Rhapsody in Green

Way back in April when the snow began to melt and reveal early spring delights we were aghast to discover that, after six years of successful overwintering, our pond critters had failed to make it. This time our little pond was a death scene. It was horrible. Not a single goldfish was swimming; all were floating, as were a few unfortunate frogs. We threw the tiny corpses under the cedar hedge (good fertilizer) and George proceded to pump out the water using the spare sump pump. There was a lot of disgusting slimy matter at the bottom which we tried to remove as best we could, all the while considering just filling in the hole and forgetting about the pond. But no, we decided to have another go at it. We added fresh water from the well and waited till it was time to re-stock the pond.

Luckily our neighbour has a pond as well, a much bigger one with fish galore. He gladly donated four adults, two orange, two white. By the time we put them in the water lilies had started to grow and I tossed in a handful of oxygenating plants. George installed a new more efficient pump and we created a small waterfall.

And voila!

This is where the four newcomers spent a lot of time in June, under cover of the grasses and lily pads. It was soon to become the nursery.

If you look closely around the edge of this lily pad you can see the tiny 'fry'.

Soon the frogs started to arrive. This one is Mr. Big.

And here is Mrs. Big.

And now we have a bunch of Little Bigs.

The fish fry are getting bigger now. I had to play around with the colours here in order to show them more clearly.

The waterfall trickles down.

And sometimes gushes.

And all is well once more.