Our pond is a wee bit overfull. The ducks were swimming on the lawn today. They didn’t like it when I came outside, so no pictures of them actually swimming, but…
Around and about
That drought thing
Well, I seem to have dropped off the face of the earth when it comes to posting, but I’m hoping to start up again. So in the spirit of This Is What I’ve Been Doing:
This is our pond. You will note that it has no water in it. It hasn’t had water in it since spring. It’s gone down to mud before, but this is beyond mud: this is solid earth that can be walked across, with grass and weeds. (Well, that was true two days ago, there’s been a little rain since then and it’s gotten softer in places, as I inadvertently discovered. But even after the rain, this is what it looks like.)
Just to reinforce the idea, these are my feet in the lowest part of the pond.
And this is the pond again, after I started digging out the dirt from the bottom of it. The 5-gallon bucket houses the pond pump, which I’ve set up in place, ever hopeful. I figure it’s likely great dirt, so I’m slowly moving what I can to more useful places—starting with the berm with the rhodos. It’s not that they need wonderful soil, but they drain so fast it’s hard to keep them alive in a drought, and I’m figuring if I can build an earthen moat around each one it’ll help slow the drainage when I need to water them in future.
It’s all actually quite worrisome. I’m told that the swamp behind us has gone dry. I didn’t see any froglets at all this year—I suspect the pond dried before the tadpoles could grow legs and make it out of the water. I don’t think anyone has seen anything like this before. I’m afraid it’s a sign of things to come.
In the pond waterfall
It’s all about the colour.
Water’s rising
The pond has come up at least 3 feet since the rains started. It’s covering some of the edging I did along the course of the pond waterfall. The big flat rock with smaller ones on it will be underwater very soon, I expect.
Froggy time of year
This is the time of year when the wee frogs start emerging from the pond; I’ve found a couple while deadheading irises (DON’T get me started on the idiocy of the people who planted them in the first place). When I spotted this little guy I grabbed my camera and shot a few pictures.
They’re not as crisp as they could be; the light was really too low for handholding…
….especially when handholding with one hand because the frog was on the other one. But good enough, I think.
I do like water lilies.
Don’t you?
Buckbean
The shoots are coming up in our pond.
