The pond I
made in my garden in Umbria was the subject of much dissent and criticism from
the neighbours. “Nothing will live in that,” said neighbour’s son Marco, “it’s
just a stagno – there’s no oxygen.” I pointed out the oxygenating plants
nicked from an ex-pat garden up the road, but he wasn’t having it.
some gold fish (pesci rossi in Italian – red fish) and they thrived and
multiplied. I was intrigued that their babies were black and then changed
colour. Amazing what you learn, isn’t it? Suddenly the neighbours were there
prodding the weeds to see if I was somehow faking the goldfish thing. The
lovely chorus of frogs was one of the highlights of my pond, although I did
once see a huge snake slide in and eat a frog, which was like something from a
horror film. The geese also managed to get into it another time and that was
sheer mayhem.
in a different part of Italy, the Casentino in Tuscany, quite a mountainous
place. Once again I have made a pond, with waterlilies, fish and lovely
dragonflies but … there are no frogs. Zilch. Niente. Despite the abundance of
water here – we have rock pools, streams, the Arno is a few hundred metres from
the house – I haven’t heard a single frog. In three years.
find some frogspawn to put in my pond. But now I’m wondering, do they have
frogs here at all? Is there maybe a frogspawn postal service where people lucky
enough to have some can send it to those that don’t?
know, now I’m on the subject, I haven’t seen any toads either…