Pond Life

When I moved here I wasn't bothered about a pond at all - now I think I'd cry if I lost it.  It has given me hours of pleasure and I'll often be found kneeling quietly beside it watching the wildlife.

It's only small and is very much a wildlife pond (apart from the inherited goldfish and his friend), and has lots of rocks and ivy around it where the frogs, and probably other creatures, like to hide.

The tadpoles hatched several weeks ago and were really lively in the warmth of the sunshine today - I love how they twist as they come to the surface (sad I know!)

(I'm not sure why the video ended up so small, it's probably because I took it and edited it on my ipad and then had to transfer it to the pc to upload it, it all gets very complicated at times!)

But the star of the show at the moment is Mrs Newt who appeared a month ago.  I was getting rather worried that she'd left but I saw her again today (she's rather camera shy but can just be seen relaxing on the weeds)

 

It doesn't look as if she's laid any eggs in the newly planted water forget-me-not, but I'm hopeful that she's decided to take up permanent residence so we might have newt babies in the future!

The sun has come out here today, but sadly I seem to have hurt my back rather badly this afternoon so gardening is out of the question - I think I'll take a cuppa back to the pond instead.  Enjoy the sunshine if you have it!

Waterlily

Today my waterlily opened.  Back in April I blogged about how I was hoping to avoid the thick green soup type of pond water and had bought a minature waterlily last year to try and provide the necessary shade.  The water is very clear this year so I'm guessing the waterlily shade has helped, although I suspect that the duckweed is also providing some necessary shade too!  I do skim it off regularly but it's a never completed job!  There are more buds, so I'm looking forward to many more weeks of blooms.

Nymphaea Walter Pagels

Sadly Dora died last week, but Nemo and Chilli are still happily enjoying each other's company and are swimming around under the lilypads.

Nemo Finds Some Friends

When I moved here I inherited a pond, and after several weeks I discovered I'd inherited a fish too!  This fish, named Nemo because of his colouring, had obviously escaped the net when the previous owners removed the rest of the fish, and had survived without any attention whilst the house was rented for 3 years.

For the last couple of years I've been thinking about getting some more fish to keep him company, but I was worried that I'd have to feed them (I've never fed Nemo as he'd survived on the natural food in the pond for 3 years and was perfectly ok).  Two weeks I asked the man in the Aquatics part of Mill Race Garden Centre if I'd need to feed any new ones and he said I wouldn't as the pond was big enough.  So Chilli and Dora came home with me and took up residence with Nemo.

 Nemo (top) Dora (middle) Chilli (bottom)

Since I introduced them they've all been swimming round together.  Initially I felt mean that I'd kept Nemo on his own for 2 years, but as someone said to me the other day "he doesn't remember that he was on his own, all he knows is that he now has friends!".