I am not sure what did that, but this year I have more lily pads and flowers then ever. I don't have any fish in there this year just the tads and the frogs. I have actually been very happy with the pond this year. The water is clear and just about no green algae. The pump died last year and I had figured that without a new one the pond was going to be a mess this year. But it is the complete opposite the pond has never had this little algae I haven't needed to scoop are clean at all this year :) I think this is in part the plants I put in maturing and thanks to the frogs and the birds I have some underwater plants that are sucking up the nutrients, and probably a big part is the cooler weather we have had this year. I would love it if I could get away with this again next year but not holding my breath.

Hey Marie - what's the name of the granite farm in Lynnfield? Sounds pretty interesting. In June I posted some pics of our new front walkway and yard. I then spent almost every free minute this hot dry summer planting! Totally crazy but I'm too busy with work in the spring and fall so summer it was. A lot of folks here were really helpful in thinking about what to plant. We ended up with a lot of hostas (an old love), a lot of hydrangeas (a new love), a pagoda dogwood (some folks here suggested), some fragrant azaleas, ferns, daphnes, rhodies, and assorted other things. We have lots of shade, though a little more sun than in the backyard so I got a little more adventurous. My question posted here was about what to plant in the bed center stage in front of our house. We never really "decided" but it kind of evolved. We saw a small red weeping Japanese Maple that we had to have (Tamukeyama). Tagged one at Weston's for the fall, but then found one on sale at Stonegate in Lincoln and bought that. That went in the front of the bed to hopefully someday weep over the big rocks along the walkway. I also wanted a green one to weep over the side wall - bought a very small A J Green Cascade. Not sure how long it will take till they're big enough to really see! Finally we were out in the Berkshires and we saw an older (10 years?) PG hydrangea at one of our favorite nurseries that we totally fell in love with. We had no way of getting it back here, so they're holding it until it goes dormant. Hopefully we can then somehow get it into the back of the Subaru! I'll post when we get everything in, though by that time it might not look like much so may wait until the spring. Today I finally finished planting - moved a couple of things from the backyard. Hurray!!!! We've also been trying to get the thousands of acorns up before they're lost in leaves. I spent most of last spring pulling up baby oak trees. I had the landscaper rake a lot of the leaves into the beds, and he raked the acorns in too. This year I think we're doing it ourselves. What do you all do about acorns? We also tried to move our old kayaks into the back yard. Turned one over and out popped a very frightened chipmunk...

Not only are they harmless - they eat lots of fleas at that size and when get bigger take on the palmetto bugs, slugs, catapillers, snails, mosquitoes etc, etc. They are the bug hunters in the garden. Let them work for you. Need to be organic, are sensitive fellows to chemicals but take over the chems job quite well. And so cute when they all sing in the water garden. They are singing tonight. Breed, Breed, Breed. They can set up a great harmony. Particularily before a rain storm. Weather forcasters too. Handy critters. Your dogs will put them in their mouth once and then no more. Secrete a distasteful ooze for dogs. If they were born in your pond and yard will stay there. We have the Eastern spadefoot toad and the Western Ridgeback which seem to come in drought years and are too noisy for me. At least i think those are their names from my memory. Say nice things to them, they are our amphibian garden friends. They seem to get used to you if you do that. Sandy

Swan Lake is about 87 miles by road Northwest of Columbia. Diamondback Water Snakes are present at Swan Lake, but strangely I haven't seen any yet that I could positively ID as such there, although some of my "Blotched Water Snakes" at a distance could perhaps be Diamondbacks for all I know. I know further west at Squaw Creek NWR, Diamondbacks seem to be by far the dominant nerodia. I have always been intrigued by which nerodia fills a niche, since at Mingo NWR, Broad-Bandeds are abundant but at Snake Road they are absent. However, Snake Road has Mississippi Greens in decent numbers, and Yellowbellies rule there among Nerodia. As for bobcats, I imagine wild areas in the South Central Ozarks around dawn and dusk would be the best places, but its hard to argue with a place where I have actually seen one.