Another toad, another pumpkin

18 comments

A couple of evenings ago, this little chap hopped out from under our sofa. He must have found his way in the house during the day. He didn’t seem worried about us picking him up. We put him outside.

This morning I couldn’t sleep. I came down to the kitchen to make a cup of tea, while the rest of the house slept on. I love those times. Anyway, as I turned on the light, in the middle of the floor was a another one. Another toad. I have a feeling that the toads are taking a short cut through our house.

Judging by the fluff on the first toad’s nose, I need to vacuum under my sofa! At least he doesn’t have fairy glitter on his nose.

Another extra, I discovered today, is this pumpkin. It was in the sweetcorn patch and I did not plant it. There is one growing in the greenhouse, which is turning a beautiful orange. I didn’t plant that one either. The one in the sweetcorn patch is yet to turn orange, but look what it can do….

It feels like the garden is building up to something magical. Or maybe I should expect Cinderella at any moment. I’ll just have to wait and see!

18 comments

  1. Hi Cheryl,
    Those toads are very cute and if they are collecting the dust under your sofa, let them all in to save you the job of vacuuming. 🙂
    I love it when you find things growing in your garden that you didn’t plant, other than weeds that is. We once found a few potatoes growing in our vege patch that must have come from the compost.
    I also like making discoveries in the flower garden. Foxgloves are not native to Australia as you know, but after planting some about 10 years ago, they pop up in all sorts of interesting places. I love it.
    Happy gardening and toad rescuing.

    Anne xx

    1. Anne, oh why didn’t I think of that! You’re right. The toads are the perfect height to get under the sofa and spot the dust.

      I use homemade compost around the garden and greenhouse. I think that is where the pumpkin seeds must have come from, which is strange as I like to roast the seeds, so I didn’t think they made it into the compost. I rotate the veg patches, but I’m forever finding potatoes growing in beds that haven’t had potatoes for a year or two . I must be particularily bad at digging them all up. I’m hoping the children will help out from now on. Gardening is full of surprises.

  2. Oh your little toad is so cute!!! Far cuter than the snakes that keep arriving in our kitchen on a daily basis. And as the weather gets warmer they are no longer passive little things just lying there!!! I normally pick them up in a dust pan and toss them in the neighbors garden… But lately I have had to contain them before tossing them. Believe me this is very far from my life calling and I would really rather do anything else!!!

    1. I think I’ll stick with the toads. Saying that I’m torn between fascination about your snakes and the absolute relief that I don’t have to deal with them on a regular basis. I wonder if your neighbour is emptying them back in your garden!

  3. Looks like plants like growing in your garden… :0)

    OK so you have the toads ready to turn into Princes and it looks like the pumpkins are coming on nicely…does this mean you’re on the look out for a bunch of white mice??? (Btw those toads are very appealing)

    1. No luck with the white mice, but I did see the next door cat disappearing under the fence, this morning, with a brown mouse in his mouth from our garden. So, one less brown one around. (Not sure our vegetarian neighbours would be quite so pleased with the cat’s offering for breakfast.) No toads for the last 24 hours, so they might have given up or else they are enjoying the rain.

  5. I love toads as well. We have a large one living at the end of the garden. Didn’t see any toadspawn this year so no little ones, but loads of tiny frogs that hop out when you walk on the grass!

    1. I don’t know where our toads spawn from. We don’t have a pond and neither do the neighbours, but we are surrounded by woods and fields.

  7. Like your pumpkin!

    I used to have an allotment and grew a fine batch of pumpkins, only to come down one day to find the entire crop gone…I used to visit every day so some one must have been a busy bee overnight!

    It was events such as these that made me give it up, but seeing your garden this year has made me crave one again.

    (Also love your boy craft – my toddler would love some cones and I have about 20 of the wool cones.)

    1. Sounds so heartless. One would be bad enough, but all of the pumpkins. I think something like that would dent my enthusiasm for the kitchen garden. I hope you try again.

  9. What a cute toad, I’ve never seen one up close. The pumpkins are fantastic, we’ve had random flowers appear in our garden this year, no idea where they have come from.

    1. We get plenty of chances to see them close up as they seem to think our house is interesting. I think they are quite curious little creatures.

Comments are closed.