It was the turn of the big pond yesterday

Having emptied and refilled frog~ and little pond recently we plucked up courage to tackle the big pond yesterday.  We knew it was going to be tough because we'd postponed its cleaning several times last year because of the waterhen broods on the little island.

I started proceedings shortly after letting the ducks out, but the pumping-out was not as efficient as usual because of the extra amount of leaves, twigs and grot - I had to unblock several times, in the afternoon we even used another hose because we couldn't shift a blockage in the blue hose.

At 10 I decided to break for coffee and left the pump to struggle on by itself, and also prepared the batter for pancakes, it was Shrove Tuesday after all.

Coming out again after coffee our group of 10 presented us with an unusually peaceful scene:

We don't often see them this quiet.  What crime those 2 on the left had committed I have no idea ....

On the way down to the big pond I couldn't see the five anywhere  -  until I came to the edge of the nearly empty pond:

They were a pest, these 5, forever trying to get back into what little dirty water remained.  In spite of slithering and sliding on the bare pond sides until they found one of the pieces of plastic mesh to clamber out on they kept trying.  Anke and Lane were particularly persistent.  When you consider that they spent the first 2 years of their lives without a pond they certainly got fond of this one!

We had to break for lunch although we'd rather have finished by then.  I cooked pancakes and we each had 7!  In spite of full stomachs we went straight out again after watching the news and carried on shifting buckets full of dirt, unblocking the pump hose and scrubbing the pond liner as best we could.  Just after 4 I'd had enough and suggested we leave the last dirty puddle to be thinned down by the fresh water running in - John readily agreed, we were both 'aching all over' as they say, we're not as young as we were!

 

               Is that an accusing look Hedda is giving me, "what have you done with my pond" kind of thing?