A Tour of the Pond Garden

The Pond Garden is looking beautiful with the blue Siberian irises and yellow water irises blooming. Take a tour with me.

The pond is on the east side of the house (photo below). The window on the right is my study so I have a wonderful view of what goes on there except I seem to miss the heron's visit. Actually today I did see the heron fly in and land on the roof above my window. I thought I'd see it fly down into the pond but the next time I checked it was walking out of the pond and I missed it's fishing expedition. I think its going after the frogs now because when I walked around the pond to take these photos the frogs did not jump into the water like they've done on other days.


Here are some of the plants around the pond: wiegela, lilac,



butterfly bush, hawthorn tree, Siberian irises,

yellow irises which are notorious at spreading, ajuga for the slopes,


a wort with its contrasting yellow leaves and blue flowers.





Water from the scupper on our roof flows into the pond down this rock swale. The grasses here are doing very well.



A phlox below.


Liriope and stella d'oro day lilies define a walkway from the driveway to the backyard.




Joe Pye weed on the right side. It gets bigger ever year.

And here's my study view of it all.

Have You Noticed?

Have you noticed that a three letter word in our language is being used less and less often?

I listen to a variety of shows on National Public Radio and enjoy some of the political discussions on Diane Rehm and Talk of the Nation. NPR and some of the local public radio shows give me a chance to learn about new books as authors are interviewed; some of which I add to my book list for the next trip to the library. There's a treasure trove of listening out there, but I have come to realize that "absolutely" and "exactly" are the new words for a simple "yes". Have you noticed? Why is that?

"Yes" is a perfectly good word. It means "to give an affirmative response". By not responding with a yes, and using "absolutely" you have to wonder if there has been so much fudging of facts and equivocating with responses that yes has lost its true meaning. To make sure that they are understood, someone being interviewed has to show they are truthful (though they may not be) by saying "absolutely" where "yes" should have been sufficient. Do they think they sound more intelligent with their choice of a longer word where the three letter word was perfectly fine for an answer? A concise, simple response is always better. Let's get back to using "yes". Don't you agree? (I hope you said yes!)