Over the Pond

Today we transferred the two surviving fish from our old pond to the new raised pond that has been constructed. We didn’t want to leave it to the guys doing the landscaping because we had genuine fears that they (the fish not the men) may not survive the move as they have lived for a long time in a cramped and dirty pond without being fed and were going to move to a large and clean pond. We wanted to take on the responsibility so that our landscapers would not have to take on that responsibility.

Of course the additional benefit is that we were able to drain the old pond so that the work could commence earlier tomorrow if the fish transfer and pond emptying had already been done.

So the fish survived the move and seem very happy in their new home. However, as you can see here we couldn’t get the pond to drain completely due to the sludge at the bottom blocking up the holes that we punctured into it. This photo was taken after I had sliced the bottom with a spade but of course there is a layer of sand underneath the liner to provide protection, so that would be helping to hold back the water.

You may wonder why I have the grille over the top of a now vacant pond and the answer is simply that one of the cats, ever the optimist, decided to seek the fish in the sludge and was about to get filthy in the process, so this is protecting our home from a stinking mess.

When we reflected on the history of this pond, Mrs W reminded me that this was a hastily constructed pond to replace an old moulded pond liner elsewhere in the garden that we were digging out but with no intention to replace until we discovered a fish that was living essentially in the stinking sludge and roots of pond plants that occupied almost the entire pond. When we discovered the fish, we dug out this one and had to rush out to buy the liner. With a small child about the house, we had to have this grille made to protect her from falling into the unwanted pond.

Backblipped on 2nd December