Annasee writes:
"Here is one of our six tadpoles, a product of the infamous Middlewood Way Frog Brothel whose picture you so kindly displayed a while ago. Since there have been so many requests (ie 1) for a picture of the tadpoles/ froglets, I thought you might like this. They are going to a new home with a pond on Monday, and we’ll be sad to see them go.
Looks strangely like an eagle looking over its shoulder if you're viewing at a dim screen..
xx
ed
Great photo, great legs!!!
Ah, the proud Madam watches her protegees leave the nest of iniquity.
Other appallingly mixed metaphors are available.
;oD
Fifi
Hey! How come yours have got legs whilst mine are still thrashing around with just tails, devouring fish food by the ton?
Brilliant! But eeewwwww....
Anybody remember a film called "Silent Running" with Bruce Dern and two Drones - Huey and Dewey. Don't know why but that tadpole immediately made me think of the talking drones - must be the little legs!
Great shot Annasee!
RJD (6), No, but then I have a vague notion of some appalling theme music... Genesis or something? Please say my brain isn't playing tricks on me.
Ed - I'm glad it wasn't just me!
Appy;
It was Mike and the Mechanics, an offshoot from Genesis involving their guitar / bass player Mike Rutherford.
The song was called Silent Running (on dangerous ground) from their first album. Used as part of the soundtrack to the 1986 film strangely entitled 'On Dangerous Ground'. Now there's a shocker.
Si.
Interesting photograph.
Ap - I can't remember but they are not credited on the site I looked up. Joan Baez is.
Best part of the film was the drones cheating, once Dern had taught them to play poker.
I've got some too, but they are nowhere near as advanced as yours. One of mine is quite chunky and bald and it had a fight with a water beetle today in the glass box that is their temporary home. I've named it Eric. (Do beetles eat tadpoles or the other way round, I wonder.)
I've got some too, but they are nowhere near as advanced as yours. One of mine is quite chunky and bald and it had a fight with a water beetle today in the glass box that is their temporary home. I've named it Eric. (Do beetles eat tadpoles or the other way round, I wonder.)
[Something weird happened when I posted this, so if it appears twice, I apologise]
Annasee: Are these baby frogs old enough to play here? You know how rude we can get! ;o)
Good to see them, though.
Don't frogs return to the pond they were spawned in to breed? You'll be seeing them again!
Ed, you're right.
How bizarre.
Rachel - thank you - "advanced" was the response we were hoping for. Of course since we home educate, our tadpoles are hot-housed so they are naturally more advanced than others of the same age...
To be honest, I think it's because they've been inside, near a warm radiator till last week. Apparently heat speeds up their growth. They haven't all got all their legs yet - we just chose the one with the best legs for the photo opportunity. Happens all the time in the media business, so I'm told.
Humph - did you notice how quick the response to your request for a picture was? That's the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ for you - your wish is their command. Top marks for the tadpole- portrait -posting- service provided by the PM Team. I know I was impressed! It also made me feel better, as we'd just had a text message from our credit card provider telling us our card had been the subject of fraud, so we've had to do the tedious cancelling business, & now are cardless for a while. What a pain in the neck, & it's also a bit creepy. But the card people are so on the ball - can't fault their prompt action. (Alli*nce & Le*c*st*r , if anyone's interested).
Silver Fox - from you, "interesting" comes perilously close to an insult. I was hoping for at least "nice".
Si (9), Ah, yes, I remember Mike & the Mechanics. I was pretty close though, eh? God they were even more awful -- I will have "The Living Years" in my head all night now, so, if I'm not back tomorrow it's because I've had to be sedated. :-) Was the song nothing to do with the film RJD mentioned then?
Yum, yum, they look tasty
Naughty voley! Go to your riverbank, NOW!
Looks like voley has gone to his/her riverbank - sure isn't here any more!
Thank you for the picture, Annasee, and thank for all the updates on progress over recent weeks Lpb. Is that a picture of Fred, or is it one of his friends?
I believe that Emma's point (15) is partially correct. I think that you will find that frogs and toads will return to mate in the pond that they leave in winter to hibernate. The point being that they will need a patch of water that will be able to survive for the whole period of "tadpolation" rather than a puddle that will dry up too soon. I hope that you take this into account when you chose where you are going to release them. All the best for Monday.
As to the speed of responce from the PM team, Annasee (17), well I suppose anything is worth a try. Would it possible for you to use one of Humph's straplines, please?
H.
Me (21), Ignore me - I was obviously still half asleep when I wrote that!
Oh Appy - fight, fight, fight! Mike & the Mechanics hold great memories for me. We're a different generation of course :o(
Humph (22) Can you explain one of life's great mysteries to me please? What if the pond's gone? What if there never was a pond?
We live in a new house. It has a ''tiered'' garden at the front. Over the past 4 years that the house has been built, toads (we think) keep appearing on the bottom path. They can get down but they can't get up again, so we rescue them .......but there is no pond anywhere near here, nor has there ever been, according to several of our neighbours who have lived here since the sixties. Where do they come from?????
Simon Worrall (26) I agree with your statement about Paul Carrack....a great voice. Used to be lead singer with Ace, and wrote and sang ''How long''. Still has a successful solo career.
(Goes off singing into the distance.........)
Oh, trauma. Next door neighbour has offered to take them to their new home round the corner, (with a very sizeable garden pond, Humph - no danger of it drying up) TODAY while I'm out at work. I'm not ready to let them go! Have left copious instructions & food for them, but it will be so strange to come home to a tadpole-sized gap in our lives (4-tadpole & 2-frog sized gap, to be precise).
If it's this traumatic letting the tadpoles go, what on earth will it be like when the cat goes to a new home???
Annasee - I remember the year we grew our own tadpoles. We went on holiday for a week, during which I popped back to check on them, I know, I know, don't say it, but we hadn't gone away far!
Anyway, when we finally returned, they'd all fled the nest/coop/makeshift pond thingy. At least that's what I hope, I always harbour a vague paranoia that they may have been eaten as part of the Circle of Life. They were such teeny weeny frogs at that point :o)
Val (28)- I know exactly what you mean, I feel the same. They've gone all right - big empty space when we got home late last night. I'll have to resist the temptation to go round checking on them every few days - in case it's bad news. They were also tiny little frogs. Amazing how quickly the tail disappeared, just a couple of days. Then they were starting to jump, which was why they really had to go.
I wandered round the breakfast table this morning declaiming in a vaguely Victorian way "Gone! And never called me Mother!" but SO didn't get the reference, or the joke.
At least the cat didn't get them - he used to be very partial to frogs.