One day last week we had what
ended up being a tail end of the season
warm day. I was out picking up some
first of the season fallen leaves that had
landed around our koi/goldfish pond.
There are just a few
impatients blooming now
There are just a few
impatients blooming now
The other assignment I gave myself was
to catch one last frog and get him out
of the pond and relocate him down
the road a ways. I finally got him.
As I walked near the pond in front of
the water feature I nearly fainted. Yes,
a snake came slithering out in front of me
and crossed the pond.
Obviously I don't have a photo of that
moment but I do have one in my head
because I felt like Indiana Jones in the
"Raiders of The Lost Ark". You see, I
don't like snakes. I am sorry but I am
horrified. Needless to say, he immediately
went down between some rocks to hide
from my unfriendly face.
The water in the pond has since turned
pretty cold and the fish have gone down
lower but continue to slowly swim around.
Someone reading this may not know
that the fish hardly move at all when it
gets colder and remain totally still at
the bottom in a comatose position when
the top freezes over later this winter.
So as we prepare for winter we are
putting our gardening tools away.
I have looked at the projected weather
forecast and see this week we might still
have a couple of 60 degree days. Time to
take everything out around my potting
table in the garage and clean it all
out. I will be making up ziplock
bags with garden seeds I have saved
to use as gifts and to sell in my booth
at Midway.
And I shall be drinking
lots of hot tea and finishing
up on rereading all the older
issues of October Victoria's.
How are your fall
preparations going?
I need to do some preparation on my deck but we are still enjoying mild temps here. Late this month or into next month I’ll be moving plants indoors and putting furniture away.
ReplyDeleteIf it would stop raining long enough, I could get a few things accomplished. 🤓
ReplyDeleteOh my! That snake...yuck. Is he hanging around your pond for frogs and fish? Nasty sly buggers they are. They freak me out totally.
Happy preparing for winter...the hot tea sounds like the best part.
Your garden is amazing... but I don't like snakes too!Gorgeous Fall vignettes!Stunning china as ever!Hugs,sweet lady!
ReplyDeleteWe are welcoming cooler temps here and looking forward to all the changes they will bring. Your touches of fall are just perfect, and I love your idea of looking through all of your old Victoria magazines.
ReplyDeleteDon't like snakes either. Hope he went away. We are right now having the most amazing Fall/Autumn. 70's during the day and 40's at night. It is quite gorgeous. Oh magazine reading it the best with a good cup of tea for Fall/Autumn too.
ReplyDeleteWe just had a cup of double bergamot tonight. Felt good to give up the ice tea!
ReplyDeleteI love your garden and fall decor. I finally got all my fall decor that I planned to do last month. Most of my items came from Dollar Tree but I got a few on sale at Dollar Tree.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to try and bring in a couple pots of flowers to keep in the basement studio for winter. I have a large rosemary plant I hate to see freeze.
ReplyDeleteI have brought my patio furniture cushions in also.
Now I guess all our leaves will begin to fall and that will be a huge job over here, I'll call mt yard man to help
I love your fish pond and can't believe how they manage to live through the winter in all that frozen water
I hate snakes also
AW, sigh....we had a hard frost last night, so I'm headed out to survey all the damage and do clean up. Hard to imaging it was 85 last week. Crazy weather. Love your pond---we don't do fish---because it's just a raccoon feeding station then. But I did have two frogs. I know they have holes to go bury themselves in, I didnt' know they had to move though.
ReplyDeleteGrins and now to outside.
Last week we took in our deck furniture and garden decor and a good thing too because we are having a 'weather bomb' today! So far my pumpkins are still where we put them and the wreath is still hanging on the door. It has calmed down considerably since this morning. Whew!
ReplyDeleteI have always wanted a goldfish pond but the mosquitoes can almost carry you away here if one has a pond. Little snakes don't bother me. It's the big ones I mind. We don't have any poisonous snakes here on the Island which is good.
These days I'm thinking more about Christmas and making plans for that. Autumn comes and goes pretty quickly here. Alas, a lot of our coloured leaves will be stripped from the branches once this storm is over.
Love your hutch!
