The Upper Pond

I was trying to find a picture of the upper pond, showing the whole thing, but couldn't find one this morning, so here's a picture of one of the frogs that lives there. This was our first pond and was made by lining what was probably a natural pond at one time back when this was a dairy farm. There is a spring just up the hill from it that feeds it in damp weather. Since most all of our ponds are lined we do have to refill them if we don't get enough rain. It's amazing how much evaporation takes place when the sun is beating down and the temperature is in the 90s.
The speckled leaves are from a waterlily called 'Arc en Ciel' or in English, 'Rainbow'. The taller leaves are Lotus. Right now the lotus leaves are only about 4 inches across and just on the surface. With warmer weather they will be almost 18 inches across and stand up to 3 feet above the water. These large ponds with the rubber liners and a bit of work to make with all of the digging and setting in of the liners and finding rocks to edge them with to cover the liners and hold them in place. We also have a number of smaller ponds which were much easier to do and hold only a couple of plants or none at all and are just a bit of water in the garden for an accent. Some pictures and how to's for them tomorrow.