A Cold Wet Start To The Day,

I was off to work as Graham needed a day off,

past the puddles forming near the snail mail box,

the cherry blossom now showing the first signs of falling,

off of the number 54 bus and into the shop, Kingfisheries in Corydon Road, Beckenham, since my last time here the outdoor coldwater season has started

so lots of marginal plants,

have arrived, 

also by the time you are reading this the oxygenating plants will be here,

and I forgot to mention the first of the water lilies are here,

ready formed pools have also arrived,

so easy to use, 

just dig a hole and after making sure it is level fill in the sides where the pool does not touch the surrounding earth,

and fill, stock with plants and fish,

grab a beer and sit back to admire your work,

as it happens a number of customers are only stocking with plants,

leaving nature to stock the pools with wildlife, a great help in our ever increasing concrete jungle, 

for those with fish, you might be visited by a heron, but this can be avoided with a plastic one, taking advantage of the fact that herons on the hunt are territorial, if a flying heron sees one at a small pool it will not land, but, and it is a big but, they are not fools! if the same heron is in the same place for a number of days the flying heron will attack the decoy, so every few days it is imperative to move the decoy to a different position around your pond,

on to the fish,

from the humble goldfish,

to sarasa comets, blue shubunkins and lemon goldfish,  

to golden carp,

and of course koi,

who it has to be said popularity has waned in the past few years, although there are still fish being sold in the thousands of pounds each!

these are a lot less!

sarasa comets and blue shubunkins,

ghost koi,

and even sterlets,

whose a cheeky boy then?

a pussy cat looks on, work finished onto the 54 bus home,

Diana had beaten me there as she was on a early shift, so a coffee and a chat it was, after our evening meal and a Deadliest Catch, it was feet up for a film, The Pale Blue Eye, starring Christian Bale, but the star who stole the film was undoubtedly Harry Melling, the film was a real gothic treat centred around West Point Academy in 1830, and a welcome back to watch Harry Melling who played Cadet Edgar Allan Poe, and had as it happens an uncanny resemblance to the poet and writer, Harry Melling was also in one of my favourite western movies, The Ballard of Buster Scruggs, you may also remember him as Dudley Dursley, the fat boy in the Harry Potter movies, after which it was one from A Touch of Frost before we were off to bed.