Toad in the hole

I spoke far too soon, in thinking the horrors has passed.

[squeamish warning]

I noticed the pond looked a bit ‘frothy’ and that the waterfall had slowed to a trickle, so I decided the pump must have a problem. As I pulled it out of the water it became obvious that the filter had somehow become detached, so I guessed the pump had got blocked by pond weed or something. When I grabbed the clump of ‘roots’ however I realised it was a dead toad, sucked into the pump, and when I pulled it clear it was obviously TWO toads, slightly decomposing. I dropped one back in the pond in my squeamish reaction. After all, I only recently cleaned the pump, so it must be my incompetence/negligence which did not rejoin the filter correctly, and created this ‘horrible way to die’. Particularly sad, as I saw a toad when I semi-drained the pond as part of the cleaning process, and apologised for the disturbance.

As an ‘animistic Buddhist’ (or something) I identify quite strongly with other sentient beings (life forms) and I only hope ‘the gods or powers that be’ prove a little more careful when they clean the pond that I’m in.

To add insult to injury, the cats had left a dead rat near the top end of the garden, so I had three bodies to dispose of.

Then I took the dog for a walk, to calm down, but forgot my keys, so got locked out with dog after walk, with Julie’s phone not working (on charge), our lodger elsewhere, and Rhiannon in Africa (sigh). Still, Ali rescued me, and sheltered us until it all sorted itself out again. Nice to live in a village neighbourhood, and not a faceless city.

And then I get up this morning, still unable to entirely get rid of the images of yesterday, which I have now passed to you (though not too vividly, I hope) - only to find that Google have put a damned frog reminder in their logo for 29th February (Leap Year). Thanks fellas... [mumbles: "just a coincidence, just a coincidence..."]