I've been in a state of depression for over a week. Must be the gray weather we're having. Anyway...thank you all for making me giggle!!!! You are the most creative folks and I wish you were all my neighbors :-) I want a water bed now and I want a tub with a flowerpot person. DH is going to flip with another one of my crazy ideas. I just convinced him I needed to build a Mason bee house *lol* Here's my pond. I inherited from the previous owner. I don't like it and would love to replace it with something else. You are all great! thank you for making me laugh. Edna

Thanks everyone for the nice replies. In the first pic, do you see the trumpet vine that is back by the shed? We just had a few vicious storms today and the three intertwined trunks have split. It is cut down now and my yard seems to have a naked spot. Goats bear is laying flat too and I hope will spring back up tomorrow. Regards, lisa

Sandy - I disagree with your comments on a philosophical level and am contrasting my thoughts in the honest commentary you ask for. Flowers, with standards of color and arrangement and whatever, are not ponds. The original post here was mean-spirited in its sardonic and sarcastic presentation, but it sure was a no-holds- barred critique of someone's pond that stimulated responses. I don't agree with the poster's attitude, but in looking at the pond when the pictures were available, I can say that while I wouldn't build that, it is interesting as an expression of an individual, perhaps of class and culture. The owner probably takes as much pleasure as I do with mine or you with yours. Any pond is inherently interesting to me as a personal expression. Nowhere that I have seen has anyone said a pond must be artistic or a work of art-some turn out that way by design or accident. Not everyone has your aesthetic, background, creativity or ability and we just muddle along making ourselves happy (and obligated to change in the future of course). I have never seen a poor pond by a poor pond builder or pond keeper-only ponds that don't suit my location or desires. To critique a pond based on very subjective criteria isn't fair; helpful comments or a pat on the back just for the hard work and money is all anyone really asks, if they ask. To me the key is the concept of appreciation in the broadest sense--to look at and learn and understand there is always something to be seen and to learn from. To judge (poor pond) or apply a personal judgment that is not some universally accepted view (bad ponder - and we have no standards for that)is negative rather than constructive, constructive being hard to do, an art in itself. Anyway, that is my point of view, philosophy that diverges from yours in some ways. I really enjoy your posts, we have had some interesting back and forth on some topics, and hope that continues because it is instructive and especially, fun. This is an obscure post in a less well traveled part of the forum I suppose, but do hope you see it as well as others. Hopefully some will respond and there can be more discussion on the idea of looking at and commenting on what ponders submit. My two cents today; like you I have too much time on my hands and find myself getting old, err, maturing. Mike

Oh.. i didn't know they would get big. My mom has a tub a bit bigger than mine and she actually had a few survive last winter.. i do not know how. We have 4 tanks in the house for fish.. one is our recovery tank, although we rarely use it. I was going to put them in that for the winter. The lady at the fish store told me they stayed litte! Thanks for telling me otherwise. How would 2 shabunkins do in there? Or maybe just 3 little comets.. and i'll give the rest to someone else. Also.. how do i winterize the plants? We should be all done tomorrow with everything (hubby has the rest of the week off from work). I'm so excited! Oh, the "crooked house".. my daughters birthday is May 28, so that was me, my hubby and my father's weekend project. We did it in 2 days from scratch. He is a master carpenter (log homes and such.. beautiful work, and lots of spare materials) so we had him a little cockeyed having to build something crooked from plywood lol!