The Pond

The garden has certainly sprung into life this week, and no more so than by the pond, where the grasses are climbing and the hostas are unwinding themselves so quickly you almost feel you could watch them.

Of course, what is missing from the pond this year are the fish. I was not quick enough to put the net back on in the spring, and a heron got the lot. Mercifully (for the heron) I did not witness this personally, but a neighbour did. Six years of tlc to get the fish to that size. The size that a heron can spot from the air.

In nature, there is always a balance. The fish usually eat all the tadpoles, but not this year, so we will have lots of frogs and toads.

It will be interesting to see how the garden changes over the next three weeks, as tomorrow morning we depart to California on holiday. At the highest point of our trip, where we drive over the Sierra Nevada via the Tioga Pass, there is over 2m of snow lying. In Death Valley, the lowest point, it is currently about 115 degF.