school holiday.

Don’t know if you’ve ever seen or been to concerts where the performer ‘body surfs’ on the audience. Doesn’t tend to happen at classical concerts I have to admit, more likely at a popular beat  combo concert. Of course if you have been to a Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra concert and seen the conductor throw themselves off the stage to be passed above head height by the audience, I stand corrected. But I am reasonably confident that has never happened. Reading or the Isle of Wight festivals maybe but the biggest surprise you might get at a BSO concert are the fireworks at the end. And they tend to be set off only at outdoor concerts.

Anyway my point in mentioning that is that at certain points in my attempt to do my compulsory lengths, it started to look like body surfing might be my best option. Now for those of you who take your leisure seriously enough to spend leisure time trying to keep fit, you may not believe that there are some who like to enjoy splashing around in a pool rather than pounding up and down. No really. And what they tend to do is lose sight of the obvious point that if they swim in front of you, or worse still surface immediately in front of you, an accident may well occur. No disk brakes on swimmers.

Interestingly enough, the laws of physics are not suspended in swimming pools. So if you throw a ball and the recipient does not catch it, it will continue on it’s trajectory until it hits something. Or someone. Unfortunately sharp implements which might accidentally cause a puncture in said ball are expressly prohibited. Reasonable I suppose, harpoon guns are like balls in that if they miss the intended target, they’ll hit something. And they do give a bit more than just a bruise.

I would like to say that no parents who should have kept better control of their progeny were harmed in the process of completing my lengths, but I’m not entirely sure that is correct. Either way, the lighting is subdued in the sauna, so they may not be found for a while…