The Miracle Of Rebirth At Barleycorn

After the snow of the past weekend, I decided to take a stroll around the ponds this morning to see how the spawn was developing. I could not fail to notice how the water was crystal clear.
The marsh marigolds were sporting their new green Spring coats, getting ready to burst into bloom.
A friendly male blackbird was so engrossed in his morning routine that he took little notice of me as I sat at the edge of the pond, watching him drinking and bathing, and serenading me with his joyous song.
A curious frog swam near to where I was sitting, eyeing me with suspicion, no doubt wondering what I was up to, and whether I was friend or foe...probably remembering that pesky heron from the previous day who had helped himself to a few of his brothers and sisters.
As I rounded one of the margins of the pond, the water was a heaving mass of frogspawn within which were hundreds of tadpoles swimming around, all at various stages in their development .
On closer inspection I could see, amongst some waterweed, a blob of recent spawn, where the individual eggs were clearly visible.
Further over there were older tadpoles, still within their jelly, but with chubby bodies and wiggly tails.
Next to them was a section of greenish-coloured spawn, within which were individual tadpoles in little cells shaped like space bubbles ; each tadpole wriggling about inside its capsule.
With the sun playing a game of hide and seek with the clouds, the ever-changing reflections gave the impression that some of the spawn was suspended in thick, impenetrable white jelly.

Right in the middle of the mass was a small clump of fresh spawn with tiny eggs in the centre, surrounded by older swimmers practising with their new rudders.
There was also a large area of slimy, green matter which would have been left behind from the earliest spawn from which most of the older tadpoles had now hatched.
The largest area, however, was a mass of seething, wriggling tadpoles, all closely huddled together for safety and warmth.
Zooming in with my camera, I could see within this mass the eldest of all the tadpoles, all squeezed together like sardines, and all breathing through their new gills. I couldn't resist taking a little video of them doing the Hokey Cokey, which you can view just after the little poem.
The Barleycorn Bog

We’re the newborn baby froglings
In the Barleycorn bog
With our beady eyes a-goggling
Through the underwater fog
We’re getting very strong
‘Cos our legs are growing long
A-swimming and a-gobbling
To the rhythm of the song
With our wiggly tails a-joggling
And our eager heads agog
We’re happy in the sunshine
‘Cos we’ll soon be handsome frogs.