End of an era: The first day

A combination of lack of rain, plague of duckweed and advancing years brought me to the decision that I had to retire our micro ponds while I still could. There was also the consideration that they were said to attract foxes, which are something of a nuisance. Vermin even.

Micro ponds which had a run of less than twenty years (reference 1). Most recently stocked, from a splendid pond life nursery in the depths of Surrey, with marigold, golden club and water hawthorn (reference 2). And which are apt to flood in the spring (reference 3).

First step was to remove the golden club from middle pond, the wide shallow one. This was doing surprisingly well considering that there was very little water in the pond and the answer turned out to be a great mass of roots spreading out underneath its mesh pot. Some of which survived to be included in the transfer to bucket. Not looking so good today, despite the bucket being full of water. BH having a think. I had thought to carry it off to the Stew Pond on the Common, and plant it somewhere unobtrusive, to await reports from the Ecovols about this troublesome invasive weed which some thoughtless person had thought to dump on the Common, but in the end couldn't be bothered. There was also the faint possibility that it might actually prove to be a nuisance.

Clear rubbish and water from shallow pond, transferring a lot of it to the big pond. Remove the bricks that were at the bottom and add to collection of same. Remove the four stones back lawn side.

Next, crack out small spade, small fork and big mattock. Dig out between the big pond and shallow pond. I had cleared around half the perimeter, going down below floor level for a few inches, when I found that I could wriggle the thing out.

No newts and very little in the way of pond life. Maybe the dead leaves killed it off.

The sun might have made things difficult for the telephone, but I was almost in the shade. Things could only get better as the sun moved around to the west.

Mattock visible to the left of the pond. I might not be able to work it for very long these days, but one could still do terrible damage with the thing. Certainly up for cracking open the rock-hard, light brown clay lurking just below the surface.

Second step was the small pond. Remove marigold, which did not seem too happy about the lack of water to a second bucket. Clear rubbish and water into the hole left by the shallow pond. Then, after virtually no digging at all, the small pond lifted out.

At this point I noticed a couple of nests in the oak tree above, looking - without checking - rather like the processionary moth nests which cropped up at reference 4.

Time to crack out the long handled hook, inadvertently gifted by a travelling tree surgeon. For which see reference 5.

On the ground, all appeared to be dead or dormant inside. But BH poured boiling water on them, after which I moved them to the brick compost bin. I imagine the goings on in there should see off anything that still lives. Consultation with Google Images today - logged in on this occasion - suggests that these nests might now be at the pupal stage, and that the damage above has been done. And it is certainly the case that the tree is looking a bit sparse up top - and I had put that down to the hot, dry weather - forgetting about these beasts, aka OPM.

He also reminds of some basic hygiene for the hook and the need to tell the Treealert people at reference 6. Action in hand.

The underside, that is to say the side next to the tree, of one of the nests. At least they came off more or less in one piece. The unpleasant bristles are visible on my laptop.

Google Images goes on to explain that the mass of what look like black fish eggs are actually caterpillar droppings. They get through a lot of leaves and their hygiene arrangements are a bit basic.

Basic life cycle: the eggs hatch in small nests high up in the tree. When not feeding, the caterpillars live communally, in large nests, much lower down, like this one. Eventually calming down to pupate, with the moths appearing late summer.

Back with the ponds, the scene at the end of the day. The large pond is still firmly anchored to its hole, Hopefully it will be extracted on the second day; hopefully the watering will help.

PS: earlier today (Friday), I was interested to read at reference 7 about the sacking of a very senior executive at a very big bank. She was 70 and, seemingly, all set to carry on for a while yet. Policemen might be getting younger but bankers are getting older! To think that I was glad enough to get out in my mid fifties. Maybe she leads a very healthy life when she is not banking - although one supposes that that was not very much of the time. A graduate of physics and PwC.

References

Reference 1: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/2009/02/day-of-pond.html. The micro ponds arrive.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/05/batch-no719.html. Marigold, golden club and water hawthorn.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/search?q=pondamonium. Spring flooding.

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/06/the-day-of-rabbit.html. At the end of the post.

Reference 5: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/03/captain-hook.html.

Reference 6: https://treealert.forestresearch.gov.uk/reports/oak-processionary-moth.

Reference 7: How Jamie Dimon’s long succession race claimed another victim: Marianne Lake spent years as a contender for the CEO job at JPMorgan. Last week, she was abruptly axed - Joshua Franklin, Ortenca Aliaj, Financial Times - 2026.