Waterfall, Pond, Fish, and Frogs

I did manage to get out to the pond a get a couple of decent fish pictures yesterday. Since we had sooo much rain (almost 5 inches) the pond was really full and the fish were hanging out near the top nibbling on lettuce. Starting on the left you can see Armour first. He's the biggest. Then Sashimi and Halo are deeper in the water and Steve is on the right in the water lettuce. Steve has an awesome blue spot on top. Someday I'll get a better picture of him.

This is Armour up close. They have all gotten much bigger in just the past couple of months. I can't believe that it is almost time to start thinking about putting them to bed for the winter.
We now have four frogs and we're thinking that they might be terratorial as they all stay in certain spots in the pond. This one is the waterfall frog and he is the biggest.
We have the screens all out of the windows in anticipation of the painter coming so I took the opportunity to take a couple of aerial views from the bedroom window. We still need lots of plants to fill in the spaces.
Andy and I are starting to work on THE BIG CHALLENGE. My art things are currently all over the house. I have a huge sewing room and have still overtaken the dining room with my stuff. Watch for some before pictures as we try and get my stuff under control so we can host Thanksgiving.

Whales in Boothbay and Fish at Home

We went on our first whale watch ever last week on the Pink Lady 2 out of Boothbay Harbor. It was awesome! We saw mostly finbacks so I didn't get any of those fabulous whale tail pictures, oh well.

Our whole Boothbay trip was fun, as usual, but this time I was antsy to be home with the pond. Next year we need to take one of those vacations where you stay home. It was great to see Chris and Roxy. Chris owns Mr. C's restaurant in Boothbay Harbor, ME. If you want to have some great food with some fantastic people, Mr. C's is the place to go!

Now for the fish at home...We have named the 2 original fish Armor and Sashimi and they are getting huge!! Armor is finding it harder to hide beneath rocks and likes to hang out under the water lettuce. That's Armor in the picture. Sashimi is his bud so they are together a lot. We made another trip to Kingston Nursery on Saturday and came home with 2 butterfly koi and another regular one. Their names are Silver, Halo, and Steve. Steph insisted it was time to name the fish. We haven't seen Silver or Halo much, but Steve has been hanging out with the bigger guys. I can't wait until they are all too big to hide all the time!

On to more fish....We are going to go to New Tokyo in Plymouth for sushi tonight. Well, sushi and Teppanyaki. Their sushi isn't as good as it is at Sushi Joy, but I can get Andy to go there for the grill. And as a bonus, Mondays and Tuesdays are half price. Woo Hoo!!

Tug of War with Mother Nature

Well we are having a wee bit of an algae issue in the pond. It turns out that we were missing one key ingredient in the aquaventure~the Bacteria! The pond was clear for 2 weeks and then with only 2 hot sunny days..Bam! Green water. Since then we have been adding bacteria to try and catch up. I think it might finally be working. We can see the 18" level now.

As for wildlife..no frogs and I haven't seen the fish in days. I'm sure the fish are still there, but between their excellent hiding skills and the green water they can't be seen. The cutest little sparrows are loving the waterfall! Even with us sitting right at the water's edge they come right over to have a drink. Of course, I have not had my camera out with me. I'll catch them soon though, I'm sure.

All the systems are finished so now it is up to me to do the plantings. I've put in a few things and we hit the clearance rack at Lowe's yesterday for some groundcover. I planted that all around the front edge this morning. Sorry, I don't remember the name, but I did save the tag.

It's Almost Done!

The pond is almost complete except for plants. Andy spent 12 hours working on Satuday to finish the waterfall and all the planting space behind it. Then we went out plant shopping on Sunday. I'm kindof indecisive (hmm doesn't sound like me does it :) ??) about where to put what. I'm going to have to just start planting and move things later if they don't work.

I have actually seen our fish every day for at least a second. The little buggers are so small that they spend all their time hiding between rocks...Note to self...get BIGGER fish!

Andy and I went out to Blue Eyed Crab in Plymouth last night. It was our 18th wedding anniversary. Last year we both forgot. This year we celebrated with steamers, calamari and and awesome crab and lobster creole. All our food was fantastic! We sat outside and it felt just like being on vacation in Maine even though we were right there in Plymouth.