Hi scottspond, some how didn't think she would, Florida vs Manchester, no contest really ;-) The area I live in is New Mills, in High Peak in Derbyhsire. If it doesn't ring a bell, it's just past Lyme park, Buxton is about 2 miles away, Stockport 9 miles and Manchester 20 miles (all via road) Handily the railway station is about 5 mins away from my home, so trips to Manchester are pleasent through the countyside and don't require I use the car ;-) And in summer I get to hop on the odd steam trian, every boys dream. My Mancunian mates reckon I've gone "all posh" living here, as I was born and grew up in Fallowfield and went to school in Rusholme. Regards ChrisC.

Dancingcook, Thanks for the complement! If you look at the top photo, you will see that tall clump of grass or miscanthus and some white which is the corner of my front porch. The pump is in the bottom of the pond with the tubing feeding up along the liner and behind the flow of water in the water fall. The water flow and black color of the tubing hides the tubing pretty well. The fall is just stacked rock that we found locally. The tubing runs up behind the flow through strategically placed rock in the fall, through the miscanthus to a filter (5 gallon bucket filter) and back through the miscanthus and under the top white rock that has a concave area that hides the tubing. We found the rock like that, so it isn't something we drilled. I cut the grass back every fall to about a foot tall and pull my pump and filter,and put everything back in in the spring before the grass gets to growing good. The grass hides the tubing well, and the filter is on the back side of the porch where it is pretty much hidden from view by the grass and other plants but still accessible for me to clean every week or two. I do have a lag time in the spring where you can see all the tubing and such ( I refer to the pond as the "bride of frankenstien" then!), until the grass gets going good and the plants in the pond grow in, but until I can get the cash to build exactly what I want, it will do. Carla

Thank you all for your kind comments. We built the ponds over a weekend mid June digging the holes on Saturday and inserting the liners and smoothing out the dirt on Sunday. I actually waited a week and 2 days before adding any fish. We live on Long Island, no raccoon here but I saw an opossums twice in my yard about 5 years ago, but the most dangerous predator here are cats (one likes to drink every morning in a fountain we have). Thanks for reinforcing the "wait and see" strategy. I have about a third of the water coveren in lettuce now, will probably get some more next trip to the garden place. On a happy note when I checked the pond this morning the boys were schooled up at the far end looking for food on the surface. They seemed happy and healthy, and I did get to see Nemo and Goldie (the two Kois).

That's the first one on my list, Irisgal. I have looked at a number of recommended blues and they look lavendar to me on the screen. Sinfonietta and Lake Sylvia are the bluest in photos, but Lake Sylvia is very dark and I think it might not show up well in the spot I have in mind.