In the pond with the frog spawn and the black dot in the middle of each egg has grown and started to thin out. As I walked up to the pond there was the noise of something puling back under the water but I was too slow to see what it was.

Despite the frost one morning last week it is starting to feel warmer outside and the light has changed – as if the extra few hours of sun at the beginning and the end of the day has somehow made the day brighter – scrubbed away some of the grey and the wet.

There was some mashed potato left over from last nights supper so I used it to make four potato cakes stirring into the potatoes some chopped chives, parsley and spring onions and a small half block of soft goat cheese all with plenty of pepper. I then used my hands to squeeze it all together and shaped them into four cakes.

I fried them in bacon grease using the same pan I had used for breakfast and we ate them with sausages.