Clearing The Decks

Right hand side of deck scrubbed

I do think the urge to spring clean is instinctive. Longer daylight hours and warmer air speaks to our animal instinct to get active. We are just the same as the birds, but instead of feverishly searching for sticks to build a nest, our energies go towards moving out and clearing up that evolutionary cave we spent so many millennia sitting in.

Unusually this year my subconscious has developed an anxiety about the state of the garden rather than the kitchen cupboards. The other day I found myself on my hands and knees scrubbing the decking. It was hard work so I hope we don't have to do the cupboards later.

I haven't scrubbed the deck before because I am worried about the effects any chemicals might have on the fish in the pond. There are gaps between the boards, with concrete underneath, so any water swished on the deck drains directly into the pond. I assume commercial deck cleaning chemicals, or even normal washing up liquid, would harm the fish.

But this year the itch to spring clean was very insistent, so I googled, 'clean decking pond', and it seems the eco way of getting rid of green slime on your deck is to use white vinegar diluted in water.

The vinegar did a very good job. It's powerful stuff. The deck certainly does look cleaner. We just have to wait and see if the Google hive-mind is right about vinegar being harmless to fish (update: there are currently no fish floating belly up).

Almost good as new

Pond Update - Bronson Lives On!

Heron Landing on The Grand Canal, Dublin

Yes, Charles Bronson survived the massacre! A couple of days ago I saw his gnarled form swimming with his younger, orange-ier friends. What a relief.

Unfortunately the level of water continues its slow descent. The last time I posted on this I was wondering how a heron (the most likely culprit) could pierce the strong butyl liner with its beak, but my friend, Carole, made the point that herons have sharp claws, which I hadn’t considered.

Btw, have you seen the size of a heron's foot? Monster claws. Wouldn't discount an errant talon poking a hole in the pond liner.

And as evidence she supplied these amazing photographs:

Carole lives in a lovely part of Dublin near The Grand Canal (think Didsbury with an Edinburgh twist), where she befriends ducks, rescues swans, and eyeballs herons.

Coffee On The Lawn

Today the essential morning coffee was taken in the flower meadow under the silver birch by the pond.

Of course the ‘meadow’ is really a patch of unmown lawn with some daffs growing in it, and the pond is still traumatised, but if you squint it was almost like a scene from a Merchant Ivory film. I am so grateful to have a garden in which I can sit for a moment and feel some peace.

The water level of the pond has fallen a great deal but it is still a mystery where the tear in the liner is or what caused it. The fish have come out of hiding now the weather is warmer. There are 6 of them when last year there were 8 orange ones (shubunkins I think) and one grizzled orfe that I nicknamed Charles Bronson. Unfortunately it looks like he and 2 of his flashy mates have been eaten, by cat or heron I don’t know. It is difficult to work out how either managed to put a hole in the pond liner. I can’t imagine a cat’s claw being strong enough to rip that strong plastic. And would the attack by a heron be so violent it could result in its beak stabbing through? Maybe the reason is just an ordinary area of decay in a fold or something fell in and ripped a hole. Come to think of it I did rescue a bird feeder that somehow had gotten to the bottom of the pond. But then how did that happen? Curiouser and curiouser.

At the moment the plan is to let the level drop as far as it will go. The course of action after that is open to debate ... and a lot of procrastination.

The deep end of the pond has a stack of bricks acting as a platform for the frogs to get out. Now the water level has fallen I took the top stone off to make it easy for them to climb up. This revealed some nasties – leeches and water slaters (or water sows) and some other things I can’t identify. Since I’ve started this blog I’ve enjoyed learning about the wasps and bees and grubs that appear, but crawly things in water don’t have the same appeal.

I’ll leave you with the photos. You can go google them if you want. I don’t think I want to know the results.

Something Traumatic Has Happened

Something traumatic has happened to the pond ... but I don’t know what.

Earlier this week I noticed the 9 fish weren’t swimming about as they have been since spring arrived. They are an energetic crowd, pacing the whole length of the pond, and always near the surface, but now I can’t see them. During the winter they did disappear from sight, presumably lying on the bottom, a natural response to cold. It has turned a little cold lately, but not as low as winter temperatures.

And now look at the level of the water ... it has sunk to a shallowness reached once last summer during a run of dry days.

What has happened? No fish + suspected puncture in pond lining.

I am hoping the fish are still there, and are hiding after a nasty trauma.

That cat who comes to sit by the pond could be the culprit. As I’ve said before (here) she isn’t frightened to put her paw in the water. But would a cat eat 9 fish and leave no trace around the edge? Cats tend to hook them out, play with them, and perhaps try a few tentative bites, but not eat them whole. The other piece of evidence against the cat is as the cause of the event is that the fish were not that worried about her looming face. When fish food floated on the surface the cat and the fish have eaten it together at the same time, with the fish giving little darting runs at it. But then again maybe they finally run out of luck and got caught.

Of course the next most obvious criminal is a heron. Herons are rare visitors, but there is a park nearby and the river Mersey isn’t too far away. (As an aside ... as the number of cormorants increase inland perhaps domestic garden ponds will become more attractive. What a sight that would be.) Is it likely that the water loss is due to a heron stabbing through the pond lining?

The alternative is that there is no reason to worry. It has simply been cold and dry, and the pond system will return to normal in its own time.

I’m visiting my mum and dad tomorrow. Dad is my pond guru. I’ll ask him.