One evening a couple of weeks ago, I was pottering about the house, getting the girls ready for bed, tidying up and such, when I heard a sort of knocking noise, low and regular ... "b0nk".... "b0nk".... "b0nk"....

I checked around the house for the dripping tap, and became frustrated when I couldn't find one. I found that the noise was equally loud in my bedroom and the living room, which are on opposite ends of the front of the house, so it was coming from outside - but I couldn't figure out what on earth it was. By the time the gorgeous boyfriend walked in the door, I was incredibly irritated at not being able to identify it and said "what IS that noise?!" as soon as he entered. The boyfriend listened for a moment and then declared "That's a b0nking frog!"

We had just had a bout of thunderstorms that lasted a few days, and the old fountain base (from a gorgeous fountain I purchased while pregnant with Amarina - the sculpture was stolen from my backyard when residing in a townhouse complex) that sits under the front deck had been filled with rainwater, so we figured the wildlife was hanging out down there.

Despite my initial reservations about there actually being such a thing as a "b0nking frog", it would appear that the Northern Banjo Frog, is commonly referred to as such due to the noise it makes ... "b0nk".... "b0nk".... "b0nk"...

A few days to later Amarina was downstairs taking rubbish to the bin and she came tearing inside exclaiming that there were tadpoles in the fountain base under the deck. I was surprised that the water hadn't drained out, as it usually does (the reason for the fountain being outside in the first place was because of a crack along the base which caused leakage). I had intended on draining it if it didn't do so on it's own, because of the breeding of mosquitoes that occurs if water is left to sit. However, with all of those cute little tadpoles and eggs in there, I was loath to upset them, and so the water stays under the deck for the time being. I showed the boyfriend the mass of eggs and tadpoles and he once again declared "They are b0nking frogs!"

It turns out that the water didn't drain due to the fact that Amarina and Bonnie had taken it upon themselves to put all of the big rocks that were under the deck into the fountain base. They had also added some palm fronds and other plant bits and pieces, so it is the perfect environment for the frogs to develop.

I'm a bit excited to be the chosen home for a couple of hundred little froggies, and just went down with Bonnie to take pictures before they change completely - some of the bigger tadpoles have the beginnings of legs forming already.