All the garden pond challenges of the 365 day nature play challenge. In January: breaking the pond ice; in March: We clean it out and find an array of unusual bugs.
363 – Breaking the pond ice
Friday 3 January. Cold and sunny. 1°C
The first freeze of the new year and the pond is frozen solid. Nature play challenge for the day sorted. All we need is a big stick!
We’re back in South Wales and the weather has gone from mild and wet to freezing cold. B is hopeful for snow and I’m tampering down expectations.
B: It said it might on the weather forecast.
Me: Yes, but it usually doesn’t. Don’t get too excited.
A frozen pond is definitely a good start though. She tried a few small sticks first before finding a good big thick one. Crack and splash! She’s having a lot of fun. It’s a shame the pond isn’t bigger. It’s currently a bit smelly – the fish died last year and we’re working out the cause – so she lasted till the pong rose off it and off she went back inside.
Later we came out to find the ice had frozen again in the broken sections from where she’d smashed it.
Taking down the Christmas lights (362) >
278 – Emptying the garden pond
Saturday 29 March. Cloudy, 12°C
I’m pushing my luck on this one and I know it. Our garden pond, which is tiny, has been smelly and icky for months. I’ve been slowly emptying it for a few days now and am hoping that if I dig the old leaves out, refill and add in some extra oxygen producing plants it might recover. I’m now approaching the bottom and am finding stuff B might appreciate.
Me: “Come and see the pond. I’ve taken all the water out and there are weird things at the bottom” (it’s clearly a ‘weird’ week – see 280 Collecting weird squidgy things – it must be spring).
B: “Ewww! I’m not going near the smelly stuff”
Me: “Well take pictures for me then”.
Obviously the challenge is meant to be about nature not technology but sometimes it helps! There are several different bug type things crawling over the old leaves and gunk I’ve pulled out. We’re both fascinated. B does a video. We have no idea what they are and we’ve not seen them before. We try and make sure they aren’t too disrupted and B directs me in making the rest of the gunk into a 278.
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