This is my BIG frog pond – as opposed to my first, small frog pond that I wrote about in an earlier post. Do you like the edging? Mr. Green Thumbs (my neighbor, I mention him from time to time) says that there is nothing as permanent as “temporary.” I’ve had my “temporary” pond edge for a few months, so I decided to play weekend warrior and fix it. I took pictures along the way, as well as a few things I found under the logs.

This is the far edge of the pond. I took this picture after I had removed some of the logs, peeled back the pond liner, and installed the first strip of green metal edging. I did this last weekend, so this is what my yard and the pond look like in winter. Its crazy – one day its freezing, the next – its in the 70s.

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This is what it looked like under the logs. I hated to disturb all of the little lives playing out beneath the logs, but as far as I know, there were no casualties.

This is a closer look – a skink and a frog! Cool! I’m pretty sure that the frog is a Cricket Frog (Acris sp.). The skink is probably a member of the Eumeces genus, but I can’t say for sure what species.

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This was a first. I have never seen purple-anything on a log. As I was putting my firewood back on the pile, I saw this…fungus? Neat, I think.

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I was very careful to give this spider a safe ride from the edge of the pond to the woodpile. I just got a new field guide – several, in fact – for Christmas. Yep, I even have one for spiders and scorpions…but I’ll tackle the ID another day. If anyone reading this has a good guess, please share!

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Take a look at THIS spider! I think I was the most excited about this discovery. Who AM I?

Isn’t this the coolest spider you’ve ever seen? It is for me. I can remember a time when I didn’t get excited about spiders, and I definitely didn’t lie on the ground with my face/camera 6 inches away! I think this might be a Ghost spider.

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I couldn’t NOT take picture of this millipede (Class Diplopoda). I thought it was neat with it’s 2 pairs of legs on each segment. “Millipede” was one of the few video games I actually played when I was growing up. A few years ago, I checked into buying a refurbished Millipede video game – you know, the kind that you sit down and play? With your slice of pizza on a paper plate, plopped on the corner of the plexiglass top, across from your opponent? Ah, those were the days…but I’ll have to enjoy the memory and the mascot. Those refurbished games are out there, but pricey.

I finished the pond edge, with a 12″ border in which I will sow native wildflower seeds this weekend. It’ll look awesome! It even looks better right now:

So – almost finished. I’ll scrounge around for more rock to cover the liner on the inside of the pond, and mulch over the wildflower seeds to cover the liner on the outside of the pond. The frogs will love it, as well as all of the other wildlife that the pond attracts. Yay!