Rainy pond

It is not yet September but it is definitely fall again. It is the story of this summer, rain and cold and no frogs. It was warm for about 3 weeks, maybe less, and I doubt it will be warm again. The pond is full almost up to the edge, you can see it in the upper right corner of this picture, it is raining so much that the pond is actually overflowing and that despite the continuing leakage problem. I really have given up on the frogs for this year, it's too bad but I guess it was just never warm enough. But who knows, maybe we'll have a killer September. The tomatoes finally ripened about a week ago and hopefully we'll have them for a bit longer, at least they didn't succumb to the dread potato virus.

Transmogrification part II

I was on the side of the pond today and I swear, one of my baby fish is turning orange. Really that's not too surprising given what we have already learned about fish changing color, but I wonder if I am just lying to myself. Which also worries me, because I value the pretty orange and gold fish more than the ugly gray and brown fish. Does that make me a bad person? On the one hand, it doesn't, because my fish are decorative objects to me and, as such, should be decorative. On the other hand, my fish obviously have personalities - Some of the big ones like to hide in the plants, other like to spend time in the deep end, and all of them know when I come to the pond and wait for me to feed them. So despite the tiny brains there is something going on there. But still, I hope my little ugly ducklings turn into swans before I have to decide what to do with them before the winter freeze (hint hint!)

Spider mites

I have something infecting my lily pads, I think they are spider mites. They look like little spiders, and they cause spots on the leaves and the plants look unhealthy. On the other hand, maybe the spider mites are the symptom and not the cause. I think they're bad, but also the other bugs and the fish seem to enjoy eating them so its all good. But I don't think the lily pads are happy about it. Which leads me to another wonder, which is why are some of my water plants looking dried out? They live in the water, how could they be dried out! When I fill up the pool, the little mites all climb on top of each other to escape the water.

Morning Glory Blues

I know I shouldn't complain about flowers, but I will. I bought a big bag of Morning Glory seeds a couple of years ago and I am sure that they were supposed to be blue. I found them in the basement this spring and planted them around the pool. I absolutely adore blue Morning Glories, there is something about that particular shade of blue which is quite amazing, so I have been looking forward to their appearance all summer. And then, voila, they start blooming and they are all white with pink streaks. Imagine my disappointment. I'm not sure if they used to be blue seeds and then changed, that is probably not a real possibility. I'm not sure what to do with the rest of the seeds, I guess I will throw them in the back of the field and buy some blue Morning Glories for next year.

My cute neighbors

There were four raccoons that came to the pond this afternoon/evening, around 6PM so it was still light out. They are very beautiful, they were obviously a family group and I tried to catch them all drinking and cleaning and fishing in the pond but of course I scared them off when I went for my crappy camera and opened the back door. It's been a bad summer for visitors, I haven't seen the turkeys at all, or the fox, or the coyote (but that's a good thing). AND NOT FROGS. But we won't talk about that it's too depressing.

Too many fish

It's finally hot and they pond got real low, a combination of ongoing leakage and evaporation. While I was filling it up the baby fish got real excited, they started trying to jump up the little waterfall between what used to be the two lower ponds - Different levels of depth, but there is only a waterfall there if the water level gets real low. A lot of the baby fish are getting pretty big so they are easier to spot and there are A LOT of them. At least 30, probably more, all sizes. None of them gold, they're all kind of a dull gray silver. I don't know what I am going to do with them once winter comes, there are really too many to keep in the fish tank and I don't really want to have a fish farm. I need a natural predator, maybe a snake, but that whole add-a-new-species-to-eat-the-other-introduced-species thing tends to end badly so I probably shouldn't go that route. Maybe I can put an add on Craig's looking for people who want to buy feeder fish.