Friday 14 December 2012

A very large toad


From freezing cold fog which has provided everyone in the Lansdown area of Bath a good photo opportunity for next year's Christmas card (or this year's, if they're quick), it has switched today to dark, grey skies with rain blown along by a strong, South West wind.

It must have been the cold which brought this unusually large toad into the kitchen of my glamorous assistant yesterday - it was quite a shock to walk in and see it crouching on the floor next to the cooker.

I have never seen one so big.  It gave his daughter quite a shock too, when she came downstairs to have breakfast before she went to school. Heaven knows how it got in - it's too big for the cat-flap.

The house is next to Bath's race-course, and the track is the oldest dedicated race-course in the country. I believe they were holding formal horse races there in the early 18th century. Maybe this toad's ancestors mated with one of the horses?



15 comments:

  1. Probably lookin' for Toad Hall.

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  2. My God, that would have scared the crap out of me. I've seen frogs this big in Bermuda..like small dogs. Did they shoo it out?

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  3. No!
    That's photoshopped!
    (Looks again)
    No!

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  4. I'm with Sarah -is that really real? Really?

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  5. That's facinating
    we have the same cooker

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  6. I think someone's been licking toads again...

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  7. Is that the sort that would turn into a handsome prince if I kissed it?

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  8. Oh, okay everyone - it is a very realistic model made for a TV advert for beer. You have probably seen it somewhere before. It freaked the hell out of me, as it did for his daughter also. There is an air pump in it which makes it's neck dilate, and the others have blinking eyes, etc. It's soft to the touch too! Nice toy.

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  9. The skin doesn't look right for a toad, more like a frog I think.

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  10. Thank God it's not real -- had me worried there. Some sort of sci-fi incident, I thought...

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  11. Just to say as someone who walked their dog round the race course for years, never, ever saw a toad that large...... never even saw a frog come to think of it, could be cos there is no water up there ;)

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    Replies
    1. There is plenty of water up there at the moment.

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