Art Spirals

These beauties appeared on the surface of our little pond today.  These plants (water hyacinths) didn't bloom at all last year, in fact they suffered through the year, we believe trying to survive the hot desert sun.  My DH built a lovely sail shade for the pond this year and we're keeping up on enzymes and the like, and fish, plants, and humans are liking it better.  The pic below was taken in early June.  The plants have grown a bunch since then.

View of both blooms and both fish. 

Amazing what a little "pond bacteria" bottled from the pet store will do to a pond without filtration. YAY! we had the fish, the good water levels from testing, the plants, but it was still murky. Now we can see the bottom -- found lots of interesting things there, a dead lizard with its tail gone...he got a proper burial...homework paper that had blown in, and two tiny new fish (maybe eggs were on new plants?) and a water snail. Unfortunately I took pics at noon, so the water lettuce plants, a nice green, are washed out with the glare. love the reflection! Bertrick, our five inch koi, seemed startled by the whir of the camera mechanism, but here he is. His buddy, Fishy, a shebunkin goldfish, is near him, but elusive to capture on camera. And last, a beautiful tiger lily beside the pond.