Rainbows, Lilacs, And Fish Beer

What is at the end of the rainbow? Books! And in our back yard, there is a rainbow of color, including the Ridiculously Photogenic Lilac Bush (which smells nice too, but doesn't seem to be attracting the butterflies and bees as much as I would like). I will try to put in a "butterfly bush" in the next couple of weeks.

I spent a lot of time yesterday doing yardwork--the lawn now needs to be mowed almost every day (partly because the blades on the mower are set high), and the weeds are coming up as enthusiastically as the grass in some areas. And then there is the pond. Tony the Contractor is supposed to come get the fish, but as he is digging to make his own pond larger, I don't know when he will get over here. In the meantime, the pond was looking a little murky--it was time to change the filter media, so I had to go buy Bulk Filter Media. This is spun plastic mesh that you cut yourself to fit inside whatever filter you have, and since I apparently have a "unique" filter, I had to make custom pads. The "magic rocks" in the "pantyhose" in the center of the filter were looking sad too, so I went to the pond supply place and asked what I should be putting in there, and was presented with a lot of bewildering choices. I ended up getting activated charcoal and something called "Barley Pellets", which are supposed to work "much better" than Barley Bales...ok. So I go home, measure out charcoal, fill my new Filter Media Bag, heavy-duty, 14.95 USD, add the Barley Pellets, and put it all back in the pond. I also added new water (2 gallons) and Chlorine Extracter and Fish Slime Renewer at the same time. The barley did make the water tea-colored almost right away, but the label said it would, so I was ok with that. So I get up this morning and the pond is ...foamy. On the upside, the string algae has vanished. I am hoping that by mid-afternoon today I won't have fish beer.