Our pond was an eyesore, covered in plastic mesh to protect the several dozen fish that sat waiting in its murky depths for me to feed them. When it sprung a leak, thanks to Boris and Suella, our resident rodents who gnawed through the lining of the waterfall out of Tory spite back in March, I decided things had to change.
I phoned around and got hold of a couple of companies and settled on Hunnyhill Aquatics1 who booked us in for the end of April. Over two days, they relined it, carted off the fish to a better place, and landscaped it, removing the hideous slabs that were concreted round the edge, replacing them with rocks. They also put a smaller, neater and more modern filter in and dropped some plants into the water.
It looked better immediately.
The plan is that life will be attracted to the new environment. One of the spurs to do something about it was the tragic sight of a dragonfly sitting on the mesh, unable to reach the water to lay her eggs. I’m told that, once you get some plant life into the pond and open it up, insects will flock to it and other life will follow. The rebuilt edge, effectively a rocky beach, has already made it more accessible for birds and cats to drink from.
Yesterday, a friend brought me a jar of tadpoles and I put them in. They disappeared into the weeds and I expect I won’t see them again until the Autumn. I’ve seen waterboatmen and lots of small flying insects, although no dragonflies yet.
Today, Amanda was here for lunch and, in the afternoon slump after I got back from walking Hazel, she noticed some movement outside. We went out and saw this:
Apparently,2 they nest in rotting vegetation and love compost heaps. We’ve got a large compost heap at the far corner of our garden and it’s pretty undisturbed. I think Sid must have needed a drink: we’ve had very little rain for nearly two months. Anyway, I hope he (she?) wasn’t too alarmed by our attention, but we were stupidly excited. There’s plenty of cover around the waterfall bit of the pond and, for food, there must be a colony of rats nearby, as Boris and Suella have, in the past, been frequent visitors, although I haven’t seen them for some time.
There is, however, no shortage of threats, including rooks, a couple of neighbouring cats, one of whom is a feline Schwarzenegger, and occasional visits from foxes. I’m no ophiophilist,3 but I worry. I could get used to seeing Hissing Sid around.
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