The Listening Ear

New Waterlily Blossom

The yellow water lilies have begun to bloom. Here’s one of the blossoms.

Surprise At The Pond

A couple of years ago, my son Seth gave me a plant for my pond. I brought some roots back from Tucson in a plastic bag. 

Last year I planted it in a pot and put in in the upper pond, but it didn’t do very well. I t got overwhelmed by other plants. 

During the winter, I brought it into my office since it can’t stand winter weather. The plant flourished and it already had buds when I set i back in the pond the other day. Here’s what I found when I looked at the pond this morning.

Creation Thoughts

The other day I made a short video to use with my confirmation class. We've just started studying the creed and are focusing now on Creation. I wanted to talk about a favorite spot in God's creation so I did a personal reflection on one of my favorite parts of God's creation—my backyard pond. I probably blog too much about the pond, but it is a place that is very renewing for me. Here's the video:

Blooms On The Pond

I always look forward to the day when the first blooms appear on the water lilies on my pond. Today I discovered two had opened—a pink/white variety on the lower pond and a yellow one on the upper pond. here are some pictures. They are a bit lower in resolution because Wanda took our camera to a family reunion this weekend so I had to use my computer to take them. Still, you get a sense of their beauty.

It Is Really Spring!

I know that the calendar says spring started last week, but for me it began today. The ice left my pond last week and today I got the watercourse running. I am happy to say that the fish survived the winter nicely. I can see them mostly lying on the bottom yet, although they do move a bit. After the bio-filter runs a few days, the water should get crystal clear and I'll be able to see them even better. I am glad it's spring!

Pond In Winter

My pond doesn’t need much attention in winter since it freezes over and the fish just lie on the bottom in a state of hibernation. All I need to do is to make sure there is a bit of open water so that there is some oxygen exchange. When I first built the pond, I made a deicer (pictured here) that uses two 25 watt bulbs to generate enough heat to keep ice from forming underneath it. That’s enough to keep the oxygen in the pond from being depleted.

It has worked well except last year when one bulb burned out during a bitter cold spell and the remaining bulb didn’t create enough heat to keep the water from freezing over. By the time I discovered it my best fish had died (of, course!). So the chore I did last Friday was to melt the ice around the deicer so that I could get it out of the ice and replace the bulbs. I can’t chip away the ice because blows to the ice can actually kill the fish. The change in pressure caused by beating on the ice can rupture their eardrums (yes, fish have eardrums) and that can kill them. So I had to use hot water to melt enough ice to free the deicer. It took me about 2 hours.

I know that sounds like work and it was, but I only need to do it once during the winter. I got it accomplished yesterday and the new bulbs should last the rest of the winter. I am happy and I trust that my fish are, too.

If you want to see a picture from the pond in summer, click here.