Sounds pretty perfect to me! I don't like snakes either...no wonder you were startled! My frind in nearby Vancouver, BC has a koi pond, and she anxiously awaits signs of life every spring when it warms up. She has lost them sever times to racoons though, who seem to think it a private fishing pond! Fall is lovely in your garden!
ReplyDeleteRuth
Bernideen, though I miss the link party, your blog is still one of my first stops on Thursday mornings! I always enjoy your beautiful photos and updates on your garden. BUT I am SO glad you did not get a photo of that slithery snake!
ReplyDeleteYour brown transferwares look fabulous! Snakes give me the heebies jeebies too.
ReplyDeleteYikes! I would have run fast away if I saw that snake! We cleared some brush and piled it on a burn pile today. Way too much yard/garden work at our new place. :) Happy Fall and tea drinking to you!
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely Autumn post!
ReplyDeleteMy cat brought me a snake once (a gift?haha) and I never jumped so high in my life!
Happy Fall - and glad I'm not the only one who holds onto all my old Victoria magazines :)
Your fish pond is really pretty. I had a little chuckle out of your snake story. I wonder what kind it was.
ReplyDeleteI'm in a suburb of St Louis and have lived in this area all of my life. At my parents house I never ever saw a snake and we had two fishponds. There were always loads of toads that came to the fishponds every year, but I never saw a snake. I think our 3 cats "disappeared" any snakes that may have come there.
For the past nearly 40 years we have lived in a house about 1/2 mile from the house where I grew up. I always had flowerbeds here at this house and for years and years never ever saw a snake in our yard. I'm not afraid of them, and had a couple of little pet snakes when I was a kid. The thing is, I don't want to touch them if I don't know them.
I used to never wear garden gloves unless I was trimming roses, but for the most part that all changed just a few years ago. It was early spring and I had been working around prepping my flower beds. I was sitting on the porch looking at what needed to be done next. Then I noticed what looked to be the curved handle of an antique-y looking beige pottery tea cup. I got down off of the porch and picked up a stick to dig the antique teacup handle out of the soil. I reached down with my hand at the same time as I did the stick I was holding, luckily the stick got there before my hand did, because as I poked the dirt by the tea cup handle, the handle suddenly straightened out and turned out to be a beige garden snake. Most of his snake-y little body was in a crevice between the porch and the soil,completely camouflaged, except for the part that was arched up like a teacup handle. Luckily the stick made him move before I touched him/her with my bare hand. I saw the snake several times that spring and summer, while wearing my gardening gloves as I was working around in my flowers. Never forget your gardening gloves.
Since that time, every year there seems to be at least one garden snake around. One year, on April Fools Day, my husband found a garden snake on our basement steps. He thought I was playing an April Fools joke on him. I told him I didn't put any April Fools snake on the steps. Hurry up and get something to grab it with. He came upstairs real fast and grabbed the tongs out of the kitchen drawer and picked the snake up off the steps and then it wiggled and dropped down into an empty 5 gallon storage bucket that was sitting by the steps. Thank goodness it dropped into the bucket. We released it outside. I don't know how it had gotten into the house or how long it had been in here. That was our snake for that year.
This is the first time I've visited your lovely web site and I can assure you that I will be returning.
ReplyDeleteI recently moved into a home with a lovely koi pond, with a great variety of fish and some very large frogs. When we had the pond professionally serviced we asked the man to save the frogs, which he did and we discovered that 3 of them were bigger than the palm of my hand. Brutus, Bruno and Boris have since given us hours of serenades and endless amusement. They don't seem to bother the fish but we have seen evidence of cannabalism. They are the devil on the smaller leopard, bull frogs and tree frogs as well as the dragon and damselflies.
Why do you make it a point to remove your frogs? Is there something I don't know?
As far as fish predation goes it is the arrogant and stealthy Great Blue Heron that is the biggest pest. I go out to chase him away and he slowly stalks away casting a "What you going to do about it, lady" glance back over his shoulder. He is a lot bigger that I expected and totally fearless. He is beautiful but ravenous. He has no problem gobbling down a 14 inch koi and given the opportunity will have 2 or 3 smaller fish for dessert.
Please let me know If I should be holding a frog round up next spring and just how does one go about it.
Regards,
Elizabeth Speicher