Country Diary: Tetbury

A population of amphibians - frogs, toads and newts - is a low-level sign of a healthy local environment. They will not thrive in polluted water so I have always taken pleasure in the toads that live at the foot of the dry-stone dyke, which forms our northern perimeter. Henri, the Jack Russell, was initially excited by their presence until he learned that a toad in a canine mouth emits a mass of evil-smelling foam. He now pretends he can ignore these creatures and barks at the garden birds with an equal lack of success.

Frogs used to be widespread in farm ponds but over recent years so many ponds have been filled in or fallen into polluted disuse that it has been the domestic gardener who has become their greatest protector. With a newly refurbished small pond to populate I was anxious to find some frogspawn this spring,but such has been the length of drought that none of the usual watercourses have been running.

It is true that a lot of business gets done on a golf course but one of the more bizarre transactions occurred as I arrived for last Friday's game. Pete, with whom I have played golf for a long period, waved from across the car park. "I've got some for you," he called. And he had, a large plastic ice-cream container, sealed with cellophane, had been filled with the jelly-like mass of frogspawn from his garden pond in Gloucester. I took it with gratitude, conveyed it home as gently as Pete had driven it over, and my wife arranged its discharge into the pond. Early morning sun the following day hit the pond for almost an hour so the frogspawn had a good start. We hope we can build a population here to rival the early season activity in his kidney-shaped pond, designed for koi carp, which Pete had described during a game a few weeks back when he had counted 24 pairs of frogs in flagrante delicto in evening light.