I dream in duck weed

On Monday I resumed battle with the duck weed. After an exhausting 5 hours scooping it out I was shattered but clear water was beginning to appear. I took up my weed net again today. I approached the pond with bated breath - would there still be clear water? YES!

The wind decided to give a hand blowing the weed towards the bank. Mark stopped bramble clearing to help with the pond clearing so that we could make the most of the favourable conditions. With both of us scooping out weed we made good progress. By the time we downed tools there was about 80% clear water. Very satisfying!

As ever it seems that the last 20% is going to take a lot of effort to clear as the weed is in a part of the pond that it is difficult to reach. We need a good strong wind to blow in the non prevailing direction!

War on Duck Weed

Mark and I have been working to recover a couple of ponds in North Dorset. Today I have been removing duck weed from the largest pond using a large net on a long pole. No sooner than I had scooped some out than the gap was immediately refilled. It was as if the remaiing weed breathed a sigh of relief, said 'good, more room for me' and spread out to fill the vacant space!

After several hours of hard graft it was somewhat demoralising that there was still no clear water. But is was satisfying to see the mounds of weed on the banks and to realise that I wasn't going mad I actually had removed a lot of weed. By the time we called it a day I think that I could see some chinks of clear water appearing. I hope that it doesn't completely grow back before battle resumes next week.

Along with the weed I also scooped up some beautiful duck feathers which were floating on top of the weed. There were a number of them which made me suspect that the owner didn't give them up willingly.