Water Features 56

The yellow bath tub, from the downstairs bathroom at Lakmahal, which I wrote about last week is against the east wall of my little walled garden. At right angles to it, just outside the porch which leads to my drawing room, is the second bath tub which Nirmali gave me during the time of coronavirus, a green one which is beneath the croton bush, or rather tree, which is in the porch, peering out from the front in search of sun.

That pond is well protected, so I fear that there will be lots of netting too when I try to show the fish. Dominating it in terms of colour are the Malavi, as I still think of the white fish which began spawning in December 2022 in the waterfall pond. There were so many of them then that we moved some to this pond and some to the pond round the dead temple flower tree, against the south wall as is the waterfall pond.

Those put in there also spawned, perhaps because one of the pair I had put there, when the other pair I had spawned, was still around. And there they spawned again and again and kept most of the youngsters alive, unlike in the waterfall pond where there were two more sets of little ones though only one or two survived of those.

The four put in the croton pond grew larger and larger, though they never spawned, and a few more were added there so there seem to be about half a dozen in place. The other fish there are much smaller, several black mollies, and then guppies and platies. But my pride is a tiger barb, which I had forgotten putting there soon after that pond was commissioned. There were a pair, and they would lurk at the bottom, but suddenly a few months back I saw one flash up for food, and then the other did too.

So I knew there were two of them, but then a couple of months back one of them died. The other however continues to dart up, and I did manage to get a decent picture of him, which I show first here. You see him on the left, pirouetting downward, with a black molly by him and lots of guppies around. Then there was another, not so good, where you see him again on the left, this time with a plethora of platies, while next to him, from the brilliant tail, is I think a sari guppy. And a third one shows him above a black molly with a platy below, a delightful range of colour, with something pinkish or possibly white towards the right, which could be a smaller Malavi.

Oddly enough there are no Malavi in the first two  pictures, but you see four of them in the fourth one, with some platies, and one in the last juxtaposed against a black molly. These I should note also multiplied from just one or two pairs which I got initially, though they did not need to dramatize the protection of their young as angels and Malavis do.

And of course I need not talk about the way platies, a few pairs of which I got initially, and guppies, which arrived unannounced in the mud I got initially for the lotuses, multiply ceaselessly. 

My Roof Garden on top of the rest 56

Last week I showed the orange roses on the balcony, on three bushes in the first two beds I set up there. In between the two orange bushes in the long bed in the east, there is a small pink one, which has been producing blossom after blossom.

I last it in March, just after I had got back from Canada, but I included then a perfect blossom that had been there just before I left. And I now show first another perfect blossom, taken on the day I last posted, though this was not included then. A couple of weeks later there were two, in the middle of the bush, and two weeks later still another beauty near the edge. I show that flower again, three days later, with yet another blossom nearby.

Sadly the little pink bush in the original bed, next to the orange blossoms that change colour which I showed last week, had not had flowers during this period. But just when I thought I would have to pass it by this time, a little bud emerged and I am able to show it looking lovely last week.

I have that last, for before that is the white rose tree in the pot placed below it. That had wonderful white roses which I showed back in March, and it has done the trick again now. I show then two flowers, one blossoming on top with a smaller one below, and then immediately afterwards the two of them on the next day.

The upper one is again a perfect rose, though sadly the one lower down has a bit missing, though you can still appreciate its lovely formation on the other sides.

Water Features 55

I have not featured recently the four bath tubs in the main garden, for now the fish in them are difficult to take pictures of, given the nets. But this is not so very different from the situation earlier, for those ponds were full of leaves so it was difficult to capture clearly the fish in them. And except for a few bigger ones, which I have shown, there is nothing very special about a host of little fish, with lots of guppies and platies.

But recently I tried to do something different in the first tub, the yellow one, where for many years pink lotuses flourished. That stopped over a year ago, and then several of the fish there, which I had shown, white gourami and red carp and grey gourami, died, and we realized there was something wrong with the mud. It had fermented, or whatever it is that happens to mud, with the heap of leaves that had fallen into it, and we cleaned it all out. Then I put in the more recent mud from the pink bath tub that Nirmali had given me a few years ago, for since no lotuses had lasted long there we decided it did not get enough sun and so we removed the mud from there and thought to have relatively clear water.

Mud was put in the yellow tub since I had hopes that lotuses would once again flourish there, and for that purpose I only put little fish in there, and just a few of them, to stop stalks being eaten. But the plant I placed there soon died, and what with the need for netting I decided to give up.

So that pond now has lots of little fish, of different types and colours. I found the rosy barbs I had put in the little pond on the balcony so attractive that I put in four of those, and added to them a range of tetra including a blue one, in addition to the usual pink and green and yellow. And then I put in a few zebra, pink and yellow, which dart around even more quickly than the other fish.

