Spring is nearly here!
Re: Spring is nearly here!
Koi club meeting at Dave's Prestatyn tonight 7.30pm so don't forget to bring your raffle prizes.
Re: Spring is nearly here!
He thought he saw an Albatross
That fluttered round the lamp
He looked again and found it was
A Penny-Postage-Stamp
You'd best be getting home he said
The nights are very damp
from Sylvie and Bruno
by Lewis Carroll
The best laid plans of mice and men etc.
Tidying up Friday afternoon in preparation for the forthcoming pond visit this Sunday from the Liverpool and District Koi Club I climbed over into veg filter to check flow and found a very large and very dead rat trapped in watercress where waterfall drops into lower level.
It positively stank when I lifted it out!
I expect its the result of Pest Control Operatives (that's what the girl said they were called!) putting rat poison down next door.
They'd called on us a week or so ago asking did we also have a problem with rats as our next door neighbour had complained to Council?
Apparently the silly bugger next door but one was keeping orphan lambs in his back garden and the sheep feed had attracted a lot of rats.
I'd been suspicious of something not quite right yesterday as water seemed cloudy and slightly oily looking hence my checking veg filter.
A 20% water change today and one tomorrow and then dosing with Hydrogen Peroxide and lets just hope its all clear for Sunday morning visit.
Flushing Nexus out this afternoon I found a very pale thin adult frog swirling around in K1, it must have had an uncomfortable time in there.
It's now transferred to a more stable environment in my overflow pond.
That fluttered round the lamp
He looked again and found it was
A Penny-Postage-Stamp
You'd best be getting home he said
The nights are very damp
from Sylvie and Bruno
by Lewis Carroll
The best laid plans of mice and men etc.
Tidying up Friday afternoon in preparation for the forthcoming pond visit this Sunday from the Liverpool and District Koi Club I climbed over into veg filter to check flow and found a very large and very dead rat trapped in watercress where waterfall drops into lower level.
It positively stank when I lifted it out!
I expect its the result of Pest Control Operatives (that's what the girl said they were called!) putting rat poison down next door.
They'd called on us a week or so ago asking did we also have a problem with rats as our next door neighbour had complained to Council?
Apparently the silly bugger next door but one was keeping orphan lambs in his back garden and the sheep feed had attracted a lot of rats.
I'd been suspicious of something not quite right yesterday as water seemed cloudy and slightly oily looking hence my checking veg filter.
A 20% water change today and one tomorrow and then dosing with Hydrogen Peroxide and lets just hope its all clear for Sunday morning visit.
Flushing Nexus out this afternoon I found a very pale thin adult frog swirling around in K1, it must have had an uncomfortable time in there.
It's now transferred to a more stable environment in my overflow pond.
Re: Spring is nearly here!
Sequel to Rat in Filter Syndrome is several big flushes of Nexus and much scrubbing followed by3,696 litres of water sprayed in last night via flow meter and then treated with Sodium Thiosulphate.
I chose this in preference to Peroxide as it removes the Chlorine from tap water and my ponds back to clear again this morning.
And still no rain has fallen here!
I chose this in preference to Peroxide as it removes the Chlorine from tap water and my ponds back to clear again this morning.
And still no rain has fallen here!
Re: Spring is nearly here!
THE TIME HAS COME, THE WALRUS SAID,
TO TALK OF MANY THINGS.
OF SHOES AND SHIPS AND SEALING WAX,
AND CABBAGES AND KINGS.
AND WHY THE SEA IS BOILING HOT,
AND WHETHER PIGS HAVE WINGS.
Lewis Carroll
A good time was had by all it seems as the very full and may I say, very contented visitors from Liverpool and District Koi Club wended their way home on Sunday evening.
Despite the light rain shower right at the end of the tour of ponds it stayed dry albeit a bit cloudy and cold to make it quite a pleasant day.
The reciprocal tour by us in September around their ponds is something to look forward to
Judging by the superb multi-choice spread put on by Sue and Keith, the Liverpool crowd will find it will be a hard act to follow; did they do us proud!
MANY THANKS YOU TWO.
Many thanks also, go to all who opened their ponds for our visitor's and especially Majdi's excellent lunchtime barbecue treat; well done all of you.
The unpleasant thoughts of the bloated rat in my veg filter has haunted me since last Friday and I grasped the nettle again yesterday and thoroughly cleansed my entire pond and filter with Potassium Permanganate!
If nothing else was gained it makes me feel better handling anything out there now.
The task of dispelling the resultant floating brown scum and brown water I left to today but SodiumThiosulphate and Hydrogen Peroxide will soon shift it.
It is raining here at long last but not very much, so; it looks like the hose pipe stays out for now!
TO TALK OF MANY THINGS.
