Pond

I mentioned in my previous post that my friend, Debi, gave us some large goldfish for our pond... here's a photo of the day we let them loose into our pond.



They took a little while to adjust, but it was really cool to watch them swim out and free.



We've been feeding the new goldfish, and along with them, feeding our old fish who woke up with the spring. They're all getting along. The bluegill, perch and bass are all gobbling up the food like crazy, but the goldfish are still barely picking at it.

I just took some photos about a half hour ago, and I think the goldfish are looking bigger already.





I left work about 11:30am this morning because I couldn't stand to hold my head up any longer... I'm finally getting something done about a pinched nerve in my neck, which includes physical therapy. My 2nd PT session was yesterday afternoon, and by about 9:00am this morning, my neck was so sore... I made it home without barfing, which I thought was a major accomplishment. I spent the afternoon on the sofa, and am feeling much better now. Thank goodness for pharmaceuticals. Especially since Sammy's last regular Little League baseball game is tonight. My neck would love to stay home on the sofa, but I'm going anyway.

So a little while ago, I took a short walk around the pond to wake myself up and get some fresh air. Everywhere I went, the pond fish (that is, not including the goldfish) followed me.





I found all kinds of interesting things to photograph.













I also wanted to get a photo of at least one of the many frogs that kept jumping into the pond, but they were all way too quick for me. I was happy to see so many frogs, since we had hardly any last year.

Kev has done a good job keeping cattails out of our pond, but there is still a great deal of plant life in it. Every year, the pond gets more interesting.

There is a lot of algae in it right now, more than I realized. We had originally thought to use our pond for swimming, but I don't have those thoughts now... Weekend before last, I took an unexpected dip into it, out of our canoe. (Well, it's really not our canoe... it belongs to my sister, Joie, it just lives at our house now.) One of my first thoughts was that I was thankfully out more towards the middle of the pond, instead of near the more grossly appointed edges... but then I had to swim to the edge and walk up through the mud and guck out of the pond.

I had got into the canoe to check on a couple of lily pads that my sister, Kathy, gave to me. Kevin was out near the back pole barn somewhere, and both the kids were gone. I was just merrily paddling along when I noticed that, once again, the pond fish were following me everywhere. They would come right up to the side of the canoe. So I trailed my hand in the water, reaching forward a little bit trying to touch one of them with my forefinger. Which left my little finger hanging back... and one of the fish nibbled on it. I was concentrating on the fish in front of me and was not expecting my little finger to become some kind of appetizer for a bluegill. Scared the piss outta me, and I jerked my hand back, upsetting the balance of the canoe... and the rest is pond-stinky history. I was all sweaty and dirty anyway from gardening, so it wasn't all that much of a step down to pond-stink.