Semi-erratic pond report

In which Luka, the elderly terrier-based mutt and I walk down to the pond
and have a looksee.
Mid-eighties, and humidity you can cut with a knife, which means the pond
life is happy as can be.
The bass are jumpin' and the cattails are high.
The over wintered mystery lotus is starting to put up aerial leaves, and
the 2 new loti are at least alive. First flower on the "Virginalis" hardy
lily- perfect bright white, just like the catalog pictures.
The redwing blackbirds are viewing my walkabout with alarm, so I pretend I
don't know where their nest is hiding in the cattails.
Big puffy clouds of the type that could bust loose at any moment with a
thumpest, which would be most welcome. So far, just brooding.
A good day to do not much, and do that slowly.

Life is good.


Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

Gary Woods wrote:
In which Luka, the elderly terrier-based mutt and I walk down to the pond
and have a looksee.
Mid-eighties, and humidity you can cut with a knife, which means the pond
life is happy as can be.
The bass are jumpin' and the cattails are high.
The over wintered mystery lotus is starting to put up aerial leaves, and
the 2 new loti are at least alive. First flower on the "Virginalis" hardy
lily- perfect bright white, just like the catalog pictures.
The redwing blackbirds are viewing my walkabout with alarm, so I pretend I
don't know where their nest is hiding in the cattails.
Big puffy clouds of the type that could bust loose at any moment with a
thumpest, which would be most welcome. So far, just brooding.
A good day to do not much, and do that slowly.

Life is good.


Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

Suddenly cool and rainy here. Water temps dropped to 68. One of the
spillways between barrels has developed a slow leak which means
inadvertant regular water changes. ;-) Gotta fix it, but I have to
turn the pump off for at least a few hours, so I'm reluctant.

The water hyacinth started blooming. It's my first time seeing WH bloom
and I'm startled by its beauty. I had thought of them as odd-looking
leafy "filters" rather than flowers. The canna is also still blooming
and putting out beautiful reddish variegated leaves. The lily is
putting up a couple leaves a week but no blooms yet. I've almost given
up on the iris. It's down to only a few leaves and no new shoots at
all. Ah, well.

As for the critters, Shubert the shubunkan is growing fat and happy and
Norbert and Daggett who started as fingerlings are starting to get their
butterfly fins. The neighbor cat seems to still be visiting and Norb
and Dag are shy, but they come out quicker at feeding time now. The
white clouds are the biggest I've ever seen - they seem much happier in
outdoors than inside.

So far, I'm enjoying my first season of ponding. :-)

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com

Today I was feeding the fish and tossing
turtle chow on the island and had my first
sighting of the painted turtle I adopted
this week.

This fellow is rather large, salad plate size,
and was swimming with one of the little red earred
sliders. We haven't named him yet.

I have given up, for now, on finding decent water
hyacinth locally and put in four large water lettuce
and they are already putting out babies.

Lilies are blooming in the pond and the bog. Baby
chorus frogs are hanging out on the lily pads in
the bog.

kathy :-)www.blogfromthebog.com
this week ~ a snake story

Pond 101 page for new pond keepers ~
http://hometown.aol.com/ka30p/myhomepage/garden.html