But otherwise the pond is still remarkably clear. When I first went out there, the koi were on the surface and watching for food. It's about a 90 mile round trip to get food for them so they'll just have to hunt for a few more days. I have watered all of the pine trees and everything else on the pond fringe that needed it, and finally put the pump and hoses up. I'll keep the water level high, but otherwise just let the pond kind of hibernate for a while. I like all of the colors, and especially the contrasts. Most of the nights are below freezing, and a few days have been barely above, but most have been pleasant. Today was in the low 50's for a while.
The cattails are kind of neat, at first, then they can be almost suffocatingly dense. There are tremendous amounts of single seeds tightly compressed into those heads, and when they start shedding, in the right wind it looks and feels like smoke rising from the pond.
Pond animals right now are ducks at night, and probably some of the wader birds but I haven't seen any lately.