We spent the afternoon at the pond today
Saturday, Aug. 25, 2012
5pm
Willem and I went to the pond as soon as we got home. I didn't even come up to the house. We swam for a long time. I looked at the toads, counted 60 today. It's never the same number. Yesterday it was 70. I didn't see the two little flecks of toadlets, the green leaves I'd seen yesterday.
I like seeing how the different green toads sit. Some are upright, others hug the ground. Some are on flat dry ground, others are in the water, just their eyes poking up. Soem jump when I come by, others stay in place. Crouchers, set to jumpers, floaters, hangers on bits in the water, cave dwellers...there are all sorI ts of positions the toads take. Most are submerged up to their necks in the warm water.
The water is about a foot lower than it was before. It's not rained lately. I'm content to have the hot sunny weather, myself. All the flowers are blooming, too, so they can't be too upset about it, either! The thyme is in flower again, too.
I gathered together all the long willow I'd been soaking overnight and wove on Willem's little fence privacy blind. I brought down another bundle and spread it all out in the pond afterwards so it would soak, too.
Willem fixed my steps so they were much nicer on both sides of the blind. He filled the hole by the log with the diggings. He also tapered the stairs into the terrace by the blind.
I swam while he did a sudoku, then he read Harry Potter to me. Professor Umbridge is a foul woman! I could hear him reading while I was in the water. I can hear the wind in the distnt trees while I'm in the water, too. It sounds nice.
We spent four hours down there today. I was glad Willem had brought down his sudoku, planning on being there for awhile with me.
I had to come back up to the house for the willow and bought down hook eyes for my gourds and the Harry Potter book along with my laptop which I never did get around to using.
I counted the leafed out willow stems. 220 of the ones I shoved into the ground and cut off two inches above ground have leaves on them now! How wonderful! I need enough for a year's worth of baskets from them every year! When they are doing well, I will have way more than five shoots from each one, so that's 1000 shoots. If they all live. These things are not a sure thing, you know! But they have a good chance of living down there!
I would like to plant bulrushes in the shallows. I will harvest them yearly, too.
The sun is lower in the sky nowadays. It's very close to the treetops as it grazes across them all afternoon. No longer that sun way up in the sky. Only two months from the height of sunshine and already it's an obvious difference.
It's been quite cold at night and now hot in the day again. No humidity that I can feel, though. Perfect weather for me.
5pm
Willem and I went to the pond as soon as we got home. I didn't even come up to the house. We swam for a long time. I looked at the toads, counted 60 today. It's never the same number. Yesterday it was 70. I didn't see the two little flecks of toadlets, the green leaves I'd seen yesterday.
I like seeing how the different green toads sit. Some are upright, others hug the ground. Some are on flat dry ground, others are in the water, just their eyes poking up. Soem jump when I come by, others stay in place. Crouchers, set to jumpers, floaters, hangers on bits in the water, cave dwellers...there are all sorI ts of positions the toads take. Most are submerged up to their necks in the warm water.
The water is about a foot lower than it was before. It's not rained lately. I'm content to have the hot sunny weather, myself. All the flowers are blooming, too, so they can't be too upset about it, either! The thyme is in flower again, too.
I gathered together all the long willow I'd been soaking overnight and wove on Willem's little fence privacy blind. I brought down another bundle and spread it all out in the pond afterwards so it would soak, too.
Willem fixed my steps so they were much nicer on both sides of the blind. He filled the hole by the log with the diggings. He also tapered the stairs into the terrace by the blind.
I swam while he did a sudoku, then he read Harry Potter to me. Professor Umbridge is a foul woman! I could hear him reading while I was in the water. I can hear the wind in the distnt trees while I'm in the water, too. It sounds nice.
We spent four hours down there today. I was glad Willem had brought down his sudoku, planning on being there for awhile with me.
I had to come back up to the house for the willow and bought down hook eyes for my gourds and the Harry Potter book along with my laptop which I never did get around to using.
I counted the leafed out willow stems. 220 of the ones I shoved into the ground and cut off two inches above ground have leaves on them now! How wonderful! I need enough for a year's worth of baskets from them every year! When they are doing well, I will have way more than five shoots from each one, so that's 1000 shoots. If they all live. These things are not a sure thing, you know! But they have a good chance of living down there!
I would like to plant bulrushes in the shallows. I will harvest them yearly, too.
The sun is lower in the sky nowadays. It's very close to the treetops as it grazes across them all afternoon. No longer that sun way up in the sky. Only two months from the height of sunshine and already it's an obvious difference.
It's been quite cold at night and now hot in the day again. No humidity that I can feel, though. Perfect weather for me.