Something Fishy
by Charlie Ross
Yesterday I felt
really pleased with myself for I cleaned out the
fountain in my fish pond. All winter the thing
hasn’t been working. Anyone who has a
fountain or pump for their pond will know that
said item gets very gunged up with fish and frog
poo. It is not the nicest of jobs and the hubby
and I usually try to out wait each other hoping
beyond hope that the other one will snap first
and clean it.
We have many
little games like this especially when it comes
to putting petrol in the car, since we drive a 2
litre mpv this has to be done quite often. It is
amazing how far you can actually drive with the
needle in red and even after the little orange
light has come on. We become so determined that
the other is going to put the petrol in this time
I have even resorted to walking everywhere so he
has to fill up I can be really petty when I try.
Anyway back to the
pond. The gungy mess is horrid it smells putrid
and the only way to clean it is to turn a very
fast hose on it. I must caution anyone who is
thinking about doing this, be very careful as you
point the hose at the centre and squirt it will
undoubtedly spray back into your face bringing
with it the black smelly gunge that is frog poo.
I myself have fell foul to this many a time. I
did, however, clear all that gunk away I set the
little whirly thing inside the pump going again
and felt very proud as a gush of water began to
pour out.
I must explain
that my fountain is not only that but has a
little waterfall that comes down into the pond
from the back. Now this is beginning to sound
like something you may see at the Chelsea flower
show but I must shatter these illusions. This
pond is roughly five foot by two foot and three
foot deep at the deepest part. We call it a
wildlife pond as it is very rough looking.
We do, however,
have four goldfish residing in it along with the
many frogs. We can always see the frogs but
seldom see the fish, the water isn’t exactly
clear. We have set said pond beneath our lilac
tree and nestled among the forsythia and the big
pink bushy thing (I’m not a very
knowledgeable gardener) This means that in the
Autumn when the leaves fall they all fall into
the pond so we are forever having to fish them
out.
After I had
cleared the pump and a couple of little squirts
were coming out of the fountain head and there
was a trickle coming from the waterfall as I have
said I felt very proud ( and rather dirty and I
probably smelt a bit too). I then went for a bath
I phoned hubby at work to let him know that I was
the one who had risked life and limb to clear out
the pump and maybe we would get to see the little
fish we put in there soon.
Four tiny goldfish
that we bought from the garden centre about three
years ago. My youngest son naming three of them
and my eldest, whilst refusing to allow his
younger brother to name his fish, he would not
actually name it himself. Being the youngest of
two siblings myself I know exactly how he feels
this is the type of taunting I would have to
endure from my older sister myself on many
occasion but that is for another time.
For now we must
get back to the pond. Or maybe if I had gone back
to the pond sooner I would not have had the shock
I did as I came downstairs on Saturday morning. I
went into the kitchen ready to make my morning
cup of tea and avoiding the loving gaze of the
dog sitting at the front door waiting for his
morning walk. I casually gazed out of the window
and saw that the water in the pond was no more.
It had disappeared over night. I couldn’t
believe what I was seeing and knew that the next
step was to go out there and see the damage. I
envisioned dead goldfish in the bottom or worse
still flapping fish that I would have to somehow
rescue from their fate.
I toyed with the
idea of calling my youngest son who is twelve and
deeply into anything gory or so it seems when I
see snippets of games he plays with his brother
on the console. Then I thought maybe, when
confronted with actual goriness, he may not be so
brave. I decided that I must do my duty as a
mother to protect him from such a sight. Well
that and he was still in bed asleep and that is a
great fete in itself to try and wake him and get
him out of bed.
So I went outside
and cautiously looked into the pond. There was
still some very black water in the deepest part.
We’d sat the pump on a couple of bricks so
it hadn’t quite emptied the pond and said
fish were all fine and dandy and had trebled in
size since I had last seen them. A quick call to
my hubbys work again and he gave me instructions.
I not only had to fill the pond with the hose
pipe very slowly but I had to get the gunk out of
the waterfall and clear the pump yet again. It
was a dirty smelly job but after it was done and
this time getting a real spray from the fountain
and a gush from the waterfall it was well worth
the effort.
After my bath I
went to look at my handy work and saw the fish
swimming happily and two frogs doing what frogs
do at this time of the year. I felt so proud that
I even dragged my kids and my hubby out there to
marvel at my handy work. As hubby looked at the
fish he declared that we should do away with this
pond and build one at the other side of the
garden. It is a good job that it is such a small
pond because he cant swim.
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