Toad in the road

This was one of the few toads I saw this evening on my walk that wasn’t flat. When driving into and out of the village after dark, I was taking care to avoid the three dimensional toads, but on both occasions I was being tailgated by someone who was either oblivious or uncaring to their survival, despite a toad warning sign on the main crossing point. This last few nights there has been amphibian carnage, it gets quite distressing. The ones that upset me the most are those where the large females are carrying the smaller males, which are piggybacking and clinging on desperately to their prize and being carried to the pond for the best chance of fertilizing the eggs. It’s so tragic when they’ve woken up from their winter slumber, descended the hill through tall grass tussocks, got through a hedge and crossed a ditch only to be plastered to the asphalt by some careless/uncaring oaf who has to get to his (and they are usually male) destination a few seconds earlier.

I’ve been picking them up when I’ve been walking in the village, but I haven’t braved the Pocklington road crossing point, where even with Hi-vis jackets, it feels risky given the road corners and the speed that so many people drive coming into and leaving the village.

On other matters, there was yet another visit to the dentist, the sixth so far this year. I thought it was the partially root canal treated tooth playing up, but it turned out to be the next door molar. Anyway, Hannah successfully subdued it, and she’s managed to bring forward the appointment for the next root canal treatment to mid March. Last year seemed to be the year of the Hospital, I eventually lost count of the number of times I was there for various reasons. This year will almost certainly be the year of the dentist. Have I reached the age when everything falls apart?