Autumn Tidy Up - 27/10/2014

I used to worry about clearing out the elodea crispa but having now done it a few times I know it will grow back over time.  Today I spent the morning and afternoon having a clear up in the garden.  The leaves have started to fall and most weekends will now be spent clearing them out of the ponds.

As you can see above there was

quite a lot of elodea crispa.

Most of the leaves haven't fallen from the nearby trees yet
but already there were plenty of leaves to clear.

Figgy was quite content to watch me 

working from the comfort of his white chair.

The pond looked a little less cluttered once

I'd cleared out the leaves and elodea crispa:

Having acquired a few stones I give them a

really good clean and set about adding 

them to the edge of the pond.

There had been one particular area

of the pond I wasn't quite happy with

and used the stones to make some improvements.

Time will tell if I'm happy

with the new stone layout.

So far it looks much better than it was.

I used another stone to add a ledge for birds

to use when having a drink:

The water was a little murky after the 

clean up but it will clear up in a few days.

Almost Autumn - 23/8/2014

Well it's almost Autumn and there isn't much going on in the ponds  now.  I had a clean up of elodea crispa which was beginning to run riot in Pond Project #2 but apart from that all I've been doing for the last few weeks is removing the odd fallen leaf.

I've not seen the stickleback and frogs for a while but to be honest I've been too tired of an evening to go out with my torch to look for them.  The birds are still visiting and they leave their tell tale signs of feathers and oil on the surface of the water.

The black dragon plants have survived the summer and are doing okay.  I'm hoping they'll get more bushy next year, time will tell I guess.

The frosted curls grass has survived too 

and gone a little more bushy now:

Pond Project #1 keeps losing water 

but I'm certain it's the Yellow Flag Iris 

plants which are drinking it all:

I've not seen much wildlife in the smaller

pond apart from mosquito larvae.

Pond Project #2 blends into 

the back garden rather well now:

Today's Photo - 23/6/2014

House Fly

(Polietes lardarius)

Shy Frog - 22/6/2014

I've been watching this little fella in my small wildlife pond for some time now. He's very shy but managed to get a photo of him before he vanished:

Pond Project #2 - 22/6/2014

Mass Exodus - 18/6/2014

It was fun whilst it lasted but today I had to come to terms with the fact that the little tadpoles had finally developed into frogs and now they were beginning their mass exodus.

I sat and watched as one by one they left the pond and made their way to safe ground.  The majority of  them seemed to disappear into the stone crevices whilst some made their way further afield.

Hopefully some will make it back in the future.