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A trip to the park (and garden)
Extracted myself from the house today to visit Carine open space, home of the horsies and sundry until-recently-not-very wetlands.
On each visit since the rain's arrived I've looked for tadpoles to no avail. Today however--and particularly with the serious amount of frog sexytime singing of late--I thought I'd have a better chance. And lo, there were tadpoles! Unfortunately the tadpoles interpreted my intense interest in their movements as predatory behaviour and fled from my first vantage point. After waiting a while for them to return I decided to try another tack. I approached a different spot, kept low, and settled on my towel (one must always have a towel) a bit further back from the edge than on the last attempt. It worked!
I needed to keep my sunnies on to see past the reflections of the cloudy sky, but I watched many small tadpoles and bugs doing their thing for a while. In between I was treated to a Noah's Ark parade of several pairs of ducks sailing by. Good opportunity to observe sexual dimorphism, as you do. I think I saw four different species. Please don't ask for details. They were ducks.
Had to move eventually as the tadpoles wouldn't even let me stretch without fleeing, so I went to visit the horses. Managed a couple of brief over-the-fence scritches and enjoyed the smells. Was slobbered by a couple of large doggies. The Evil Captain Nemo (the tiny shetland pony) was hassling other horses more than twice his size. He had to rear up to bite them on the nose, which he did more than once. Little monster. There was much nipping, rearing and chasing to watch, but it must have been fairly friendly because they'd occasionally pause to snatch a mouthful of grass, and there was no kicking. Still it was funny to watch him strut around like a stallion, stepping high and neck arched imperiously.
Observed a fortunately-leashed Jack Russell go absolutely bonkers wanting to chase the playing horses. I thought it was going to turn itself inside out it was so excited.
Inspired by the tadpole watching, when I got home I decided to make some progress on my water garden. During the summer a water feature felt like a crime, but having got our water usage bill recently I thought the environment could cope with the odd topup due to evaporation. We have a sealed ceramic bowl about a metre in diameter and half that at its deepest, and the pump that used to go with it. They've been sitting awaiting redeployment for nearly 8 years. We're approaching our 8th anniversary at Sector 7 so there are quite a few things reaching their 8th anniversary of pending status.
Managed to shuffle-walk the bowl a few feet to its new shadowed home next to the BBQ/outdoor pretty rock arena. This took care of one of the main problems of siting it elsewhere as vaguely planned; from the new spot it's possible to run cable without crossing any open areas. Put in a few bricks to serve as pot and filter stands, filled it up (with bonus comedy wrestling of unexpectedly lively high pressure hose), plugged in the pump and there you have it, one water garden, albeit sans garden. It makes splashy noises :-)
Gripped with enthusiasm I then tried two local nurseries for water plants, but one was shut, and I'd anticipated the market by days in the other, so I shall have to go back. The other being a Waldecks I haven't been near for quite some time, despite it being normal-person-walking distance from here. I'll be going back though, because their cafe looks really nice and there are gorgeous areas to sit. It was doing an absolutely roaring trade (hardly surprising for a nice Sunday afternoon) which seems promising. I believed the expression of ecstacy on the face of the staffer whom I'd asked if the coffee was drinkable so I shall definitely give it a go. I'm always up for a nice place to sit with caffeine, although the hazards of doing so in a retail environment are not inconsiderable. I'm hoping the wildly expensive nature of the place will keep my spending urges at bay. Hmmm. I wonder if they have free Wifi.
That said, I've been totally ruined for mere mortal coffee by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
delicious_irony.
I'm really looking forward to having fish again, hopefully native ones. I used to have ordinary goldfish in my pond, but they were extremely happy goldfish and reproduced which was also huge fun to watch. I was able to sex my fish! How many peoplewould admit to can say that? I brought some of the eggs inside to watch more closely, and that was fascinating. The newly hatched fry were basically two specks for eyes and a whisp of transparent body.
The fish have to wait, as I need to give the water a chance to off-gas or whatever it needs to do, and I should have plants first. I also plan to deploy more rocks, and possibly build up some of the pretty rocks inside the bowl to create a little waterfall. That will give birds somewhere to stand so they'll be able to drink from the pond, which they can't do at present.
Note to self: Looking at old photographs of past landscaping triumphs is dangerous. Despite my well-documented fear of domestic plumbing I've been quite brave with reticulation and outdoor plumbing and wiring in the past. It's a consequences-of-failure thing.
I take all of the above as further signs of recovery. There just naturally seems to be more room in my brain to contemplate additional projects. I'm tired and I hurt, but I'm no longer permanently exhausted beyond rational thought. I like it.
