Life abounds – the pond is exploding with activity.

Tons of frog spawn and tiny little tadpoles already.

And the palmate newt survived another winter!  I think his name might be Percival.  We scooped him up by accident when we were taking some of the fallen leaves from the pond.

In spring, life in the air is just as exuberant as it is under water in the pond.

This beautiful butterfly kept close to us as we worked.

The butterflies seem to love dandelion flowers, so I’ve resisted cutting them away.

The big guy looked this one up and says it’s a Peacock butterfly…