Fun at the pond

Peace and quiet on the dock. A dragonfly landed on my butterfly t-shirt!
A bullfrog seems to like my turtle basking platform.
Bambi has been trimming my hibiscus, but the law of doubling works. Plant double what you want. Works for the squirrels and bulbs, too!
The hibiscus are in bloom, as are the pink phlox - they smell heavenly.

The goldfish situation

Poor fishy. It had dropsy and dropped.
That bloated look, with fins standing out from its body.

Thank goodness they had babies last summer.
You can see how the babies have grown.
They are such a wonderful bright colour.
Their pond is still frozen over.

Another few weeks and I hope I can pop them in!

Alewives crossed with the goldfish

I look forward to that bright green colour and the iris soon. In the meantime, they seem anxious to get outside.

Fungus on pump stump

The pond was active a few days ago.

You can see the bullfrog and leopard frog in the water! 

Without a hard frost to date, the fungus is blooming!

Waterfalls and dams in photos

I loved taking my canoe about the beaver ponds in Muskoka. This is my collection of waterfall photos from our Ontario travels.

Two green frogs sat at a bar

Two green frogs sat at the bar.
They eyed the bartender, a turtle with a grumpy demeanour.

Camera Critters #231

How about a beer?

Not for me, hon. I want a grasshopper.

 It's that time of year for those of us who are amateur photographers to make calendars for family and close friends. I have tens of thousands of photos. Two year ago I used Kodak. They've been bought out and have changed to another company, Shutterfly. Another company, Vistaprint, has a crazy site, with many products and services.

Mourning Dove on the lawn

This year I looked at Cottage Life, who have a website, but also offer calendar services. You create a login, password, and then click on their terms. Eventually, I began to read their Terms and Conditions.'

It looked peeved that I took its photo!

"You hereby grant us a irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, fully paid-up, royalty-free, assignable, transferable, and recursively sub-licensable license to copy, distribute, publish, modify, delete, translate, create derivative works therefrom, and otherwise use in any manner whatsoever Submitted Material. "

Just say you are forewarned to read the Terms and Conditions. They'll take your photos and use them for their own purposes.

 

Soon Monarchs will be going south.

From Moths This is a new moth for me. Trying to get the cat in, I spotted a Tersa Sphinx. It is huge. I had no idea about the nightlife around here!

Pool parties in the open air!

Have you drunk too much?

There is much action in my goldfish pond. It looks like a pool party. For some reason I imagined a conversation between the frog and pirate in the boat! She seemed to be examining Captain George Travis closely. Captain George had definitely keeled over! He's been around for awhile. None of us are getting any stronger!

I told you it was time to go home

My mother told me you were bad

Of course, we know who have been fooling around underwater: Alewives and goldfish.. hybrid proof! Invasive species, indeed.
 

They are approaching 2", and growing.
We'll see if they overwinter.
Jeremiah is on his own!

He's 4.5" from snout to 'vent',
but they can reach 8"!
Total 25 cm (10") from snout to tippy toes!

I built a goldfish pond, and Jeremiah came to live!
This is an 8"/ 20cm ruler... and he rules the pond.

   
 Jeremiah looks as if he swallowed a cat.
It was another frog...as far as I could tell!

Jeremiah bullfrog and Shirley Goldfish

The turtle is fake - the frog, not!

When I want to check the status of the fish, I turn off the pond pump and chuck some fish food into the goldfish pond. For the first time, Jeremiah Bullfrog decided that the goldfish were fair game. This drew the Alewives, too. And the Alwives that have crossbred with the goldfish. Never mind that they are vastly different sizes. We couldn't believe it!

Bullfrog sits in the pot most days.

The fish nibble frog's toes, but he still goes after them, the food, and the fish, all about him!

Jeremiah bullfrog and goldfish video

I built a goldfish pond. We had a couple of fish, then someone donated 4 more. It was a school of goldfish. I had notice that there were Alewives, a type of herring - an invasive species, that appeared one day. Perhaps in the wetland plants I transplanted.
You build it, they will come.
First it was the green frogs, then the leopard frogs. Finally, or so I thought, Jeremiah bullfrog entered the pond. He seems to have taken over. Next, I found that the alewives seem to have mated with the goldfish.

The lion and the lamb (spider?) lie down

One wedding anniversary, my parents sent us a cheque. We spent the money on two week lions statues. They have been fading with time. I spray-painted them gold. They won't last much lunger, but this one is a home for a spider.

In the meantime, all is well on the rest of the place.

The new garden is growing,
all with transplanted plants!

Hubby has painted 3/4 of the fence!
WHile not truly ornamental,
it doesn't keep out the deer, rabbits, raccoons...sigh.

Then there is Buster, who believe prey sits on the floating cedar island.

Yes, I need Smellovision. The lavender blooms!

Haven't figured these out yet. Very pretty, though!
My garden still holds mysteries for me,
lo these 2 years...
Yes, I have lots of pretty wildflowers in them,
but they have a right to bloom, too!