When The Cat's Away, The Mice Are Probably Working Like Crazy

When I'm not posting regularly, it means that some large project has taken over my life.

Spring is a busy time for anyone who's a gardener, and even busier if that gardener frequently helps her mom troubleshoot her garden too. Don't get me wrong, I totally enjoy it, but it does take some time.

Last week I'd finish up at school, load the Kharma-dog in the car and head down to the Queen Mother's to work on the pond waterfall. We started rebuilding the waterfall earlier this Spring, then the weather got so windy and cold that I just couldn't find the ambition to continue it. But the Queen Mother had a trip scheduled to see Pierre's new home and attend Leah's First Communion, so we took advantage of a few warm and sunny days to finish it as much as possible. I wouldn't get home till 9:30 each night, but I did get a free dinner each night out of the deal.

It's not totally complete, but close enough that she could leave without worrying about her precious goldfish, newly acquired waterlilies and some exposed pondliner. When she gets back, we'll go looking for a stone cap for the new upper spillway. And obviously some plants to anchor the pond into the landscape are around the corner. I get to make the plans and she gets to spend the money--perfect combination! We might even remove the ugly upside-down blue bucket.

We are learning about pond construction from trial and error. Last spring I reworked the stones around the perimeter. This year was the waterfall. And someday we will figure out how to keep the pond in balance between the fish and plants so the string algae doesn't take over. We've tried various filters; we've tried shading it from the sun; we've tried barley straw; we've tried adding more plants. This year we descended to an algacide. Someday we'll figure out the right combination and she'll have a gorgeous clear pond to be proud of. Meanwhile the fish, frogs and birds all like it just fine.

I wanted to link to YouTube so you could hear how great it sounds...but alas! YouTube is performing site maintenance so I couldn't upload my video. Ah well, the photo is almost as good.