OF SHOES AND SHIPS AND SEALING WAX,
AND CABBAGES AND KINGS.
AND WHY THE SEA IS BOILING HOT,
AND WHETHER PIGS HAVE WINGS.
Lewis Carroll
A good time was had by all it seems as the very full and may I say, very contented visitors from Liverpool and District Koi Club wended their way home on Sunday evening.
Despite the light rain shower right at the end of the tour of ponds it stayed dry albeit a bit cloudy and cold to make it quite a pleasant day.
The reciprocal tour by us in September around their ponds is something to look forward to
Judging by the superb multi-choice spread put on by Sue and Keith, the Liverpool crowd will find it will be a hard act to follow; did they do us proud!
MANY THANKS YOU TWO.
Many thanks also, go to all who opened their ponds for our visitor's and especially Majdi's excellent lunchtime barbecue treat; well done all of you.
The unpleasant thoughts of the bloated rat in my veg filter has haunted me since last Friday and I grasped the nettle again yesterday and thoroughly cleansed my entire pond and filter with Potassium Permanganate!
If nothing else was gained it makes me feel better handling anything out there now.
The task of dispelling the resultant floating brown scum and brown water I left to today but SodiumThiosulphate and Hydrogen Peroxide will soon shift it.
It is raining here at long last but not very much, so; it looks like the hose pipe stays out for now!
Re: Spring is nearly here!
Let craft, ambition, spite,
Be quenched in Reason's night.
Till weakness turns to might,
Till what is dark be light,
Till what is wrong be right!"
from Sylvie and Bruno
by Lewis Carroll
The Summer Solstice has been upon us and once again the annual gathering of Druids, tree huggers, insomniacs and natural nutters at Stonehenge has taken place this last weekend as literally thousands of people waited for the sun to rise; at 4.40am!
Possibly so many turned up because it fell on a Sunday morning this year, and; it didn't rain!
The 21st of June I've mentioned before on this forum besides Fathers Day is; 'Take your dog to work day' I wonder how many achieved it this year?
The good news is support for the disgusting annual Chinese dog eating festival that also takes place this week at the city of Yulin in Shaanxi Province continues to decline.
This is no doubt due to worldwide revulsion and condemnation of this foul barbaric practice and continued unrelenting adverse publicity through the power of the internet and World Wide Web to stop this annual cruelty.
Who knows! they just might stop killing Tigers and Rhino's for medicinal purposes too.
On a lighter note the Dragonflies have returned to my pond!
There was one chasing up and down yesterday afternoon as I fed my fish, a short stubby brown one and Damselflies have also put in an appearance of late, with the water lilies and flag iris now in flower; suddenly, it feels like summer!
Be quenched in Reason's night.
Till weakness turns to might,
Till what is dark be light,
Till what is wrong be right!"
from Sylvie and Bruno
by Lewis Carroll
The Summer Solstice has been upon us and once again the annual gathering of Druids, tree huggers, insomniacs and natural nutters at Stonehenge has taken place this last weekend as literally thousands of people waited for the sun to rise; at 4.40am!
Possibly so many turned up because it fell on a Sunday morning this year, and; it didn't rain!
The 21st of June I've mentioned before on this forum besides Fathers Day is; 'Take your dog to work day' I wonder how many achieved it this year?
The good news is support for the disgusting annual Chinese dog eating festival that also takes place this week at the city of Yulin in Shaanxi Province continues to decline.
This is no doubt due to worldwide revulsion and condemnation of this foul barbaric practice and continued unrelenting adverse publicity through the power of the internet and World Wide Web to stop this annual cruelty.
Who knows! they just might stop killing Tigers and Rhino's for medicinal purposes too.
On a lighter note the Dragonflies have returned to my pond!
There was one chasing up and down yesterday afternoon as I fed my fish, a short stubby brown one and Damselflies have also put in an appearance of late, with the water lilies and flag iris now in flower; suddenly, it feels like summer!
Re: Spring is nearly here!
"Will you walk a little faster?" said a whiting to a snail,
"There's a porpoise close behind us, and he's treading on my tail"
See how eagerly the lobsters and the turtles all advance!
They are waiting on the shingle-will you come and join the dance?
Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, will you join the dance?
Lewis Carroll
No dancing or indeed singing took place at our club meeting social last night but I'm sure a pleasant evening was enjoyed by all who attended. And; the rain kept off for the rest of the evening despite a quite heavy downpour just an hour before the start at 7.30pm.
The upside to that is it saved me filling my water butts up, or watering the outside pots again!
Some time after returning home, at about 11.00pm we watched a half hour display of forked lightning in the distance over the Clwyd's, the thunder that followed was barely audible so it must have been around the Moel Famau area.
Good news for the club is we have gained another three members apparently.
