We renovated our house about a year ago. The intense work left us with plenty of rubbish. I tend to live the philosophy “one day I will need that”. This does not pay of all the time, but sometimes yes. One of the treasures we have are our bricks. They were made sometime in the beginning of the 20th century and they have a nice stamp of the local brick factory. I use them for flower beds and other small constructions in the garden /we even sold some in the local antique shop for $12 each… wow…expensive flower beds huh?/. In the spring my son and I decided to give a new home to our toad friends. Until now they have resided in my cellar. I tolerated them because they did not touch my wine. But you know, sometimes you just get jumpy when you see a jumping small thing in the dark cellar.

Toads are great helpers in the garden because they eat a lot of nasty garden enemies, including human enemies like mosquitoes and flies. Therefore to attract them is a good idea. Toads like shade, a moist place to hide, soft sandy soil to borrow when it is dry outside. On a paper we drew the plan for the toad residence. No building permission was needed so we started. On a sandy hill we flattened out the area. We used some side roof tiles as a residence. Around the residence we built a bed, filled it wit soil and we planted strawberries. The residence is done. We don’t know if there are some toads but we have seen a lizard running around. We can’t discriminate! Lizards are equally welcome.

The truth is that during this project my son let me down. He refused to do the physical work and decided to boss me around. Ahhhh…..kids.