Lymnaea stagnalis. Handsome creatures, but heavily implicated in the recent total disappearance of the frogspawn. Reluctantly, I culled 20. There are still plenty left.

See Austrian enthusiast’s article and Wikipedia article

I also spotted some eggs, which are very characteristic and seen in an image in the Wikipedia article.

Vaughn came round today to pick up some pond plants and immediately spotted a male palmate newt, and shortly thereafter a female.

See Froglife article

(Needless to say, I couldn’t see any the next day, but I’ll keep my eyes open)

I haven’t seen this before, although I did wonder whether the tulips would find their way through the rather dense lychnis alpina plants when I planted them last autumn. The lychnis are now in another pot.

The bamboo in a tub near the garage was blown over in storm Ciara. It looked nice, but I had been meaning to do something to reveal more of the culms and reduce the foliage anyway. I cut some of the stems that were leaning at an angle and looking a bit manky at ground level. Approximately 5 stems. Then I rubbed off the foliage from about 2/3 of the lower part of each stem.

I took off about 50% of the foliage which must reduce its wind resistance. From most angles it looks much better, although the stems definitely seem to be divided into two parts – old and new. It’s just as tall as it was, which is the main thing.

I wonder if this couple is responsible for the two blobs already laid.

The lighter ones are picotee, which is not my favourite form, but they are very welcome at this time of year.

Snowdrops are pretty where they appear, but they’re not increasing, and some clumps have died out.

Cyclamen hederifolium are doing well. Should I divide them and spread them around or let them get on with it?

I could do with some more ordinary Hellebores. The ones doing best at the moment are some pale picotee varieties which I don’t like so much.

I’ve seen a few frogs and one couple, but no frogspawn. Isn’t it rather late?

Last night and the night before produced the first real frosts of 2019/20. The pond froze hard enough that I couldn’t push my finger through the ice (although the surface did move). But the leaves of the white arum in the pot at the NW corner of the back garden were unaffected.

I keep removing brooklime where it spreads into the ‘open’ area. Also the occasional piece of water soldier. The purple loosestrife has completely finished flowering and may be cut back if the old stems don’t look attractive.