Pond or giant cow pat?

We are into our eleventh year living on the Boggy Brae and although there have been dry spells, especially in spring, we think the current one is the longest we have experienced.  A couple of days ago, before the water in the pond had evaporated completely, Toad and I went down there with plastic buckets and scooped out a lot of the accumulated mud. It did indeed look like cow manure but wasn't as pongy. It has now formed a dry crust where we flung it around the edges.

crusty pond sludge

The low water made it easy for me to set in some pond plants that a neighbour gave me. They are in the left of the first photo. You might be able to make out some upright sticks in the foreground: they are marking wild angelica plants. The combined number around the pond and around the flag patch comes to about 50 now.

Near the king cups that the same neighbour also gave me (the ones that got eaten by the deer), I found some primula leaves. I put a cage round them as well. Turns out they are a pink-flowering variety.

Meanwhile my fight with the rhododendrons and snowberry growing around the oil pipe continues. The dry spell has been very useful for getting on with this as I've been able to burn the small stuff and stack the big stuff to let it dry our before we can use it in the stove.

monstrous rhododendrons and a pipe

I've often wished while hacking away at this stuff that I could just set it on fire but if oil vapour inside the pipe were to get hot enough to expand... let's not go there! I'm up to the last rhodie but it's extensive. After that I've only got about 16 metres of spiraea and snowberry to go at.

Meadow Buttercups and hawthorn have begun flowering today in other parts of the garden.

meadow buttercup