Well, the frogs were all at it this morning. They rather made me think of hippos. I love the echoes of the reflected eyes and the frogspawn.
I couldn’t remember any more of the frog wooing song than the first line, but found a version here:
“With a roly poly gammon and spinach, hey ho says Anthony Rowley…” Very strange words indeed. The wikipedia article about the ‘Frog Went A-Courting’ version of this song was intriguing, suggesting various possible origins, such as that it could be (or could have been altered to be) about an unpopular royal marriage. And/or that the roly-poly bit could be a list of “four families of Suffolk notables, Rowley, Poley, Bacon and Green”. I rather like the idea of gammon and spinach being derived from Bacon and Green.
A one-minute film of them is here. You can hear them croaking, and various birds (House Sparrow, Wood Pigeon, Starling) and the church clock ringing ‘quarter past the hour’ in the background. Plus quite a few cars and an aeroplane.
I took this picture of a crocus, while looking for something to fit the them of ‘inside’ for this weekly photo challenge. What a strange stigma the flower has – saffron trumpets. Culinary saffron comes from another species of crocus. What a job to collect them it must be.
March 16, 2014 at 1:50 pm
Thanks for the memory – we used to listen to Burl Ives sing “Froggy went a-courting”. Frogs and toads singing in the pond is one of my favourite times of the year. Going to be a while yet here for we still have considerable snow cover.
March 16, 2014 at 6:41 pm
I can even hear the frogs from indoors, if the windows are open. Hope your snow clears away soon – we barely had any this year.
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March 16, 2014 at 3:45 pm
Just wow what an amazing shot you took? Where was that?
March 16, 2014 at 6:44 pm
Well, thank you! In my garden – in a 2m pond my husband and daughter built last year, as an extension to the 1m diameter pond we had before. The old one always had frogs in before – but there are none in there this year at all – they clearly prefer the new one! I saw a newt in there this morning too, probably thinking about eating frogspawn or tadpoles…
March 16, 2014 at 7:36 pm
sounds like an amazing garden, my boys would love it
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April 9, 2014 at 6:32 am
Oh I did wonder about culinary saffron. I know it’s expensive and often wondered if its possible to grow our own. I guess it needs a warmer climate too. Yes, collecting acres of it must be a right pain.