Monday, April 05, 2010

Subtle, Baby, Subtle


The shame of foot flatulence!


Early spring was rainy here and the "pond" has responded ... or should I say ... "reponded".
The two-lifers have taken advantage of that and the pond has massive swarms of tadpoles cruising through it.

(I guess my symbolic Easter post was a bit TOO symbolic yesterday, since no one seems to have commented to that effect)

That's the problem with subtlety, it's often so damn subtle, ya miss it.

My plan to introduce azolla , the floating water fern to the pond in a bid to shut down some of the photosynthesis below is proceeding as planned.
A nasty alga known as Chara (aka Muskweed) tends to fill the clear waters of my pond as summer progresses. Being a cleverly simple alga, it only takes a single dormant cell that toughs it out through the dry periods for a reinfestation to occur.

The azolla and I are working together to make at least parts of the pond less inviting to Chara.

"I cast thee into darkness Chara!!"

It's fern vs. alga in the battle of the pond!

Here's some wonderful news.
If you've been hanging with me at PF for any time, you know that we came into some rare, free, massive timber bamboo last year.
And you might remember that we busted our cute little butts digging it up from the donor's place and then replanting it here at PFHQ.

Of course, you also remember this winter and the roundhouse kick it gave to Florida with freeze after freeze after freeze.

My bamboo acted like they were hurt by this change in Florida's usually sunny attitude and their leaves browned ... things looked iffy.

I am happy to announce that my grass on steroids has decided to burst forth with new canes so we can all take a collective sigh of relief.





Princess Laya (best hen ever!) always disappears when she starts laying. When she disappeared several weeks ago, I was afraid that her free range luck had run out and a predator had taken her.

Then, about 2 weeks ago, Emma (best middle daughter ever!) was home for college spring break and she spotted Laya foraging in the yard.

That's when I knew she had not been eaten (duh) and was instead, working on a project.

We looked in all the usual places, but could not find her nest.

On the day of the chicks discovery, I noted that she was hanging around with them in one particular area ... an area with a canoe stored upside down.

There was just enough of a gap between canoe gunwale and soil to allow a girlishly petite chick like Laya to slip under.


When I lifted the canoe, there they were.

Judging from the egg shells left behind, she had a pretty good success rate ... which is what you would expect from the best hen ever.

19 comments:

Sayre said...

I loved the tadpole video. I called my son it to look at it and he was amazed that you could just reach into your pond and get a handful like that.

Good luck with the pond battle... We have some particularly nasty algae/water weeds up here. Very few clear spaces in the springs anymore.

Caroline said...

They are polliwogs where I come from!

Were you aware that April is "National Frog Month", how apropos is your posting!

Caroline said...

After some thought, the obscure becomes less so, two-lifers.

Thunder said...

Nice to hear the Bamboo made it, my hops are up and running too!

Side comment: The new background is pretty awesome, but my old eyes are having trouble reading the text (even with my artificial enhancement apparatus)!

Pablo said...

I'm heartened by that photo of your pond. I'll cross my fingers and my toes that you'll see it full again this year.

Cathy S. said...

I got it. Perhaps my comment was too vague. But, I got it.

robin andrea said...

Princess Laya is very clever, hiding her eggs under the canoe. I like her smart behavior very much.

Your pond looks nice and full... it'll be interesting to see who wins the battle between the alga and the fern.

lisa said...

I am glad that your bamboo survived and all the hard work wasn't for nothing!

SophieMae said...

Did you know that chara is Greek for joy? chara - 'joy, delight' (akin to chairo, 'to rejoice')

I 'got' your video, but was multi-tasking too much to comment on anything I viewed yesterday. I noticed your new look, as well. I like it... never thought I'd see it happen, though. 8-] LOVE the header.

Miz S said...

I was going to say "They are risen!" but I was afraid it was irreverent. And you know how I hate being irreverent.

kathy a. said...

did i tell you we went to japan to visit daughter on her year abroad? well, i have a giant bamboo report, which is that at least the ones we saw do fine even with some snow! your mileage may vary, of course, but this is a very hardy grass. we saw the largest stands of giant bamboo [from the shinkansen, too fast for photos] about an hour north of tokyo -- as wild bamboo is wont to do, these pieces of bamboo forest grew closely together and probably protected one another from the cold.

kathy a. said...

datil peppers, though -- i think our house in the SF bay area is still a little too cold for the seeds. the cucumbers took off and look like real plants; the basil sprouts are good; parsley is limping along; and we have 3 very sad mini-datil sprouts that probably won't make it. good thing i kept a few seeds for a second try when it is warmer.

h said...

It might have been too subtle for me, but, truth be told, I didn't see it and watch about ONE percent of all blog videos.

R.Powers said...

Y'all,
I had a baker's dozen witty responses and as I RIGHT CLICKED TO SAVE MY STUFF BEFORE POSTING, CUZ YOU KNOW HOW SOMETIMES STUFF DISAPPEARS ... AS I TOOK THAT PRECAUTIONARY STEP, INTERNET EXPLODER LOCKED UP AND WOULD NOT RESPOND WITH MY RESPONSES!
I mean, what are the odds it would do that as you are saving your comments just in case it did that?
How did it know?
Thank you for your comments anyway!

Anonymous said...

Hi FC,

I admit it. I don't get yesterdays video. What are you telling me?

Now foot flatulence I get.

What's that say about me?

P

Aunty Belle said...

Hooray fer Laya! Good job, Mama Hen.

Pleased yore bamboo surivived. Doan want ya bustin' cute derriere's fer nuthin'.

(I went to see the tadpole video--very coll, FC, really.

Happy (two day late) Easter to all y'all.

Bill said...

I'm trying to figure something out. Is the bamboo you are planting native to Florida or at least not an invasive species like so many other bamboos?

Bill:www.wildramblings.com

R.Powers said...

Patio,
Amphibian translates into two lives. Kinda fits the Easter message. That's about as churchy as I get here at PF.


Aunty,
The best hen ever!
Glad you got the Easter message. That's all the sermonizing I'm doing for 2010.

Billy,
Not native, we have about one native species and it's a wee thang.

Anonymous said...

Thanks...........p