h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Ever since I built my pond two years ago we've had drought here in south east England.

I made the decision at the start to only let rain water fill it to keep it as natural and minimise nitrates, after initially filling with tap water.

Today I gave up on that, after seeing the pathetic puddle it has become.

My mum helped me do it. Now it is brimming with water and already birds are coming to drink and bathe. They are not bothered. I got to be a purity freak about it. A hose pipe ban starts here on Thursday so I wanted to get it done before that; though I might sneakily do a bit after dark. No doubt the foxes will be back to drink as well. The thing is part of a *garden* Gardens are artificial and are also about the pleasure of looking at them. I reckon I'll get more stuff now it's no longer a 'puddle'.

I'm hoping for pond skaters to arrive in a few weeks. They see the reflection of a pond when flying overhead. They fly as well as skate.

Wild flower meadow areas coming on well also the native hedgerow plants.

Just started raining...

No, it's just a few spits and spots..like we had mostly for 2 years...but we'll see...anyway rain will dilute the poison of the tap water and I have very brave sparrows and blackbirds

You ought to get a water butt, Effers. That way you can save all the rainwater for the pond.

I have 2 big water butts. They long since ran dry.

It's really bad here. Farmers are reckoning arable crops in the east and south east will be down about 50%

I wish my big water butt would run dry.

We had a big dump of snow here over the weekend. But still drier than it should be. And today it's supposed to be quite warm, so, more drying.

No shortage of water here on the Wet Coast, it's sad to see cherry blossoms being washed off the trees. Inland it's drying out already, though.

>> it's sad to see cherry blossoms being washed off the trees <<

Oh god, zoomer's turning Nipponese!
A Haiku about cherry bottoms in the rain!


~jwf~

Venerable man,
Takes the mick out of zoomer.
zoomer sticks out tongue.

If your worried about the chlorine in tap water, I seem to recall... (might be worth checking), that its all meant to evaperate if you leave it in a big bucket or simular, open to the air for a few days... So maybe that'd work, just say, if the water butts are dry, filling them with tap water, leaving it a few days, then using it to refil/top up the pond?

This is weird.
According to a friend, and I've no idea if this is true. in Cambridge we don't have a water pipe ban, as the water comes from bore holes, but, in 'Cambridgeshire', as general, it does have a hose pipe ban Which seems a bit bonkers really

It's to do with levels of nitrates in tap water in some areas. It can cause extra blanket weed and algal blooms in summer.

I can easily fish out the blanket weed but there's not much can be done about algal blooms...but they happen anyway even with rain water.

I'm no longer worrying...and am planning to send off for some native ferns now for the shady bit where water sedges are growing.

Pond pic update...April 2012.

http://bit.ly/HLZRTV

There's some nice stones there just waiting
for someone to build a little wall or bench.

I love setting and watching dragonflies hovering,
making love locked tail to tail, over a small pond.

~jwf~

I like them just as they are - whether planned or not. It's a lovely little pond.

Nice to have you two here.

Yes the pile of stones are deliberate...they will soon be covered with grasses and flowers as summer comes on. I read it's good to have a rock pile next to the pond to provide cover for newts. Do you remember ~ jwf ~ me mentioning the remains of a broken up Victorian bird bath I found in my cellar...I was going to rebuild it but the pieces were just too heavy and it was really not possible, so that is their new role.

The pond and surround does look a bit messy at present but so is Nature this time of year...things have hardly got going. I'm getting ferns in May.

Will post more pics of the pond as the year goes on...Dragon flies would be very cool..at it or not

It hasn't stopped raining today. But the rest of the garden was crying out..and the blackbirds are very happy.

Talking of things in the pond...the very very best thing to turn up would be caddis fly larvae...

Saw a pair of chaffinches today in garden, first time in years..must be nesting..such gorgeous colours.

**

Okay here's a link to my field drawings of the caddis larvae I did in that faraway summer long ago in the Pyrenees...done nothing photoshop to them or totally minimal. I want that outdoor improvised feel..the soft faintness of the drawings..and their poetry...but the care and feeling that wet into them.

Double click...can take a few moments to come into focus.

http://bit.ly/Ine4gZ

this is another style of drawing done a couple of years ago.

Planning to do more of this type this year...and develop with some colour...not too much though.

http://bit.ly/I8uHGq

Sorry. I'll get it right in a minute..

http://bit.ly/Iij5D1