On each visit since the rain's arrived I've looked for tadpoles to no avail. Today however--and particularly with the serious amount of frog sexytime singing of late--I thought I'd have a better chance. And lo, there were tadpoles! Unfortunately the tadpoles interpreted my intense interest in their movements as predatory behaviour and fled from my first vantage point. After waiting a while for them to return I decided to try another tack. I approached a different spot, kept low, and settled on my towel (one must always have a towel) a bit further back from the edge than on the last attempt. It worked!
I needed to keep my sunnies on to see past the reflections of the cloudy sky, but I watched many small tadpoles and bugs doing their thing for a while. In between I was treated to a Noah's Ark parade of several pairs of ducks sailing by. Good opportunity to observe sexual dimorphism, as you do. I think I saw four different species. Please don't ask for details. They were ducks.
Had to move eventually as the tadpoles wouldn't even let me stretch without fleeing, so I went to visit the horses. Managed a couple of brief over-the-fence scritches and enjoyed the smells. Was slobbered by a couple of large doggies. The Evil Captain Nemo (the tiny shetland pony) was hassling other horses more than twice his size. He had to rear up to bite them on the nose, which he did more than once. Little monster. There was much nipping, rearing and chasing to watch, but it must have been fairly friendly because they'd occasionally pause to snatch a mouthful of grass, and there was no kicking. Still it was funny to watch him strut around like a stallion, stepping high and neck arched imperiously.
Observed a fortunately-leashed Jack Russell go absolutely bonkers wanting to chase the playing horses. I thought it was going to turn itself inside out it was so excited.
Inspired by the tadpole watching, when I got home I decided to make some progress on my water garden. During the summer a water feature felt like a crime, but having got our water usage bill recently I thought the environment could cope with the odd topup due to evaporation. We have a sealed ceramic bowl about a metre in diameter and half that at its deepest, and the pump that used to go with it. They've been sitting awaiting redeployment for nearly 8 years. We're approaching our 8th anniversary at Sector 7 so there are quite a few things reaching their 8th anniversary of pending status.
Managed to shuffle-walk the bowl a few feet to its new shadowed home next to the BBQ/outdoor pretty rock arena. This took care of one of the main problems of siting it elsewhere as vaguely planned; from the new spot it's possible to run cable without crossing any open areas. Put in a few bricks to serve as pot and filter stands, filled it up (with bonus comedy wrestling of unexpectedly lively high pressure hose), plugged in the pump and there you have it, one water garden, albeit sans garden. It makes splashy noises :-)
Gripped with enthusiasm I then tried two local nurseries for water plants, but one was shut, and I'd anticipated the market by days in the other, so I shall have to go back. The other being a Waldecks I haven't been near for quite some time, despite it being normal-person-walking distance from here. I'll be going back though, because their cafe looks really nice and there are gorgeous areas to sit. It was doing an absolutely roaring trade (hardly surprising for a nice Sunday afternoon) which seems promising. I believed the expression of ecstacy on the face of the staffer whom I'd asked if the coffee was drinkable so I shall definitely give it a go. I'm always up for a nice place to sit with caffeine, although the hazards of doing so in a retail environment are not inconsiderable. I'm hoping the wildly expensive nature of the place will keep my spending urges at bay. Hmmm. I wonder if they have free Wifi.
That said, I've been totally ruined for mere mortal coffee by
delicious_irony.I'm really looking forward to having fish again, hopefully native ones. I used to have ordinary goldfish in my pond, but they were extremely happy goldfish and reproduced which was also huge fun to watch. I was able to sex my fish! How many people
The fish have to wait, as I need to give the water a chance to off-gas or whatever it needs to do, and I should have plants first. I also plan to deploy more rocks, and possibly build up some of the pretty rocks inside the bowl to create a little waterfall. That will give birds somewhere to stand so they'll be able to drink from the pond, which they can't do at present.
Note to self: Looking at old photographs of past landscaping triumphs is dangerous. Despite my well-documented fear of domestic plumbing I've been quite brave with reticulation and outdoor plumbing and wiring in the past. It's a consequences-of-failure thing.
I take all of the above as further signs of recovery. There just naturally seems to be more room in my brain to contemplate additional projects. I'm tired and I hurt, but I'm no longer permanently exhausted beyond rational thought. I like it.
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Very glad to hear you are feeling better.
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Get White cloud mountain minnows or other frog friendly fish, despite the obvious attractions of showy goldfish, goldfish love frog eggs.
Or when you're up for a visit I can bring you some duckweed and purple water lilies at some point.
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Yes, I did know that goldfish loved frog eggs, but only found out long after I had several generations. It took quite a while for frogs to appear in that garden so I didn't give it any thought at the time. This time I'm definitely going to get frog-friendly (but mosquito-hostile) fish, and since I find them all attractive, flashiness or lack thereof isn't an issue.
Definitely interested in free plants :-)
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