Sunday Pics

It's kinda neat how each year this watergarden is a little different. This year while I was setting up the house plants on the deck, I had this old spider plant to deal with. It is at least 15 years old, it was potbound and abandoned on the patio of a condo I moved into ten years ago. I potted up all the babies, made two planters, and used the hanging pot that the mother plant was in for something else. I was left with a mass of spider plant that I couldn't separate, and which was too big for any pot I had on hand. I stuck it into the basin that the waterfall pours out into, thinking that I'd pick up a bigger pot at the store soon. Of course, I forgot, and this plant has gone wild filtering the fish water.

*click on any pic for a larger view

Closeup of the frog in the pic above. He just hung out as I went all about snapping off pics. I was kneeling right on the same stone that he was sitting on, trying to get a different little frog, and he just sat still as you please...

Water hyacinth in the stream. The only thing that cleans the fish water (and the pond is pretty over stocked right now) is the stream. All the plants in the stream, as well as sunshine and aeration, keep the water crystal clear and fresh.

I thought this pic was striking because of the many layers - sky, plants, water surface; and silent, shadowed fish beneath. The slashing shadows of the plants contain the submerged fishy world. Multiple gateways, and nets.