New pond progressing

Son number two's last day at school - he now just has to go back for the last exams. Duly christened 'Muck up' day, he left early dressed as a cowboy and armed with water bombs......

We used a day off to start redoing our wildlife pond. Step number one was to put up an old paddling pool and transfer the flowering irises, bog bean and about 8 frogs. We then strimmed around the area, removed the leaking liner and got to work redigging the hole for the new preformed pond. There was lots of earth to move (even though we already had a large hole) and lots to sift to get rid of stones that might damage to the pond liner.

After working for most of the day, the new pond was in place and (almost) level. It does tilt slightly but we've decided to live with it - getting it level using sand took for ever and the pond must have shifted slightly as we were doing some filling in. We emptied the contents of the water butt into the pond so it had some weight in it.

Son number one had to be collected from the station later in the evening - he has finished his last exam and will not be an undergraduate for much longer. He's with us for a few days and I'm looking forward to it.