Bridge over untroubled waters

Oh that's lovely!

This is beautiful, did you make it yourself?

I really do like thi picture. Everything bar the bridge yes was a family effort to build, bridge being purchased to complete the setup, the plants and layouts all done by me

Yours is bigger than mine!!

Ha ha nice one - yet not my imagination!. I think we're pretty well matched on that score :-)

About to put my bridge away for the winter! Give it a little preserving paint and wait for the spring and maybe buy some more fish as I only have two left! (one and a half in fact, as one fishy has a sore!)

Thanks Homebird

Oh dear LuLu poor fishy hopefully the cooler winter waters will curtail the bacteria so alow him to recover. We had a shubunkin that had a massive hole in his side. We thought he'd had it, but as it was winter the bacteria couldn't do him in. He just sat at the edge of the pond in a pond basket and we'd check on him every day, lifting him out to see how he'd progressed. Amazingly he fully recovered and the hole was filled with new flesh and covered in new scales. After that he knew we were no threat as we'd handled him so much so when we put our hands in the water he'd swim into them for a reasurring stroke!

As for the bridge, it stays in situ, preservative being applied really carefully with a sheet underneath the bridge to ensure it can't get into the water.

Hope for the fishy yet then! Will keep an eye on him. Used to be able to stoke my old fish before the heron got them!

I will let you into a secret - it is a slice of this picture that forms the main header on my own website pages. You will be able to view them in the very near future for yourself, once I go live I will post the link on here :-)

Update since 2010!
Last year a toad spawned in my pond. Nice, lots of tadpoles. Not nice that they remained tadpoles. Thousands of tadpoles poking in my pond and nibbling my fish. So most fish died and remaining one I gave away. So, I have a fishless pond now!
I know I will miss them, will have to sort out something. I do have about 5 minnows who dart about, so can't make it into a bog garden!

Hi Lulu, that's bad to hear :-(

The best cure for this kind of thing are carp and bream added to your mix of fish, they will eat tadpoles before succumbing to them

but my pond is only 500 litres!!!

My parents' neighbours kept Koi in only half that amount of water I reckon

But then if not your cup of tea you will need to put a net over it in springtime to stop the larger amphibians getting in.

newts are harmless though so no trouble and not stopped by netting

Think I will let nature take over.....see what happens. It's nice not to have the anti heron fishing line around it any more. Just need to re establish some kind of new interest for myself for sitting by the pond. I miss watching the fish.
Over the years the prefab bit has become a bit one sided. I might plant something around it to hide the black lip. Chamomile used to grow over it, in fact a bit too much, it started to trail into the pond and grow roots in the water!