Doctor's Pond One of several ponds in the Langdon Nature Reserve (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I am sitting in the garden listening to the sound of water as the waterfalls and fountains splash gently into the ponds. The birds are singing and the sun is shining and it is a wonderful and beautiful day to be alive. My Neighbour is having a bunch of tree work done and the air is filled with the sounds of industry in the shape of buzzing chain saws. Strangely enough, it is not irritating I guess because of the association of the sound to Nature and my Neighbour doing his bit to help beautify the area.

I started the day with good intentions although to be truthful, I am pretty much caught up in the garden. I do need to literally get in the ponds and clear out some of the plant growth as it is sort of taking over and the amount of surface water grows less and less. I plan on doing that tomorrow and will have a bunch of plants to give away at the plant swap scheduled for the next Pond meeting. I am going to put the water lilies back in and see just how much the big Koi tear them up. If they do start on them, I will need to get them back out and put them back into their containers to bloom.

Yesterday, I stopped at my favorite store, one of two that is, and purchased several wood ferns that I have planted in the “wild area” of the garden. I got the idea from the last pond meeting when I noticed that the Zilker Garden Center has an entire area devoted to ferns. I have tried to grow them in the past but with not too much luck and of course, last years intense and continuous heat and drought was not good for growing anything and not a fair test.

My other Neighbour holds a plant swap every year and has told me to come over on Sunday to take a look at what is left “just in case I see something that I like”. The truth is, I really don’t have much room to plant anything else unless I start out the front which could use a lot of work. I had managed to get a lot of ground cover established under the trees and it was looking very nice until last year and guess what, most of it died in the heat and drought.

I went to the Wiener dog races at Buda this past weekend on both Saturday and Sunday and took a bunch of video which I plan on making a separate post. While there, I wandered around the various stalls and discover one that had a lot of welded steel made into signs, stands, Welcome signs and a whole bunch more. On Saturday, I purchase a small four-wheeled cart to display flowers and then on Sunday, I went back and as I was almost the last customer, was offered a deal on two small steel wheelbarrows which I snapped up in a hurry. More stuff to add to the garden. I already have them setup complete with mixed flower displays in each of them.

Yesterday, I took time out from my schedule to watch my favorite team lose to their rivals from across the city. So sad as this will probably cost them the Premier League title, darn it.

Today is May 1. The year is just flying by as usual. I swear that as we grow older, not only do our biological clocks speed up, time in general goes twice as fast as it used to. In England as a kid, I remember going around and chanting, “first of May,pinch bum day” followed by a hefty squeeze on another kids buttocks or being on the receiving end myself. In modern day America, such customs are considered quaint and something the Brit’s would do. Wonder if the younger kids still follow it or if this modern-day and age has made those ancient customs obsolete?

Funny, when you are at peace with the world and just sitting around, it’s amazing the things that pop into your head. I’ll bet that if I sit here long enough, I could think of a whole bunch of weird or different things. I know that the commentator at the Man U game noted that the players were wearing gloves because it was very cold and they had just had a week of miserable weather with a lot of rain. We could use the rain but not the rest of it. Maybe that is why I am so happy that I live in Austin, Texas.