These late Spring mornings, one of my first tasks on getting up is checking the level of water in my garden fountain. Note, by the way, I said ‘fountain’; I refuse to call it a ‘water feature’ lest people think I have nothing better to do than watch gardening programmes on TV.

Anyway, at 6.30 yesterday morning, I was doing my thing when … one of the pebbles in the fountain moved! At least, that was what it looked like; at that time of the morning, I didn’t have my glasses on.

Closer investigation revealed that the pebble was, in fact, a frog!

But, how did it come to be here? I live above the spring-line, nearly at the top of a hill. And, I’m nearly a mile away from the nearest open water.

Whatever the reason, I’m glad to see him. I haven’t seen ‘Spiny Norman’ or ‘Mrs. Tiggywinkle’, a pair of hedgehogs that used to stop by occasionally, for a while …I wonder if they succumbed to someone’s slug-bait?

Question is, what do frogs eat? There’s plenty of flies around, but not much else. However, I did hear about ‘Hannibal’, a frog born in the Lakes Aquarium. They put him in a nearby pond, reasoning that he would return there at breeding time.

But, he didn’t! He made his way through about a mile of woodland, across a road and an extensive car park, then entered the Aquarium, up two flights of stairs, past two playful otters (who eat frogs) back to the tankwhere he was born.

Maybe Hannibal would be a good name for my frog? It’s a bit more imaginative than ‘Kermit’, anyway!