A new pond and early visitors

Saturday 29th June 2013 Warm, broken sunshine, winds easing. I am fortunate to have a garden with 2 ponds. One I dug out myself a few years ago, and a pond that was already in the garden when we moved in 16 years ago. The old pond was overgrown but we did have Large Red and Azure Damselflies breeding. Large Red are a favourite of mine, they don't seem in the least bit wary of people round the pond, and in past summers will regularly sit on the page of a book I'm reading, or on the end of an outstretched finger. Anyway, the old pond sprung a leak last summer and almost dried out through the winter. After much discussion the wife and I decided to have it relined (at great cost) and start again. We employed The Whistling Gardner from Eastry (and yes he did whistle while he worked), and after 2 days hard slog the pond was rebuilt and had a selection of the gardeners favourite pond plants round the shelves. The plants have been chosen to attract wildlife such as the damselflies. Today was a lovely sunny day and I was hoping to get out for a walk in the woods, but a call from work spoilt my plans. I had to spend the whole afternoon at work, and feeling dejected I took a few minutes to look at my new pond before leaving home. There to my surprise, the day after the gardner finished filling the pond were Large Red Damselflies flying round it, and even better a pair landed on the floating pond weed. Hopefully next year's generation of damselflies are on their way. Made my day.