A good start

I hire some pond people every year to come out and clean my pond -- empty it, power wash, fix stuff, etc -- after our recent, sudden, fierce stormy weather, the weeds are off on their own again. Embarrassed to have anyone looking closely at the pond and weed-infested
surroundings, I spent some time back there this afternoon. My fingers hurt from the pulling and poking. One side of my leg is all welty -- I think I disturbed some rather stinging critter and he (or she) didn't take to it too kindly. I think I'm also a little sore from jumping 3 feet in the air each time (and there were several) I encountered a black widow. They seem to be thriving back there. Maybe there are lots of widows and their children and they're all living off the fat of the land.
Before the 600-calorie-burning weeding session.


After:

Recently a frog has migrated into the area. A very loud frog. He doesn't sing or dance and doesn't seem to know much about the Rainbow Connection, but my word does he have a lot to say about ribbits.
I'll try to post post-pond clean-out photos so there's not so much algae. And I'm considering getting a bottom feeder so that people can make more lawyer jokes and the pond doesn't get quite so gross over the course of the year.