Fountain of ...Pooch

I've always wanted a pond. There's no reason not to have one; we don't have kids, but our house had the (mis)fortune to be the 'show house' for the estate when they built it. So we may have ended up with a slightly larger garden than some of the houses, but we also ended up with a great deal less than the recommended depth of top soil. In fact, dig down only a couple of inches and you'll hit hardcore and rubble. In abundance. When we moved into the house, the garden was surrounded by very tall, very thick, cherry laurels, fast growing and prolific. The grass never grew because it got no light. There was a cherry tree somewhere there in the foliage, but it was in danger of being suffocated. So we got rid of alot of the laurels, reseeded the grass and planted what we could. We dug away a small part of the garden to make a patio and realised very quickly that this was an impossible job and without the aid of a JBC, that hardcore was going nowhere! So my dreams of having a pond were scuppered.

Then M's Mum offered me this very large pottery bowl that she'd had in her garden as a water feature and my dreams started to take form again. I wanted a fountain that Joe and the girls could enjoy in the summer but I didn't want the hassle of having to wire in a permanent feature. So I had a good look round and found this solar power floating lily pad fountain on eBay.

Wonderful! No wires, no batteries, it just floats there on the top, a little self contained unit. I may add plants to my little pond. I may even see if it's possible to have fish in there. I plan on adding some rocks so that it can be home to some frogs (although Pippins a frog hunter, so that might not be a good idea!). The spray only shoots up when it's sunny, but it's already caught Joe out by spraying him in the face when he's having a crafty slurp. He's already insisting on going out for a drink, I think he thinks it's a giant dog bowl! It's not the koi pond of my dreams, but it's lovely to be able to sit in the garden and listen to the tinkling of water.

And although the weathers not been too warm over the last couple of days, I thought I'd share some macro shots of some of the plants in the garden.

I can't remember what this is, but I love the little frondy bits on the fluffy looking purple centre.

Aqualegia. Beautiful oriental looking flowers.

Dicentra, otherwise known as Bleeding Heart. I love the little dancing fairies along the branches there.

And a dandelion clock! How I loved to blow all the little fluffy parachutes away on their journey as a child.

California lilac. Such beautiful blue blossoms.

Yes, my love of purple even extends to my garden. If the lavender bushes were in flower, you'd have had photos of them too!