Initially I had put in a few black mollies and some tetra and they are still there, while Kavi then added a few smaller Malavi. So I have there a kaleidoscope of colour, and though it is difficult to catch, I did manage with a new camera on a new phone to capture something of the jolly movements I admire every morning, with my coffee and their breakfast. 

The pictures do not show well the splendour of the colours, but you can see several in the first picture, and the second has a black molly and a white malavi in addition to the smaller fish. There are then two from different angles, the latter showing losts of malavi, with the final picture showing I think glimpses of blue and red tetra in addition to the brighter colours.

My Roof Garden on top of the rest 55

Back now to the balcony, where the roses continue to fascinate. I have been particularly struck this last month by the shifting shades of the bush in the original bed at the south west corner of the balcony, where for years I had flourishing red roses. The current orange bush has lasted for some months now, whereas a couple of predecessors gave up, with one having been transferred since it had little pink roses and there was already a little pink bush in place in that bed.

Four weeks ago I showed two blossoms on that bush which were more yellow than red. But two days later the orange glow had taken over. And then, a week later, when a new bud was emerging, one of the earlier flowers had faded away to a still very attractive pink. The bud was in blossom two days later, its promise of orange fulfilled, which was in marked contrast to the pink and white of the earlier blossom.

The next picture shows these two again, a few days later, when the pink flower is fading. Behind it you can see the other flower that bloomed alongside it, still showing shades of orange.

The next picture is not of this bush, but of the one on the north end of the bed with three plants in it. That has not stopped producing flowers but of late they do not appear in profusion, and there has been just one at a time. This one, with no doubt about its colour, appeared just after the two yellow flowers in the other bed had turned orange.

And then, on cue for this post today, the plant at the south end of this bed, after a month of lying fallow, produced a flower which was in beautiful blossom this morning.

Water Features 54

It has been over two months since I wrote about the waterfall pond, with its wide range of fish, black and white catfish, red carp though the four fish were of four different shades, from a bright red to one that just had tinges of pink on an essentially white skin, and seven fish that I thought of as Malavi of varying sizes.

There have been losses since then. One of the white catfish stopped coming to the top when I dropped feed in, and lurked at the bottom and seemed very thin, and after a couple of days in which I worried about him, he died. After that the other one was slow to come up, staying most of the time in the little grotto where most of the black catfish lurk, though they all glide up like aeroplanes when food is dropped in, and I have often counted all seven though more often, as they twist in and out amidst each other, I can be sure of just six.

The remaining white catfish did come up for food until about a week ago, when he seemed to prefer to stay down below, and I thought he would go the way of his mate. Indeed there were a couple of days in which he did not emerge, and I thought that was it, but then to my relief he suddenly reappeared, and actually came up quite quickly. The first picture here features him, with three black catfish around and below him.

In that picture you also see two of the red carp, sadly the only ones left. On the same day I saw the dead catfish in the water, seen in the second picture here before he was buried, I also saw a little carp that seemed to have been decapitated. I think it was the polecat that had struck again, finding a gap in the net and getting at part of the poor creature, while the body was still beyond reach because of the net.

I show what was left, as it was buried. It was only the next day that I thought to check, and I could not see the carp that was only barely red.

You can see what I mean about his colour in the fourth picture here, where the fish furthest to the right can be contrasted with the one just below the big red carp. The latter I think it was that I buried, and you see him again in the fifth picture, next to the big red chap and the other survivor whose shade was in between.

In that picture you also see some catfish, black and white, though only a single malavi. But there are more of these in the fourth picture.

Those were jolly days in that pond, and though there are still many fish there as you see in the last picture here, without the four shades of red, despite so many Malavi, it looks less lively.

My Roof Garden on top of the rest 54

Only the ambarella tree and the mango tree survived of the five plants I put in at the end of 2021, a most welcome Christmas gift. Both of them did well, though as I said I worried for a bit about the ambarella tree when almost all its leaves fell.

The mango tree moves more slowly, with spurts about twice a year when sheaves of green leaves emerge at the top, and add a few inches to its height. It will take a year or so to overtake me, but as a comparison between last October and this April shows, it is moving steadily upward. And indeed between the 13^th and the 23^rd, as you can see, it moved much higher, with a host of light green fresh leaves.

On the other side of the house the most colour is on the creeper that grows over the porch that leads to the old staff quarters. Janaki planted it there some time back, and every few months it bursts into flower and covers the tiles. It is a lovely sight from my study, the first window of which is directly opposite the gateway of the porch. It also looks good from the new building, though the picture which follows was taken last year, when there were few flowers.

My dining room, next to the study, also looks over that flowering creeper on the west. On the north, it opens onto a balcony where I have a large pot with a vibrant bougainvillea plant. Sometimes it has few or no flowers but in recent months there have been plenty, and April was a particularly good period.

