Weekends at our home bring us into the outdoors, working on the various flower beds, the house (yes, those gutters were full of oak tree droppings according to hubby), the veggie garden,etc. But, the best of all is working around and in the pond and observing the parts of mother nature that we share it with. The pond aquaculture has stabilized a bit from early spring and the slimy algae is all but gone. Of course, it’s being replaced by string algae, but that’s more easily removed from the pond and does not obscure the clarity of the water like the slimy stuff does. The new fish are growing more tame — coming nearer and nearer my hand at feeding time. Yesterday, the bravest one actually took a piece of food directly from my fingertips. He is the most brave and seems to be the most hungry, swimming quickly around and sucking up a lot of food pellets. I’ve named him Hoover (after the vacuum, not the president). The others are coming directly to my hand as I place it in the water but they insist on waiting until the food has been released and they can grab it off the top of the water. It’s really fun to watch them feed and my patience is being rewarded by increasingly friendly fish. We feed them at nearly the same time every day and they are quickly learning about telling time too. They start swimming around near the feeding rock and checking it out starting about an hour or so before the appointed time.
The waterlilies are blooming — absolutely beautiful — one plant is white, the other yellow.
And Phinneas is back this year. Hubby named him Gurk after he first appeared this spring. But he is so large and so tame and his markings are so familiar that I am pretty sure that he is Phinneas back for his third year with us here at the pond. He appeared at the water’s edge the very first weekend the pond was full two years ago this fall. Who knows where he came from or how he knew there was a pond being built that he could call home, but there he was. You can see in this photo how his coloring matches the green of the algae covered rock he is sitting on at the water’s edge. No wonder I cannot find him at times when I’m out visiting the pond. When I go out to feed the fish, I call to them and talk to them to coax them out from under the floating plants. Gurk/Phinneas almost always starts talking to me and responding to my voice. Hubby has read, and is convinced, that if I go to the pet store and get some live insects that I could train him to come to my hand for feeding also. Hmmmmmmmmmm…….
So, while others get into their cars for long drives to their weekend spots, we will be gleefully weekending at the pond.