Spring is almost here! We've been enjoying spending more time outside in the last few weeks. We've got daffodils, violets and forget-me-nots bringing a little bit of colour to our garden and the tulips we planted last year are almost ready to flower.

We've also had some new visitors to our garden - a pair of frogs. We spotted them when we were digging up an old tree that had died; they were hiding behind it. We promptly made them a little pond which they sat in for a day or two and then they moved on.

We've also spotted some frogspawn in a ditch out in our local fields. Last year we noticed the water there was teeming with tadpoles and we brought some back home and kept them in a large plastic tub in the garden. Once they developed into froglets, we returned them to their ditch. While we were looking after the tadpoles, we returned to check on their brothers and sisters occasionally and at one point the water had all dried up so we were quite glad we had rescued some!

Our nature stories have run a bit dry at the moment. We finished A Year in the Big Old Garden recently and we've read most, if not all, the stories from our book of nature stories by Enid Blyton. I'm not sure what we'll read next. One option is the Burgess bird book for children which we've got but it's largely about American birds. However, it's still well written and we enjoyed A Year in the Big Old Garden despite that featuring some birds that we don't see in England. Another option might be his seashore book, which is tempting as we're planning a trip to the West coast of Scotland soon. We might also try one of Arabella Buckley's books from her Eyes and No Eyes series, which are free to read online and feature British animals.

Herby and Alby have been enjoying watching some of Joseph Hoffman's piano academy videos. I skipped over a lot of the beginner's lessons when I watched some and so I've enjoyed overhearing it too.

We've managed to fit in seeing lots of family and friends for Birthday celebrations and other get togethers. Herby's swimming lessons have been cancelled this half term due to problems with ventilation at the pool. Although Herby loves her swimming lessons, I don't think she's particularly upset about having a break from them, especially when the alternative is spending more time playing outside now that the weather is improving.