Courtyard Fountain...

We have been slowly chipping away at a few final touches since we shifted in (2 years ago this Christmas). One of those touches was finishing the courtyard fountain and pond. We have so far got it to this stage....

The plans for the fountain show the circular lawn and pond, with a fountain in the centre and four stone lions spouting water into the pond from the lawn...

We  started the pond 2 years ago, when we were forming the driveway...

And then had the turf laid...

Inspired by photos such as these...

Then we took a long time searching for a fountain. We initially considered ornate statuary such as this...

But settled on something more restrained and classical...

 like these...

By now the fountain was starting to look almost finished, but we had also gone through 3 years in a row where we failed to get our waterlilies in the lake to take (every time a fresh shoot came up the Mallards ate it). So we decided to try having waterlilies and goldfish in the courtyard pond after seeing how this could still look rather nice...

We were lucky enough that a local couple who booked to come to high tea after the fine homes tour said that they had a large pond with fish and waterlilies, which they were having to cull annually, and would we like some? We said yes please. So last weekend we popped down the road to visit them and collect said aquatic offerings. They had a large clay puddled pond with masses of fish and lilies...

The gentleman kindly donned his waders, jumped in, and started to dig out some well rooted lilies...

He also caught us some fish (7), for our pond as well... 

Here are two of them (Brian and Jackie) being released into our pond at home...

I spent the morning potting up the lily pads, making sure I spaced them all out carefully and turned all the leaves up to face the sun. Woe betide any Mallards that come near this pond!

Finally, we wish to complete the fountain by getting a jet ring to go around the inside of the pond and spray water back towards the urn...

As well as some Buxus or Euonymus to go around the outside...

We are discovering it is nice to have some ongoing projects, to keep us engaged with the park in a creative journey that will hopefully last for generations to come. Night night for now...