This plant inherited from the original garden is clearly a pieris, but it’s not the common Pieris forestii ‘Forest Flame’. The flowers do not hang down in panicles, the leaves are not so pointed, and the young foliage is not so red. It’s name remains a mystery, but there is a very similar plant in the arboretum at Dyffryn Gardens

The first frogspawn appeared in early February, and I counted up to 12 frogs in the pond in various combinations. The tadpoles developed quite slowly (perhaps because of the rather cold weather). They’re very difficult to photograph. The oddest thing was that one day the pond would be full of them and the next very few were visible – presumably hiding somewhere.