During the evenings for the past week or so the back lanes and tracks have been covered in toads. It is toad mating season, and additionally this delightful fog that’s been hanging about is making everything nice and soggy, encouraging them to get it on right out in the open. This makes the usually boring bits at the very end of my rides into an exciting, frog-dodging obstacle course. As far as I’m aware I haven’t squished any on my bike, although there are a lot of unfortunate dead amphibians lying about along the busier tarmacked roads, clearly crushed by motorised vehicles. I feel an affinity for these knobbly creatures, and a sympathy for the dead ones: they head out of an evening to have fun on quiet lanes, bothering no-one, but in doing so run the risk of meeting a grisly fate under the wheels of a car or van. Poor toads.