Our first visitor

I was going to blip our entire pond today, but the pond will still be there tomorrow, & this might not be; and so I give you one slab of our pond edge.

There was a frog in our garden when we first moved here - and a couple of newts: they were living behind a large raised herb bed which had to be demolished to make way for my ramp, so we apologised for their eviction, explaining that we would at some point be providing a superior home for them, & plonked them in the general area of the future pond. We never dreamed that, seven months later, any of them would still be hanging around, but hubby found this frog lurking around the log pile today, so picked it up & put it on one of the slabs beside the pond; it sat, looking stunned, for a minute or so (just long enough for me to grab this shot), & then leapt into the pond. We were delighted! But then got concerned about how he would get out again, & so hubby scurried around until he found something suitable to act as an escape route. Hopefully the frog will like his new home & not avail himself of the emergency exit too soon; we've already planted some water mint (which apparently frogs like), so that should make him feel welcome.

Things we've learned about Jack
Houdini was one of his ancestors. Our front door opens straight out onto the -extremely open plan - front garden, & is very exposed; we'd already said that when we could afford it a porch would give us more privacy & help to keep the heat in, but we now realise that its most important function would be to help keep Jack in. He's such a slippery little eel that he's escaped twice now; both times my heart has been in my mouth - as much for hubby (who, within seconds, morphs from a sedentary lifestyle into a marathon runner) as for Jack; fortunately Jack is such a wimp that once he's out there he realises that freedom isn't all it's cracked up to be, and creeps round the corner into the cul-de-sac where he sits cowering, waiting to be caught. But the main road isn't that far away, & one day he may forget to veer around that corner; a porch has therefore now been promoted from a mere 'that would be nice one day' to a top priority.
As well as being very strong, he's also very strong-willed. Although we didn't take him in the car today (but will do tomorrow), we decided that he needs to get used to wearing his harness so that (hopefully) he doesn't get so worked up in future before he's even in the car. So he's being taught to have the harness put on without any biting, fighting, or running away. It's a lesson he doesn't appear to want to learn.