Our little wild daffodils have really done us proud this spring. Even the ones that were moved have flowered really well and lots of seedlings have appeared, the promise of even more to come in future years. Our Wendy House arrived at the beginning of March and we have been busy planting and painting ever since. We have planted a shrubbery down one side of the pond to provide cover and discreet access to the water for wildlife, and hopefully a colourful and interesting display for us as we sit in the Wendy House. We planted a lot of marginal plants around the pond last summer and now we have our fingers crossed hoping that they have survived the winter. One or two look as though they may have rotted away, which seems strange for moisture loving plants. With the wonderful sunny weather that March has brought we have had some very enjoyable afternoon teas their, even if we have had to share the Wendy House with paint pots and brushes. A pair of Mallard have been spending the night on the pond in recent weeks, but they always fly off when I go out to feed the sheep first thing in the morning. The male has a wonderfully iridescent green head, while the female is a much darker brown than usual. We have been hoping they would stay and nest somewhere in the garden but there are no signs of that yet. They have been flying a bit further down the lane and spending the day on a neighbours pond. After one of their visits last week he found a pale bluish egg near his pond so I dont think we are going to be honoured. Perhaps when the shrubbery has grown and thickened up a bit we will be lucky. Frogs and toads are supposed to return to the ponds where they were born to spawn, but some have obviously come across the wildlife pond on their way home and liked the look of it. About twenty lots of frogs spawn appeared and seemingly miles of strings of toad spawn. The toad spawn looks like long strings of black beads and was laid unusually early. Normally its well behind the frog spawn and sometimes gets eaten by hungry tadpoles but these were laid on about the same day. The development of both spawns is controlled by water temperature and with all the sunshine they are growing apace. Their first meal will be the jelly they were born in. After that its algae or just about anything else that they can find. Wendy Bathurst