New Skills
It is always good to learn and sometimes that learning has to be done by stepping outside of your comfort zone. Sometimes though, you go a little too far and instead of driving a small van you jump into an articulated lorry and then just spend your time going very slowly and carefully up the road.
Maybe not the best analogy. I discussed with An, at length, the option to put a small fishpond into our garden. These were very important discussions, even negotiations. Shape, depth, construction, position you name it we talked about it. We talked about everything bar cost and I am talking psychological as well as financial.
DIY Hell
It is worth pointing out at this stage that I grew up in an environment where DIY activities were somewhat of a disaster zone. Any task my stepfather seemed to address usually ended up in messy failures, it is harsh to say that, but then you must temper it with a lack of access to decent tools and knowledge. Today on the other hand I am lucky enough to be able to obtain the tools and even better the great oracle that is YouTube supplies me with tutorial video's and helpful tips. In fact even if you end up with some geeky unintelligible idiot trying to pass on their skills, you can even re-search again and find someone more on your wavelength.
Things have gone wrong so many times that I have an almost insurmountable fear of attempting anything remotely technical. That said, I will attempt things, but I am my own worst critic. The one enduring quality which I have in buckets is perseverance. When the shit hits the fan I just get myself right back into it and try to find a solution.
Part 1 - The Dig
The negotiated agreement was that the pond would sit half below and half above the ground, this was to give depth and also protect against the frost. Of course this would entail digging and I am an office worker. Digging of any kind is a major effort. The size of the pond was marked out as 130 x 130 cm and it had to be aligned to the new extension (at an angle). An, the works supervisor, marked out the ground and work commenced.
The challenge with our garden is the amount of rubble type stones that can lie under the surface and so, despite the years of additional topsoil laid down I did find the occasional jarring obstacle.