But unfortunately the two bonsai plants I was given last year, a beautiful little ficus by Karu, the youngest of my former bodyguards, for my birthday, and a lovely bigger plant by Sabaragamuwa University, have both died. It was silly I think to have kept them in the dining room, for they did not get enough sun. I had tried the latter on the balcony of the new building, but there it got too much sun and began to dry up. I should then have kept it near my seat outside the garage and the ficus in the porch, but since there was still building work going on I thought they would be safer far away.

And so I lost them. But, not to end on that note, I show here finally, though I have shown them before, the white orchids on the dead temple flower tree in the main garden, which have lasted now for several months.

Water Features 53

Down to earth now, and though there have been no lotus blossoms in the ponds – and it was indeed only the one by the garage that had flowers in profusion, until the time I left for Canada in March – the fish with the exceptions I mentioned in the posts after Canada have done well since the reorganization. In particular I have been delighted by the kaleidoscope of colour which I placed in what was the first lotus pond, the yellow bath tub by the eastern wall of the garden.

I had as mentioned put in a few rosy barbs and several colourful tetras and also some zebras. Initially there had been a few black mollies there, and some platies, to deal with mosquito larvae before I got to the dealers in more exotic fish. They too are still there, and Kavi introduced a few small white fish, whom I fear as predators, the Malavi as I thought of them, but these are very little ones and thus far there seems to have been no trouble.

I cannot check very close, for the net over this tank is quite high, and that means also that I cannot get pictures of a host of different fish, for some of them are quite shy. So it is mainly zebras that you see in the two first pictures here, though in the first there is one of the little white fish in the bottom right hand area, and in the other there is at least one red tetra. But I hope this gives some idea of the host of fish of different types and colours who circle around each other when I drop food in of a morning, very fine food now for them.

Pictures of the other ponds too are difficult because of the nets over them. But the pond by the garage still lends itself to easy pictures, for the fish gather at the front in the morning if I am late with their food. In the first picture of this lot you see angels and oscars, two white ones and a black, and also one of the black mollies who were there from the start.

The next picture shows the two tiger barb, and a red tetra, with some of the same supporting cast, while the last picture has a catfish, unusual for these appear late when the others have moved away. But here there are lots of others, including both black oscars, and also the dark angel at the back.

My Roof Garden on top of the rest 53

Time now to move down to the main garden, for the ehala tree has begun to blossom. There is not quite the profusion you find in May, which I exulted in last year, both here an on Facebook when I described a wonderful May morning when I exulted in my garden. But there is a start, and I show a few flowers from different angles, which also capture other aspects of the garden including the structure with the roof garden on top.

But before these I show leaves, for greenery is a vital component of the garden and I should not really have waited till there were flowers to celebrate this. Pride of place in this respect goes to the ambarella tree, which some time back I thought was dying, for it had shed most of its leaves. But, as I have shown on this page last month, it put forth new leaves of a sudden, and those have flourished. So after the state of the tree now, I show what it looked like in those early days of renewal, six weeks or so before the present profusion.

And then you see ehala blossoms, the lowest lying ones against the wall of the bathrooms on the left, then higher ones against the porch wall with the balcony visible and the roof garden above; and finally a sight I never tire of, the summit of the tree seen from below, with the wall of the exercise room that is over the porch on the right.

Water Features 52

After several posts about fish, I get back to flowers, and the lotuses on the balcony. I showed them last on March 9^th, shortly before I went to Canada, but I kept in touch and was happy to be told that there had been yet another blossom in the big pond. Janaki sent me a picture of the double-petalled lotus that had bloomed in the week after I went, and I show that first.

By the time I got back, it had gone. But when I went up the morning after my late night return, on March 24^th, there was a bud in the other pond, and the next morning it had begun to bloom. I show it then, and again in full bloom the next day, and then on the following day when a bud had emerged by its side.

That was in the first stages of blossoming early morning on April 2^nd, and I show it in full flower on the 4^th.

My Roof Garden on top of the rest 52

The roof garden was not doing quite as well as the balcony, and certainly it presented nothing like the cornucopia of flowers that I have shown towards the end of last year. But there were several flowers there on the different rose plants in the different beds.

There were also roses in the first basin, the one with the temple flower tree. I show first a little red flower on the plant at the corner as one comes up the stairs. The next is I think from one of Anuruddha’s plants, which I placed on the other side of that basin.

Then there were quite a few flowers in two pots, the yellow one, which also sometimes had variegated blossoms, which is just south of the long bed with three sorts of roses, and then a pink one, which is on the other side of the next bed along, the one with the impatiens flowers.

And then I have just the one picture, which covers the two rose plants in the bed on the south of the rose garden, both of them transplanted from pots which were needed for taller plants. The little ones on the bottom right are white roses, while above them are flowers that should be yellow, but over the last few months their colour has faded.