Foot, fish and flowers

Today was a tough day.  I am having foot surgery in a week and a half and unfortunately I overdid it on Friday and Saturday so I spent today lying around while Arthur cooked for me and took care of me.  I feel bad that he had to spend his day off taking care of me.  I know he didn't mind but I still wish I could have done more for myself.  After taking care of me he went outside and raked leaves and found out that one of my favorite fish in our pond died.  Rocky, was a beautiful white and gold comet fish with a gorgeous big split tail.  I will miss going out to the pond and seeing him gracefully swimming around. 

On a more positive note yesterday Arthur bought me a beautiful gerber daisy as he knows I love them.  Isn't it pretty?

Water Iris bloomed today! 207/365

Every year I learn a little more about owning a pond and this year we moved the plants around to try to figure out the best placement for them.  So I was thrilled to see the water iris bloomed today.  I hope it last awhile.  Last year the day it bloom a bird broke the stem and we didn't get to enjoy it at all. 

I had to darken the photo in Photoshop Elements because it was too sunny out when I took the shot but now the water looks murky and the pond water isn't murky but I couldn't figure out how to fix it so I left it murky.

Fish 204/365

Our pond has 3 adult fish and approximately 30 babies that were born last fall.  The mama fish is a Japanese fantail and last week was mating season in the pond so we may be getting more fish babies.  If that is the case we will have to give away the babies as our pond is only 400 gallons and can only sustain so many fish.  Mama is the fish on the left and the one on the right is one of the 2 males.

the pond is winterized! 42/365

Well the task of winterizing the pond is complete! It is very unattractive now that the floating hyacinth are removed and the lilies, iris and floating hearts are cut down to the pots but all the leaves are removed as well as the sludge of the season. It involved taking all the fish out, the plants out and getting in (waders and all) removing all the water, cleaning the liner, and adding back in all 400 gallons. Can't wait to see the water bill....not! The nice thing is we only do this once a year and it gave us a chance to get a rough count of all the babies from this year...looks like 35!! Plus 3 adults. Unfortunately, I put out my back this morning so Arthur had to do all the heavy lifting and toting but I got to go in and clean the sludge...aka fish poop so I think we are even...smile.

Amphibian visitor 4/365

We have lived in this house for almost 2 1/2 years now and never had any amphibian visitors to our pond so imagine my surprise today when I was watering the liriope and out jumped a frog and then I saw it 2 more times today. People say if you have a water source frogs will find it. I am not sure how they do but apparently it is true if the little guy above is an indicator.