The pond dig
WES MAGEE
We laid out the shape with rope then peeled off the turf as if skinning an orange and dug like navvies until solid limestone poked its raw bones into sunlight for the first time in ten million years or more.
We stood back, sweating, legs crossed, leaning on our spades and forks, until some obsessive drove, drove home with a heavy pick and the rock splintered and sparks shot!
Then, the blue polythene sheets for lining the pit and finally the water hosed in for half a day.
After a week for settling we stocked it with captured newts, leeches, red water mites, fish, and clumps of slimy weed.
By June we saw the pond expand its influence, spawn and thrive, and toed adventuring frogs back into the water where they flopped with a peculiar splat!
The job done we glanced around, peered cautiously about the landscape, and without a word or look exchanged laid out in our heads the plans of our next attack!
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