Ok, Patti, I sympathise with your pond woes, I really do. So close your eyes and imagine walking out of your front door into a balmy front yard, about 75 degrees at 8 am. The yellow rose 20' to your right has such a sweet scent you can smell it as soon as you open the front door. The arbor in front of the porch is completely covered with clematis and passion vine extending the cool shade another 4' from the porch cover. The double swing at the far left end of the porch sways in the soft morning breeze and the chain it hangs on squeeks a little on the back movement, not a loud screech, just a little ee-ee. You step off the porch into the St.Augustine grass and it's damp and cool on your bare feet. Walk out to the front garden and go under the arbor and through the wrought iron gate onto the soft, raked-earth paths. There are giant hostas, blooming bluebonnets and tall larkspur on your left. On your right is an oak-leaf hydrangea just coming into bloom, the cone-shaped panicles covered with creamy white buds. Along this path you also find shasta daisies in full bloom, 3' tall and flanked with blood-red snapdragons. Around a small turn in this path you find a tiny pond with a fountain. The splashing water is soothing and yet seems loud since it's the only sound you can hear in the garden at this hour. A little mail-box next to the pond holds a canister of goldfish food pellets, so you drop a few of them into the water and watch the fish come up to dine. Turning right you find a redbud and a dogwood on one side of the path and a wide stand of tall, snow-white yarrow and butterfly ginger on the other side. The little trees are past blooming, the yarrow and ginger just beginning. Under the trees, the ground cover is low-growing snapdragons in orange and yellow. Moving on there is a Nearly Wild rose in full bloom on your left. There are so many flowers on it, you can hardly see any leaves. Rising behind this rose the last of the iris, pale sky blue is just beginning to fade. Below the rose is a patch of lavender pincushion flower peeking out and tumbling into the edge of the path. Directly across from it is a matching pincusion flower covering the ground at the base of three more small trees, two althea and another dogwood. A few more steps down this path you come upon two iron ice-cream parlor chairs that have had the seats and back cushions removed. Instead, two large canning kettles have been dropped into the seat openings and the lids wired to the backs. The kettles are filled with scotch moss and impatiens in a merry pink color. Between the chairs is a small metal table topped with a metal scrollwork Victorian birdcage. Turning left into the "secret garden" there is a circular path with an escarpment rising up in the middle. The escarpment is covered with mosses growing in and among the rocks. On top is a little stone castle with tiny doors and stained glass windows. The inhabitants of this castle are as mysterious as the castle. You can't see them, but you know they're there. Tiny stone pathways reveal their passing, ladders stand where they have moved between the escarpment the circular path, and another castle nearly hidden in tall garden pflox. A small stone bridge over a rivulet filled with creeping thyme is worn in the center from years of use by the tiny inhabitants. Looking past the escarpment into the 'hinterland' of this enchanted place the giant cannas and hollyhocks are a dark forest. A weigelia shrub covered with red blossoms overshadows many small varigated hostas that line the edges of the circular path. Mosses and ferns drip the morning dew into the pathway as you pass by. Emerging from the "secret garden" all the mystery evaporates like a mist, and a concrete bench beckons you to sit down and rest in the shade of a 200 year old native pecan tree. As you sit there the birds begin to awaken and the first hummingbird arrives at the feeder just 10 feet from your nose. If you're wearing anything with flowers on it, he'll come over and investigate you to see if you have anything sweet to eat. Soon another hummer and another and another will arrive and the race will be on. The swooping and diving will go on until each of them has had a chance to get to the feeder before an opponenet has chased him away. These little dramas go on all day if you have the time to sit and watch them. Beyond the bench, Texas Star red hibiscus, Spanish bluebells, tall red snapdragons, and white larkspur provide a backdrop for the purple blooms of scented geraneums and sweet violets form a carpet of green below. Rounding the last turn foxgloves and bluebonnets on the left and red and white columbines on the right flank the path that leads you back to the entrance gate. Emerging from the gate and looking down the grassy hill you can just see the tips of the roses in the rose garden. It is a patchwork of different colors and textures at this time of year. All of the roses are in bloom and every color is there, red, pink, fuschia, lavender, orange, cream, peach, yellow, white, and all of the combinations of colors too. There is the Scentimental, red and white stripes, Love and Peace yellow edged in pink, Lady of the Mist a single delicate pink with white center, and Stars and Stripes a red and white striped climber and Playboy bright yellow center with neon orange edge. In this garden a comfortable table and chairs offers seating and a pitcher of cool, iced lemonade, relief from the heat of mid-morning. Sit down under the umbrella and look up. There's a green tree frog sitting up in the inside of the cover and he looks at you without fear. Look away for a moment and back and you'll find him no longer there. A mockingbird sitting on a fence post begins to sing and nothing else in the world sounds as sweet. The May morning sun begins to beat down and is so relaxing you could fall asleep where you sit. Better to move to the hammock under the ash tree where it stays shady all day. Here's wishing you warm weather soon, Patti. Cheryl

I don't know what kind of pond, or is it a tank, you run but in a water garden with Koi and/or Goldfish 40 ppm nitrate is no problem. However that's just one more opinion, you've already read different ones. There's a bottom line to opinions, you either have to hope you guessed right in picking one to believe or you learn what the nitrate issues are for fish and form your own opinion base on your specific pond. On the Seachem test...not waiting 15 minutes will make it hard to read. If ammonia is very low it can be hard to read. The darker color is the test result. Testing water isn't super easy. You can practice with distilled water and adding pure ammonia from the drug store. Math skills are required, precise measuring and attention to detail.

Thanks, Sharpie. The falls in the pic is mine, and I've already used liner to line it. It wouldn't even fill up enough to run before that. The Great Stuff has been very useful though, in that it holds the rocks together nicely. Fortunately I had leftover liner pieces. I actually lined my whole pond, 30' X 15', for under $300 (plus the cost of a U-Haul rental). It's EPDM roofing. 2 years later and everyone seems happy in there. Angela, I should mention that I did use silicone caulk in places where it would show a lot, and no, it does not expand. I just noticed you're in Canada. I checked and Great Stuff is available in Canada. Here's their web page. Great Stuff Link Sharon

My computer seems to be hanging in there right now (fingers crossed, knock wood). I fiddled with all the connections and changed out the power strip. I'm HOPING that fixed things! We'll see. Evelyn, I answered your emails. I don't know why you wouldn't have received replies, but I HAVE been having "mailer-daemon" issues with a couple of groups. Perhaps my replies are lost in cyberspace!?! When computers work, they are soooo wonderful, and when they don't, they are soooooo NOT!! I'll try to take some new pictures of Maks for ya today. He got a new collar yesterday and is learning to walk on a leash. I normally go with harnesses, but the one that fit him scared him into a gibbering, quivering, howling mess. It wasn't that he wasn't used to it. He truly thought something bad had hold of him. So I will work with a collar for a few more weeks and try again when he is a bit older. We aren't doing real walks yet, anyway. Just trying to get him used to the concept of ME being in control of where he goes. (He doesn't like that much!) Potter is still being so good with him. Very tolerant! Marcia