The finished product

This is the current state of the pond. I used a sledge hammer to combine the two lower pools into one and likewise I merged the new big upper pool with the older upper pool. Now there are just two larger pools and the fish are in the upper one, which is a better arrangement because I am pumping the water out of the lower one into the upper one so if the hose from the pump gets knocked out of place and drains the lower pool the fish won't die, a constant concern of mine last summer. The fish are very happy in the upper pool, it is deep in the new part and shallow in the old part and it has lots of plants, some that wintered over and some that I planted this year. The fish are growing at an almost alarming rate, sort of like my nephew.

Major leakage

The pond is up and actually running quite well, with many new and old plants. The fish are frolicking, they love their new deep pool. However, there is a major water loss going on and I'm not sure where it is coming from. This photo is actually the wall of the upper pond leaking into the lower pond, which was some of my earliest pond construction before I had the revelation that if I added sand and gravel to the mortar that would become a conduit for water - now I stick to 100% pure hydrolic cement. Anyways I'm doing a scientific experiment and turning off the pump for a few days with the pond full to see where the water is coming from. Normally I would worry about not circulating the water but SINCE IT WON'T STOP RAINING I'm not so worried. So far it seems fairly stable and I suspect that the leaks have something to do with the higher water levels when the pump is in action. And PS, still no frogs. I wonder what's up with them.

I have a flower!

Well, that was a long vacation. Maybe partially because I got a house mate and therefore had someone to listen to me babble on about the pond, maybe because I'm just lazy. But now my house mate is moving out and so I'm back to it. This is a bull head lily flower, it is from one of the lily plants I dug up in NH last summer. That shimmery stuff on the surface is pollen, which is driving me crazy this spring as usual. It's everywhere. The lilies and other plants survived the winter just fine, which means they too can freeze solid and come back to life, just like the frog. No signs of the frog yet, but much has happened with the pond since my last post in January, so stay tuned for the exciting news!