Meanwhile, back in London…
While working in a friend’s neglected garden this weekend I found this common frog lurking in a shady leaf strewn bed. Despite all the disturbance around its home, the frog kept returning to one particular spot, so we mulched the area with a touch more leaf litter and left the prettier wildflowers (Herb Robert) intact to provide cover. We watered the area well, then left froggie in peace to guard the nearby strawberry patch.
When we got home, we sat in our own back garden and breathed deeply, for the air was filled with the scent of jasmine. Tiny, delicate moths were enjoying the scent as much as we were, and providing supper for a spectacular hunting dragonfly. The nearest standing water is almost a mile away, so our garden must provide rich pickings to tempt them so far. Swifts careened overhead and the song of blackbirds filled the air. It may lack the grandeur of Skye, but even a tiny London garden does not lack for wild natural beauty.
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This is so beautiful, the photo, the moment, the detailed description of life around you. After years of living in very remote wild areas and them coming back into “human society” I kept comparing my past intsensely nature based experiences to my now more citified life. Then one evening after watering my tiny veggie and flower garden I noticed so much life around me that I relized life is everywhere. I may prefer the remote wild areas but in most cases there is life in every corner if we just stop and look. Sometimes it is bravely clinging to the edge but nonetheless it is still life. I like that; it is very reassuring. Thank you.
Also thank you for your kind comment on my post. I have not had to make tough decisions recently but for some reason those thoughts came out of the blew this week…so I wrote them.
*Sigh* Lovely post
He’s like a little copper treasure, there under the leaves!
Hello Rainforestrobin, thank you for visiting! And thank you very much for your kind words. I try hard to share the things I’ve seen so I’m chuffed to bits that you like what I’m saying, and get it too
I know what you mean about the great wild places compared to what seems like an ecologically impoverished city. But very few environments seem utterly impoverished to me and I’ve had some spectacular moments of revelation in the city. I’ve always been drawn to the small things, so even on a jaw dropping mountain pass I’ll be the one looking at caterpillars
Your veggie and flower garden is a city world for many creatures with strange, unknowable habits, clinging to the edge maybe but coming back off the ropes as soon as the chance is there. Nature isn’t shy like that, it takes it’s chances wherever it can!
Hello Anonybird, glad you liked it! It was sooo peaceful and lovely, and reminded me that although scrabbling about on hills and glens is fun, there is plenty to see right here at home too
Hello Kit, and welcome! I just came to visit you on your blog, but couldn’t leave a comment there
So I’ll tell you here that I love your pictures of the cemetery, they are such wonderful places to explore
Thank you! We love cemeteries. Hmm, I’m glad you let me know about the comments! I wonder why. . . I will have to check on that.
Hiya Kit, don’t worry, there’s nothing gone wrong with your blog! It’s just because I don’t have a google or blogger account, and your blog is set to only accept comments from google or blogger.
Hi Bird ~ At the moment my ex-wife Liz has two tiny frogs that have appeared in her pond. When I go and stay, I often find her crouched down and anxiously scanning the water. She got rather depressed a couple of weeks ago because she didn’t see them for several days – but then the weather got warmer and they took to basking on a little cluster of rocks near the centre of the pond.
It’s strange but good that as I get older, my appreciation of the natural world just gets bigger.
Your blog is like a walk in the countryside – and I love the photo of the frog.
henry
(I also use wikipedia a lot for link-references)
What a lovely post… and lovely photo too of the “Guard Frog”. Makes me yearn for a good and proper garden of my own… something we lack here at our abode.
Hello Soulmerlin!
Thank you for your kind words! It’s a good job I don’t have a pond, as I can guarantee I would spend too many hours of my life staring into its depths! Although – is it possible to spend too much time doing that? I’m glad your ex-lady found her frogs safe and sound
Welcome Matthew James Didier, (or may I call you Bus Guy?
I have to admit that having a garden no matter how small keeps me sane. It’s only a few yards square, but just being able to sit outside in relative peace is lovely. There may be police sirens going off, the sound of a dozen tinny radios, aircraft noise – but there are also the birds, the insects, the flowers, the grass under my tootsies and the occasional fox! I hope you get your garden soon – and your Bus!
Breathtaking images – and yes although I grew up in the dingy tenements of Possilpark and Drumchapel – Yours is the Scotland I love. If only it were more accessible to the people. Honestly the Govt should run free buses from the cities to places like the above for all city kids at the weekend. It would reduce crime and teach kids about the wonder and beauty of the nation they live in as well as showing them just how fragile and vulnerable our landscape is. No it’s not nostalgic porn Bird
It’s just that it’s symbology accessible by too few 
Ben
Hello Ben, good to see you here, and glad my visit to your blog didn’t scare you off! I agree about giving access to all, I know myself how access to landscapes like this can affect you. My family were moved to the “countryside” during the Liverpool slum clearances when I was a kid, and while the new town we ended up in was no bowl of cherries, it was a ten minute walk to the top of a hill that would give me a panorama from the western coast almost straight to Yorkshire.
It wasn’t as dramatic as the Cuillins, but that sense of scale is humbling, it helped me a lot with keeping my head straight as I grew up. Since then I’ve worked with London kids who have barely been outside the couple of square miles they live in, they are scared of walking in grass and can’t identify common farmyard animals – take them to the countryside and they immediately are different, the squabbling, feuds and petty rivalries disappear as they are immersed in a world they didn’t know existed. Some of the real hard nuts revert to being who they really are – children – it’s an amazing transformation. Once they are back in the smoke it can seem like they are back to square one, BUT the seeds have been sewn and I’ve met kids who are grown up now and never forgot the first time they climbed a hill. Kids should be able to find that out for themselves, freely, and not just have to rely on do-gooders like me or the organizations I work for.
Sorry for the blethering, it clearly means a lot to me!
Forgive me for blethering too lol – but I really am taken by your blog and what you think about the world around you. I haven’t gone through all of your blog yet and am therefore unsure if you’ve been on the most incredible (IMO) journey to be made in Scotland? The journey to Applecross. Until a few years ago I lived in a tiny 10 house village in the Highlands called Tore, and had the pleasure of going to Applecross, which even for me who saw magnificent sights daily was breathtaking. Of course I now live in tropical rainforest country here in Australia – where I admit I AM AFRAID TO WALK IN THE GRASS lol.
Ben
I just googled Applecross and after only a very brief look I am chuffed to bits – what a tip-off! I’m already mentally packing my bags. By the way, our exchange here will be the inspiration for my next post, if I ever get it written. So thanks for thanks for that!
…and if you live in Australia you SHOULD be afraid to walk in the grass