And Now the Pond!

The incredible spouse got up early with me this morning and we arrived at Hill Country Water Gardens 20 minutes before they opened. I brought my plant cart as I heard they often run out, and we were third through the gate. Just as I came through I spotted Jared from yesterday, he spotted me, he took one list, I took the other, and we started pulling plants. I was briefly distracted by their fine cedar furniture--it gave me some great ideas for what we'll do here--but I quickly came back to point.

HCWG had very kindly set up an empty pond for my use so instead of filling three carts, we just dropped the plants into a pond marked Not For Sale! with big red tape as we pulled them. We blew through the list and I got everything I wanted, then I snagged a couple of succulents on the way to the fish area while Dave trudged next door to WalMart to get a rigid plastic swimming pool to serve as a temporary holding pond. I picked out 10 small American koi and 10 small (American) butterfly koi. While I was there I overheard the girl at the tank explain to a customer the difference between American koi. She said when you pick a small American koi based on its color you may be disappointed because it can change color (even drastically) as it matures. But Japanese koi, she said, remain the same colors their whole lives. That would indicate to me that Japanese koi are not koi that come from Japan, but a whole different variety. Not sure if it's true, haven't had a chance to check yet.

When we got home I filled the little pink plastic wading pool and loaded it up with bog plants. We didn't have nearly enough space for everything! Fortunately, Dan and Zaga next door had a couple of big pond tanks that they weren't using, and with a little help from the spouse (who ran to Home Depot and got a missing plug for one of them) I got them both filled with water and lilies. The fish were a bit more problematic. First off, one of the butterfly koi was floating in the bag when we took them out of the car. Jessie unloaded the bags and asked, "Hey Mom, why'd you buy a dead fish?". Teenagers. I put the remaining 19 fish in with the three big ones I brought from Atlanta and added an extra bubbler to their tank. Jay thinks the pond will be done by the end of the week so they won't have to live there long.

The only negative thing that happened today was that as I was filling the second lily tank, my body betrayed me. If it's doing this now when I'm only in my fifties, what does it have in store for when I'm in my eighties? I guess it was mostly my fault as I had just slipped my shoes on and not secured them so they were flopping around at the heels, and somehow my feet, my shoes, the rocks, and the brush around the pond all got tangled up together and I took a tumble. I landed half on one of the holding ponds--and got soaked in the process--and banged up an arm and a shin. Glad it wasn't worse. Second tumble in the new garden--hit my head last time.

Tonight I had a girls' night over at Zaga's. We had burgers and champagne, talked and talked, and hot tubbed. Yes, up here on the hill where the wind howls is a perfect place for a hot tub! It was 91 degrees this afternoon, but tonight it was 68 and windy--perfect tubbing weather. And did I mention we had such a good time?

Tomorrow: French toast, sous vide bacon, and the new MST3K. Could life get better? Oh yeah, it could: I have a snuggly spouse waiting for me in bed. G'Night! :-)