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.

Water Features 51

Despite the losses described in the last few weeks, there have been some positive developments as far as the fish are concerned. On the balcony, the two tanks under the seats now present a host of colours and shapes. The one on the south had lots of tiger barbs put there some months back, but for a long time they stayed at the back, and it is only now that they gather at the front of a morning. Unfortunately I have not been able to capture a host of them, three or four usually, together, and I can only show first one, and then two, with the orange shade they carry with them, largely unseen, quite prominent.

The tank under the seat on the east went through a lot of problems as I have explained, but when I finally decided to confine it to little fish, it did quite well. I would have said very well, but in the last few days four and then five of the zebras, red and yellow, that I put there have vanished. How I do not know, but I suspect a predator, for there are no bodies or skeletons, and on a couple of mornings I have seen the faeces of a polecat on the walls of the balcony and the tiles of the roof.

But for a few weeks that tank presented a lovely sight, the red and yellow flashing around, while in the background were the five green tiger barbs and the one green barb that I had put in there, before zebras were added. And now they appear more prominent, when there are just a few zebras to distract the eye.

The first picture here shows the tank when it was dominated by the zebras, in the middle of last week. The next picture was taken earlier this week, and shows several green tiger barb (all five of them still there plus the one green barb that came with them), and then just two, but this is included because it shows a very thin yellow zebra (the red one being the usual size), who seemed to me to be ill on the day I realized four had vanished. He was on the other side of the tank but moved when I put my hand in, and swam about, but when the same thing happened the next day I thought he was not likely to last. And then on the third day he was not there.

The next picture shows the tank under the flowerbed on the east, an unusual one because the red fish there are prominent, whereas they are usually shy and leave the scene to the black mollies. One of the biggest of these can be seen at the bottom.

And finally I show again the angels which never cease to enthral me. Now I have a new phone, the pictures are better so that you can see several of them quite clearly, clustered near the back wall which is their preferred feeding spot.

My Roof Garden on top of the rest 51

As I mentioned last week, more of the plants on the balcony have been in blossom since I got back a week and a half ago. The orange rose bush in the original bed had tiny buds then but they blossomed over the week, and I start with a picture of two very elegant buds there. That picture was taken yesterday. It is followed by a picture taken the day before, when the second blossom was just emerging.

The orange bush in the long bed in the east was further ahead when I got back, so the two pictures of that which I show were taken a week ago. The second shows yet another perfect flower, as indeed the more distant view earlier also suggests.

In between these orange flowers I show a new red rose, which appeared in the little bed on the west. That tends to be shy, and only exceptionally, which I have shown, is there more than one blossom. But though it looked bare when I got back, there was a tiny bud, and on Monday it had flowered.

The final picture is of roses on the plant I showed last week. The picture of the blossoms then showed two buds fight on top, and this week they too were in flower. That bush is indeed prolific, for there are more buds there which will flower over the next few days.

Water Features 50

I fear my hopes last week were dashed, for when I got back from Canada it was to find only five fish in the upright tank. But it turned out that only one had died, for Kavi had rescued the other, the Silver Dollar, and put him in the waterfall pond. I have not however seen him since my return, for Kavi tells me he lurks in the little recess at the bottom, which is the home of the catfish, seven black ones and just one white one now, for the other died a few weeks back.

It seems that the Silver Dollar’s fins, as those of one of the carp, had been damaged, but Kavi saw this in time for him. Sadly the carp, though also transferred to the waterfall pond, did not survive.

All seemed well with all the other ponds, but then a couple of days after I got back there was tragedy in the pond by the dining room. I had added several carp there, gold and red ones, and two black catfish. Though one gold one died soon after I put them there, and there was no trace of the third red one I thought I had put there, the other four and the catfish seemed to get along well with the large gourami and the white Malavi.

I had had my suspicions of the latter however, for three others that had been put there at the same time had died, and I have learnt that this breed can be vicious. And so it was not a great surprise when, after I had fed them one morning, and all eight seemed at ease, I found that one of the carp had had its head bitten off. The Malavi was lurking at the bottom, and I had no doubt of his guilt, nor did Kavi, and he was swiftly moved to the pond under the croton tree.

There seemed to me to have been tension in that pond when the dead little carp was found, but it eased after the Malavi had been removed. I was glad to think that the gourami was not a dangerous creature but Kavi assures me that gourami get on well with catfish and carp. I hope he is correct and that for some time at least there will be equilibrium there.

And then, to cap this week of disaster after I got back, I saw in the waterfall pond one morning one of the red carp with its head bitten off. This did not seem to be the action of another fish, and first I thought it was the stork which had come back and been seen lurking by another pond. But Kavi thinks it must be a polecat, who would have been more adept at grabbing with a paw through the interstices of the net that I had foolishly thought provided protection.

There have been four red carp there for some months now, a big bright red one and then three smaller ones in varying shades of red, and now there seem to be just two, so that it looks like one was consumed with the other one, which I show, decapitated. A lesson to me that this net, which I move every day to feed the fish, must be replaced very carefully, leaving no gaps.

The pictures are of the three dead fish of the last week, all carp, with on either side what remains in the upright tank – all five fish there visible – and in the pond by the dining room where, along with the gourami, you see just one each of catfish and little carp.

My Roof Garden on top of the rest 50

There were lots of roses on the balcony when I got back from Canada last week, to my surprise for I gathered there had been a drought, with blazing sunshine. But the day before I returned it had rained, and there has been intermittent rain since, while I suppose the plants were well watered while I was away.

Most delightful of all were three blossoms on the rose bush in the only pot now on the balcony. I show them on the morning after I got back, with Lara in pensive mood, having come upstairs since she now thinks her puppies do not need constant attendance. And then, because this morning ritual is such a joy, feeding the fish with dogs in attendance and both rose and lotus blossoms, I show Benjy and Lara again with the roses the next day, in the last picture here.

The blossoms on the earth are temple flowers, blown down from the tree on the roof garden, which sadly seems denuded now. But I have not as yet been able to get up there, to check on that, and also the other plants, though I do see blossoms on the edge, roses and impatiens and bougainvillea.

Then there were bright red roses on the plant I had placed in the triangular basin next to the little pond. That has produced blossom after blossom since I first got it, after that basin had been fixed so that water would not stay at the bottom. Sadly none of these has been as large as the blossom on the plant when I first bought it.

The pink roses in the middle of the long bed in the east also continue prolific, and I show two blossoms there now, along with some buds. But before that I show a larger perfectly formed flower that was there the day before I left for Canada.

Pink and white and red are enough to go on with, but I see too that two of the orange plants have started to produce buds so I look forward to much colour over the next week or two.