Gazing Ball Joins the Pondscape

My son suprised us with a large gazing ball for Christmas which has found a prominent location at the end of the pond. It is nice to have something shining with everything else being so dull and brown this time of year. The pond temperature hit a low of 37 degrees before the current milder weather arrived. The temperture rose back over 40 degrees today and there is a tad more fish action with the warmer water. In picking out leaves yesterday, we disturbed two bullfrog tadpoles and a baby salamander who were hibernating under the leaves. We returned them to the pond and hope they won't hold a grudge next spring. The Ponders that say they give their ponds a thorough cleaning must throw away a bunch of wildlife as we seem to disturb small critters every time we do any cleaning at all.