HADES STRIKES AGAIN

I have just watched another of our frogs being consumed by Hades the heron. It was plucked from the centre of the pond and then held in the beak, dropped and speared several times then washed in the water. Still the legs wriggled so another spearing and washing, then a flick and it was gone.

The only thing in the pond is the reflection of the eucalyptus tree.

HERON

The heron concentrates 

down its splinter bill.

Its malevolent eyes burn

like sodium in a grey mist.

Without a ripple

the heron stalks water.

The headlamps of its skull

search the sluggish river.

It strikes! An arching frog

heads headfirst down the long throat.

The bulge that still lives

descends into oblivion.

There are so many gloomy days at the moment, so still and misty if not actually raining.
The windmill is unmoving.

The mowers have come back from servicing and are in the shed. It rains so for now they stay there but I will soon have to attach the trailer and shift muck.

Today's (March edition) of the Gardeners' World Magazine is almost 200 pages and stuffed with good things - especially a section on pruning. These mags always contain offers of plants - free but for the postage - so tempting but where would I put them. R has stated categorically that there are not to be any more flower beds as they need weeding and maintaining.


Talking of pruning the time is coming to cut back the willow - a la Gary Primrose.

Now it is brightening up and the rain has stopped (for now). I am running out of excuses for not going out and doing something.

I have yet to manure the banking in front of the house - a bit of tidying first. 
If I had a few dry days, perhaps with a drying wind, I could give the lawns a little scalping to neaten them up - if. 

Pots are showing life and the tulips I saved from last year and replanted in the autumn are through.

This morning I heard the song thrush for the first time this year with its endless triple phrasing without repetition - that is it repeats a bit of song three times or so and then does the same with a different piece. Each snatch is not the same as the one before or after.

Here is another pic of snowdrops.

And finally nurturing last year's amaryllis has paid off in a big way.

What a colour. One bulb flowering and the other stirring so when the first is over we will have the second to enjoy.