Having dug the wildlife pond, we waited for it to fill up. For a month little rain fell, and we were left looking at an expanse of black pond liner. The temptation to use the hose became sore, but there are too many harmful nutrients in tap water. At last it rained and gradually, helped by the odd trip to my mother-in-law’s water butt at the bottom of the village, the levels rose. With the water came the newts and then the frogs. To help house them, plants were sourced from one of my favourite ditches, where I took a handful of watercress and the wonderfully named starwort. These were thrown directly into the pond, no need for planting. The very next day, the newts were laying their spawn in this floating life raft. Newts are busy at night; during the day others use the facility. Th