Ponds Plants in Full Glory

The pond plants in both ponds are growing to beat the band. The first one is the Large Pond with a bunch of Sweet Flag, Spade Plant, Black Magic and others providing cover for the Goldfish and beautiful scenery. The Large Pond is 750 gallons and gets 2 feet deep in the middle and far end. Looking between the plants, we get great views of the 100 plus Goldfish.
The second picture is the small pond at 90 gallons that is also 2 feet deep. In addition to the previous mentioned plants, this small pond has Water Lily pads floating on the surface. In this pond the coverage is so good it is hard to see the fish but frogs love to hang out on the Lily Pads.

Can't Keep Mother Nature Down

Mother Nature can get it done whenever ant whereever she wants to. Here is a great example of Mother Nature growing a nice flower from a tiny crack between the patio pavers. This flower must have been seeded from one of our flower pots in which we grew these flowers last year. The seed found the nook and decided to beat the odds by growing in a less than ideal location.
Meanwhile I was able to capture a great picture of a Green Frog hanging on a Sweet Flag leaf on the side of the large pond. He is a pretty photogenic guy.

Black Cat and Black Snake

Black was the color at the frog pond last week. For the first time the wild life camera snapped a picture of what I think is a black cat. A close look at the middle of this picture shows a black form and between the leaves, I think I see the distinctive shape of a cat's ear.
In the second picture the black snake is sliding along the side of the frog pond. One day last week my wife saw him laying in the water probably cooling off. In addition to staying cool, I suspect he is enjoying a selection of frogs and tadpoles.

Giant Comet and Shubunkin

These pictures show two or our oldest and largest fish. Both were about 4 inches long when we bought them 3 years ago. Both are now about a foot long and pretty beefy. The top photo shows the Comet taking a turn under the 5 inch long black fish. The comet has beautiful coloring but most striking in the huge flowing tail. The second is our Shubunkin who's claim to fame is his unique color scheme. Here he is just swimming out from some of the leaf cover. He really shows his size and bulk next to the 3 inch fish.

Beautiful - Bountiful Goldfish

The Goldfish are doing great. In these two pictures you get some great views of a bunch of the fish that are living in the large pond. There are standard Goldfish, black Goldfish, yellow Goldfish, black and orange Goldfish and multi-color Goldfish. They seem to be living well and reproducing regularly since we have fish from an inch to a foot in length.

Baby Oak Leaf Hydrangeas

We tried rooting Oak Leaf Hydrangeas cuttings in 4 pots and had success on one. Both of these stems are looking happy and healthy. These two look pretty good so we need to decide where to plant them in the next couple of weeks.
Below is one of the frogs who is probably tired after a night of partying. In this picture you can see the frog floating in the frog pond with his head just above the water. But if you look closely in the clear spot of water just in front of the frog's nose,you can see a bunch of small black dots that are frog eggs. These are evidence of the nights activities.

The Bunny and the Squirrel

The frog pond is a very popular place this year. There are all kinds of critters hanging around all the time. Here are two favorites, the bunny got a little close to the camera for his picture but it came out ok. And the squirrel fluffed up his tail to make the picture better.

Gaggle of Baby Frogs

Here we go - almost more baby frogs than you can count. A bunch of them matured at the same time and climbed the Sweet Flag leaves as they moved from the water to the land.

One of the large butterflies spread his wings wide and held the pose long enough for a great picture. He was enjoying the flowers on one of the Butterfly bushes.

Danger in the Night

Remember we were picking up apples that fell off the apple tree in the back yard and throwing them over the fence. And the adorable Deer were enjoying some fresh fruit in their diet. It was fun for me because I was able to get so many great Deer pictures. Well we thought the Deer would like some watermelon so we cut up some mellon pieces and put them over the fence for the Deer but the Deer didn't show. Instead we were startled to see the Raccoon visiting the spot. Since Raccoon are about as dangerous as a pest can be, we picked up the melon and canceled that idea real quick. We always knew we had Raccoons and Possums but we never got the photo evidence until now. Pretty scary stuff.