Air and Water

After a wet winter, the hills are full of water. The tarn in the cwm below Pen-y-Fan was full of icy clear grey water, and in the pool in the outlet the waters were in turn full of frogs. There were hundreds, thousands of them, clustered together mating, laying eggs, jostling for position, fighting and dying in a last flush of bright colours after a life of grey. The spawn covered half the surface of the pool, and in other marshy areas formed jellyfish a yard across. In summer, there will be no sign of the frogs anywhere on the hillside.