First inhabitants of the pond

Arrived at the plot yesterday to a welcome sight… is there a better collective noun for frogspawn than a bunch? An group of frogs is an army, so how about a cadet of frogspawn? Anyway, there they were courtesy of Colin from the plot across from mine. So I’ll be eyeballing them on every visit to watch their development.

Unfortunately with the pond so bare they’re looking pretty forlorn. Got loads of rocks to install, the result of daughter Becky’s garden clearout. Linda had a great idea to create a bank wall just back from one end of the pond where there’s already a mound of earth. That would give a pleasing backdrop and anything making its home amongst the rocks would be clearly visible. There’s also a few logs to put along the pond edge… but no plants!

I’ve read how fulfilling it can be to allow the pond to develop naturally, but that sounds a really slow way to do things. So an email to the Hill Rise Allotment Association membership yesterday afternoon has already raised a couple of offers. I’m meeting Mark this evening to collect flag irises, various other plants including pond weed hopefully containing newt eggs, and a bucket of pond brew to introduce insect larva. Then Jennifer emailed me with a similar offer. Need quite a bit of help since the pond’s a decent size.

Interestingly there are already signs of wildlife using the pond. This image shows prints by the edge, repeated in several other spots on the same side. Wonder what they’re from.

The decision to go for a clay lining is working out well. Turning over nearby earth to beat back couch grass, the fact the pond water was higher than the surrounding water table with no evident leaking was a positive sign. Taking photos every fortnight to record the development of the pond, intending to make a high speed slide show some time in the future. More pond photos below.

Been reading ‘Fine Just the Way It Is’, one of Annie Proulx’s collection of Wyoming Stories. Not heard of Annie Proulx? How about the award winning film Brokeback Mountain? It’s subject matter may be controversial but it’s thoughtful and sad. Hard to believe such a film comes from a short story… all 55 pages of terse, wonderfully descriptive narrative like all her books. I’d recommend you read her… when I at last start writing that’s how I want the words to come out.

And it may not be long before I do (start writing that is). I’m retiring on Wednesday 30-March! It’s the second time I’ve taken early retirement so I’ve decided this time it’s for real. Enjoyed working in the local District Council call centre helping with change projects, forecasting work volumes and doing all the technical bits and pieces… but even though I’ve recently only been working two days a week it’s keeping me away from things I really want to do. The most time I’ve ever had off not working or going to school since the age of 4 is six weeks, and since I started work at 18 I’ve never had more than three weeks off work. Time to stop. So I’m handing over to a very capable young man called Ced.