There are easier ways to spend a sunny Thursday than enthusiastically attacking a giant hole with a mattock, but where's the fun in pondering about it? Alongside Iyabo, we helped Froglife.org transform a soil excavation into what is now, against all apparent odds, a functioning pond 🤞 Our role involved hammering some mattocks, clearing loose soil and such, sharp roots, stones, glass and anything else that clearly wasn't part of the frogs' long-term housing plan. We then helped lay the liner and protective rubber before throwing plants and carefully dripping enough water to make the whole project look deliberate. The day's engineering highlight came when the Froglife team used a hose and plastic poles to establish the pond's level. To spectators, this resembled a cross between civil engineering and summoning a water spirit. Yet somehow it worked, and the water remained in the pond. Science wins again. Meanwhile, the council hose had thoughtfully evolved a side quest by spraying water through a puncture (pre-existing condition so no cover for that), requiring emergency bag-rescue operations led and solved by the cupcake chef using a brick to plug the leak. Locals kept everyone fuelled with halloumi sandwiches, fried tomatoes and Jaffa Cakes among other yummies, while a reporter documented events and an artist attempted to capture the spectacle of dozens of adults repeatedly running in and out of a muddy crater like in Twister game and at the end everyone gradually turned into a human pretzels.

Thanks to Froglife, local volunteers, the council's mostly-functional hose, and plenty of hard graft, the day ended with a brand-new pond 🤞 In the end, we all mattock'd the walk and pond-er'd the impossible. 🐸💧

The whole mission onsite was carefully currated and managed by Harry.

P.S. the pond's name TBD and then TBC.