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; in May we get some goldfish…
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.
277 – Gathering potions ingredients… with a friend >
< 279 – Spotting things: nests
242 – Getting goldfish for the pond…
Sunday 4 May. Cloudy. 15°C
It’s the May day bank holiday weekend and we’re on a new adventure. We’re going to buy some goldfish. The pond is looking much better after it was cleared out in March. It’s clear and looks like a good environment for life again. We last bought fish in 2021 and they thrived for years until last year, when they all went at the same time in a sort of fishmageddon. I’m reasonably confident that we’re ready for a new batch.
It’s a really fun thing to shop for. B chose three. One black and red (“Tiger), one yellow and red (“Stripe”) and one with a big tail (“Fin”). We got some more oxygenating pond plants as well for luck. B got to carry them on her lap on the way home.
We followed the instructions carefully, putting the bag in the pond and then letting a bit of water in at a time for 30-60 minutes until they were fully acclimatised… then B carefully lifted the bag up and they swam out. We watched them for a while as they explored, finding the shallow and deep bits and looking very happy.
In the morning they were gone without trace. We’re not blaming our cat. He’d never managed to catch the old ones. We’re blaming the carrion crow that sometimes appears in the garden… Guess we’ll leave fish for now.
