I'm taking over...

It has finally happened, our dear old friend, Froggy, has gone into hibernation for a while. He has asked me to tell you all that he'll miss all of you during the winter months, but being an amphibian, he was in bad need of a rest. Needless to say, he will be dreaming about his human friends and looks forward to meeting you all again in early spring.

Well, what can I say? I am just a gardener, what do I know about the political side of life? Precious little, I can tell you. Froggy sees the side of our politics, and human life in general for that matter, that someone like me just misses completely. It's not that I don't understand what it's all about, but Froggy has a certain way about him. It's a bit like saying that you're a brain surgeon, but you've never touched a scalpel in your life before. I can only apologize now, before I get started, because I don't want to lose all Froggy's friends, nor do I want to mess his blog up for him. He's a good honest creature and means no harm to anyone. Of course, I know that he is likely to go on a bit at times, especially when I'm out here doing my work in the garden, but that's the way he is.

I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas and didn't get too drunk? Froggy missed it all, but then he doesn't really understand what Christmas is all about. Well, that's not quite true. He knows that we celebrate it according to our beliefs, but he cannot see where getting drunk has anything to do with it. He'll learn...

You know what? I'm going to try and do something to make his life a little safer in future. He feels plagued by the cats we have around here, they are always trying to catch him on the hop, pardon my pun ;) I'm going to try and make the garden a bit more cat proof, if ever this is possible? I ask you, what is the good in trying to encourage wildlife into the garden, if you're not prepared to do something to protect it?

You know, even though we are in the depths of winter, a bright sunny day will set the old gardening fingers itching to do something. I have a lot to do before Froggy comes out of his hibernation, so it'll be nice to continue clearing away the old detritus from the past year's growth, and plant some bulbs, shrubs and what have you while I'm at it, just to brighten up the place for his return. Froggy isn't bothered by whatever I decide to grow, but as long as it brings in an assortment of flying insects and some big fat slugs, then he's really quite happy. Of course, I'm not happy at having slugs around the garden, but as long as he eats them before they eat my prize veg, then I don't mind.

My biggest problem of the year, it's keeping the falling leaves out of the pond. It poisons the water if you let them sink to the bottom. This doesn't do any of the pond's wildlife any good. So, before autumn began, I placed some wire mesh over the water, and it worked a treat. Now I have a pond that has good sweet clean water. Froggy is going to be so pleased when he finds out about it.

Here's wishing you all the very best for the new year, 2008. When I return, I'll do my best to carry on in the caring tradition of Froggy and expose a few more blunders by our (not so) caring government.

Mind how you go now...

Bob