It's that time of the year again when suddenly I am inundated with too much fresh fruit ripening too quickly! gooseberries and tayberries mainly, I can cope with the cherries and apricots at the moment as I can eat them fresh as they come ripe but the freezer is being overloaded again!
"There's a porpoise close behind us, and he's treading on my tail"
See how eagerly the lobsters and the turtles all advance!
They are waiting on the shingle-will you come and join the dance?
Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, will you join the dance?
Lewis Carroll
No dancing or indeed singing took place at our club meeting social last night but I'm sure a pleasant evening was enjoyed by all who attended. And; the rain kept off for the rest of the evening despite a quite heavy downpour just an hour before the start at 7.30pm.
The upside to that is it saved me filling my water butts up, or watering the outside pots again!
Some time after returning home, at about 11.00pm we watched a half hour display of forked lightning in the distance over the Clwyd's, the thunder that followed was barely audible so it must have been around the Moel Famau area.
Good news for the club is we have gained another three members apparently.
It's that time of the year again when suddenly I am inundated with too much fresh fruit ripening too quickly! gooseberries and tayberries mainly, I can cope with the cherries and apricots at the moment as I can eat them fresh as they come ripe but the freezer is being overloaded again!
-
roselanekoi
- Posts: 322
- Joined: Thu Feb 14, 2008 7:38 pm
Re: Spring is nearly here!
I'm going to have the same problems with the fruit all ripening at once. There's a bumper crop of gooseberries, I picked 3 lbs this afternoon and I'm guessing there's going to be around 20 lbs in total, all on one bush.
The blackcurrants aren't far behind and I'm already getting fed up with eating raspberries and strawberries, it's a good job I've got a large chest freezer,
Colin
The blackcurrants aren't far behind and I'm already getting fed up with eating raspberries and strawberries, it's a good job I've got a large chest freezer,
Colin
Re: Spring is nearly here!
Never really been successful freezing strawberries and raspberries Colin, gooseberries, tayberries, blackberries and apricot halves I spread dry on a metal tray and quick freeze them individually then bag them up and back into freezer nice and loose. Keith was telling me on Wednesday night he does pretty much the same, this way you don't end up with a solid 3 or 4lb lump!
I also picked a load of goosegogs this afternoon and another half dozen peach size apricots; they're huge this year but aren't quite as sweet I don't think.
Ps, when do we start sending the food parcels to Greece ?, it'll make a change us sending them fruit!
I also picked a load of goosegogs this afternoon and another half dozen peach size apricots; they're huge this year but aren't quite as sweet I don't think.
Ps, when do we start sending the food parcels to Greece ?, it'll make a change us sending them fruit!
Re: Spring is nearly here!
Tweedledum and Tweedledee
Agreed to have a battle;
For Tweedledum said Tweedledee
Had spoiled his nice new rattle.
Just then flew down a monstrous crow,
As black as a tar-barrel;
Which frightened both the heroes so,
They quite forgot their quarrel
Lewis Carroll
Making much out of petty insignificant things is pretty much the norm for some people throughout the ages, so; at the risk of attachment to this cause I will bang on.
Walking the dogs upstream on the Elwy I got to the high bank were the Sandmartins are nesting and discovered that something had dug down into the top of the bank and removed the eggs/young birds of seven nest sites that I could see but some were dug out from the entrance hole so there could be a lot more.
I can only assume it was a badger as its the only animal I know that could dig into this very hard stony clay bank.
I know; it's nature, but not nice discovering it.
Just a half mile further on is the beautiful willow tree lined pool were Nigel and I saw a large female salmon a week last Friday whilst fly fishing and we were greeted with an appalling sight.
On the river bank was a wrecked tent, one of these modern igloo style bendy metal framed contraptions and with it a very large amount of rubbish scattered about, beer cans, soft drink cans and bottles, crisp packets, food and chocolate wrappers, newspapers, etc.
This is not Council managed land like The Common on the other side of the style were the football pitches, are but a farmers field with sheep in that just happens to have a public footpath running through it.
It was almost certainly youths camping there illegally that caused this dreadful mess and criminal damage judging by the food packaging and beer consumed.
Worse, the new wooden fencing and barbed wire put up to replace the fencing torn out by the November floods was extensively damaged, hacked through and torn down, some burnt on the fire they had, some thrown into the river along with a lot of their rubbish.
Wanton mindless vandalism with no thought to the farmer whose stock would and did escape, the danger to the sheep in that pasture or the people with dogs who could cut their feet on the broken bottles left behind.
