💜🎙💜 NEWS – Getting Paranaoid about the Paratoids!!
Well, we’ve had a busy week here at Prickly Hedge, our neighbours are having some work done on the party wall in March and in readiness for them to come and move one of the greenhouses that is in the way, we needed to do some prep work. So we’ve been moving bricks and pot plants and garden furniture. Fortunately, it’s not been too cold, a bit blustery and rainy some days, but then it’s only water.
I’ve been surprised that normally when we start working in the garden we come across the subject of this week’s newsletter; frogs! We normally see them around but no, nothing, zippo, zilch. But I’ve never been able to tell the difference between frogs and toads. Have you?
This week’s video teaches us all about the similarities and the differences between the two, most noticeably that toads have two bumps on their heads behind their eyes. These are called the paratoid or poison glands. That’s a surefire way of telling if it’s a toad, but give the video a watch and join in with the quiz at the end.
On our website, you’ll find a round up of environmental news on our How To’s page, https://www.pricklyhedge.com/right-sidebar/ one of the stories this week is about the demise of seagrass.
“Increasing awareness of the importance of seagrass ecosystems is one of the greatest challenges for its conservation. Seagrasses suffer from not being as well-known or appreciated as their more charismatic marine cousins, such as coral reefs and mangroves, despite being just as threatened.”
We don’t only learn this week about the differences between toads and frogs, but also about the life cycle of the frog. Who didn’t love looking for frog spawn when they were a kid, well, I still get excited if I see any nowadays. Let us know if you know the difference between frog and toad spawn. It’s in the video!
That’s one thing we’ve never had at Prickly Hedge is a pond, we have some aquatic plants to attract the dragonflies but never anything for frogs etc. Hmm. We’ll see.
And to round off the week, get those craft boxes out again, this week, it’s all about the Japanese art of paper folding, yes origami. It alludes me too at times, my eldest is a whizz at it and can rustle you up a crane in next to no time, I have trouble with napkin folding lol. But this week you only need paper and a marker pen to make the jumping origami frog
#fridaycraftmorning
The link will be on the How To’s page on Friday, so you can check it out here https://www.pricklyhedge.com/?p=14194
Throughout the week on our Facebook page @pricklyhedge, you can check out the videos we post. Sadly, not getting many at the moment as the animals seem particularly spooked by the bright light on the colour camera. I’m going back to the black and white version, but we’re just repairing the camera ‘hide’. Perhaps I’ll video that next week.
Anyway, in the meantime, I hope you have a great week and I’ll speak to you next week. Have fun, stay safe and well. With love from all of here at #TEAMPricklyHedge.