Down in the Mud

It doesn't look as there is much going on in the dim recesses of the pond, and indeed in this photograph there isn't, especially as the reflection of the palm makes it harder to see very much at all in said recesses. But, elsewhere in its depths, there is. It was after our return from Dublin in 2017 that I discovered the power supply to the pond had tripped off the fuses and ruined all the food in the freezer (which thankfully wasn't very much); I fiddled with the socket on a couple of occasions but eventually disconnected it completely as it wouldn't refrain from similar interruptions to the supply. I finally had it fixed this week; and determined to restore the pond, emptied it and cleared it out.

I found that the reeds had rooted so wildly that the roots filled roughly a third of the pond; not only that, but they had engulfed the pump, which had to be sawn out with my trusty billhook. Not only did the pump, once liberated, still work, but I found the remaining goldfish in the muddy depths of the water! When I moved to Swanvale Halt, there were supposed to be 'four decent-sized fish' in the pond, though I only ever found three. They gradually departed due to one thing and another, and so I eventually restocked it; again, the numbers were whittled away by various misfortunes until one alone remained, and not one of the four I bought, but one which had actually been spawned in the pond, and has known no other home. It is this which, nearly two years without aeration, water changes or deliberate feeding notwithstanding, has survived. How has it managed it? Perhaps in view of the oncoming climatic cataclysm we ought to investigate.

On Thursday I visited the garden centre and bought a new fish, to see how that went. I thought if they failed to get on - one fish which hasn't seen a single other one for nearly two years, and one which has grown up surrounded by dozens - the pond was at least large enough for them to avoid each other a lot of the time. But they don't seem to want to, which is gratifying. Perhaps a couple more might be suitable. Of course they disdained appearing in my photograph.