Whilst on the subject of mindless morons! when I was fishing with Nigel a week ago last Friday, I was fishing one fairly deep pool on the river and Nigel was just 200 yards away downstream on a beautiful quiet late afternoon when the peaceful tranquillity was broken by a rock suddenly landing in the pool just in front of me closely followed by two bull terrier type dogs leaping into the pool and charging about splashing and barking. That's put paid to the fishing in this pool I thought. Moments later their owner appeared on the bank and I asked him why he had thrown a rock into the pool were I was fishing, his reply was he throws a rock into that pool for the dogs every time he comes down to the river, regardless of who's there obviously!
I quickly realised as I had asked the question that I was wasting my breath, the shaved head, the vest,the multiple tattoo's and earrings and the facial metal told me that!
I wonder; did he go camping this week?
Agreed to have a battle;
For Tweedledum said Tweedledee
Had spoiled his nice new rattle.
Just then flew down a monstrous crow,
As black as a tar-barrel;
Which frightened both the heroes so,
They quite forgot their quarrel
Lewis Carroll
Making much out of petty insignificant things is pretty much the norm for some people throughout the ages, so; at the risk of attachment to this cause I will bang on.
Walking the dogs upstream on the Elwy I got to the high bank were the Sandmartins are nesting and discovered that something had dug down into the top of the bank and removed the eggs/young birds of seven nest sites that I could see but some were dug out from the entrance hole so there could be a lot more.
I can only assume it was a badger as its the only animal I know that could dig into this very hard stony clay bank.
I know; it's nature, but not nice discovering it.
Just a half mile further on is the beautiful willow tree lined pool were Nigel and I saw a large female salmon a week last Friday whilst fly fishing and we were greeted with an appalling sight.
On the river bank was a wrecked tent, one of these modern igloo style bendy metal framed contraptions and with it a very large amount of rubbish scattered about, beer cans, soft drink cans and bottles, crisp packets, food and chocolate wrappers, newspapers, etc.
This is not Council managed land like The Common on the other side of the style were the football pitches, are but a farmers field with sheep in that just happens to have a public footpath running through it.
It was almost certainly youths camping there illegally that caused this dreadful mess and criminal damage judging by the food packaging and beer consumed.
Worse, the new wooden fencing and barbed wire put up to replace the fencing torn out by the November floods was extensively damaged, hacked through and torn down, some burnt on the fire they had, some thrown into the river along with a lot of their rubbish.
Wanton mindless vandalism with no thought to the farmer whose stock would and did escape, the danger to the sheep in that pasture or the people with dogs who could cut their feet on the broken bottles left behind.
Whilst on the subject of mindless morons! when I was fishing with Nigel a week ago last Friday, I was fishing one fairly deep pool on the river and Nigel was just 200 yards away downstream on a beautiful quiet late afternoon when the peaceful tranquillity was broken by a rock suddenly landing in the pool just in front of me closely followed by two bull terrier type dogs leaping into the pool and charging about splashing and barking. That's put paid to the fishing in this pool I thought. Moments later their owner appeared on the bank and I asked him why he had thrown a rock into the pool were I was fishing, his reply was he throws a rock into that pool for the dogs every time he comes down to the river, regardless of who's there obviously!
I quickly realised as I had asked the question that I was wasting my breath, the shaved head, the vest,the multiple tattoo's and earrings and the facial metal told me that!
I wonder; did he go camping this week?
Re: Spring is nearly here!
The river Elwy continues to get lower each day as we walk the dogs but the heavy rain last night and today has bumped it up quite a bit at long last so we might get some fishing in again soon.
The bumper cherry crop from the dozens of various trees across The Roe and through The Common at the side of the football pitches continues to ripen. I've never seen so many wild cherries as this year!
This morning Sainsbury's are charging a £1.00 a punnet for a few grammes yet you could pick a hundredweight for free here, alright they're not as big but there are plenty of them this year and they actually vary in size and colour from tree to tree, some red some black but all reasonably sweet.
Found a nice fresh sea trout dead on a shingle bank upriver of the Sandmartins destroyed nests on Saturday morning.
What a waste! a lovely silver fish of about 3lb partly eaten; scarcely touched and just left; most probably the work of an otter, it's at least 5 years since I last caught a sea trout so felt very envious of the abandoned fish.
The bumper cherry crop from the dozens of various trees across The Roe and through The Common at the side of the football pitches continues to ripen. I've never seen so many wild cherries as this year!
This morning Sainsbury's are charging a £1.00 a punnet for a few grammes yet you could pick a hundredweight for free here, alright they're not as big but there are plenty of them this year and they actually vary in size and colour from tree to tree, some red some black but all reasonably sweet.
Found a nice fresh sea trout dead on a shingle bank upriver of the Sandmartins destroyed nests on Saturday morning.
What a waste! a lovely silver fish of about 3lb partly eaten; scarcely touched and just left; most probably the work of an otter, it's at least 5 years since I last caught a sea trout so felt very envious of the abandoned fish.