Large red damselfly

Today was mostly about water.

First job was to clear the blanket weed and algae from the fish pool'

Then I set to clearing the blanket weed from the wildlife pond, especially from the cascade.  It is less than a month since we did the previous clearance, and we were astounded at the amount of growth when we returned from our trip to Sweden.  I had to break off early on to take photos, as I spotted our first damselfly of the season.  

Subsequently, I noted an immature one sitting on a reed, with an exuvia below it (see extras), so obviously recently emerged.  And later, we had more large red damselflies, including some couples (second extra).

I note that exactly a year ago, W was wading around in the pond doing some clearance.  Today, I too ended up in the water, but I wasn't wearing waders - I slipped whilst clearing the cascade and ended up very wet!  I had to summon help to clamber back out of the water.

My third water job was to set up a water feature.  I last had this running when I lived in Lenwade, but we thought it would look good running on the Open Garden weekend.  It's a little tedious to keep running, so I don't suppose we'll bother with it much, but it's nice to get it going again for the first time in 5 or 6 years.  It may feature in a future blip.

PS - struggling to add extras - will add later if possible
PPS - extras added now