Water Hyacinth

Today, Saturday, is a really lovely day!

It seems like it would be a nice day to go to the beach.
But it will be extra crowded, and I don't like crowds.

Also there are riots going on all around the nation.
There is even going to be a protest in my own neighborhood!

All the looting and rioting makes me sad.

I have enough things to keep myself occupied at home. ( Small pun intended. )
We got the 2nd waterfall working.

Originally my dad set it up so one pump served both waterfalls.
However, for different reasons, that didn't work anymore.

I knew he had a few different old pumps and hose laying around.
My idea was why not just hook up a separate pump for each waterfall?

I was afraid it would be noisy, but both pumps are very quiet.
Two water pumps aren't any more ugly than one.

I bought some camouflage spray paint to disguise the new hose.

I also trimmed the star Jasmine around the waterfall:

I hope this encourages the birds to come closer to the house.
I've noticed the wild birds like a tidy and open yard, where they can see if the cat's hiding.

We already get dozens of birds taking baths in the stream between the ponds:

Besides sparrows there are Starlings, Crows, tiny Warblers, Mockingbirds, and a pair of Orioles.
However they fly away when you go outside, so it's best to spy on them from indoors.
If they come closer, I can get better photos...

Yesterday another water plant started blooming.
This is the water Hyacinth.

I think it has not bloomed in five years.

This plant doubles in size every week, so I constantly need to remove plants.
Otherwise the whole pond is covered with plants.

This year I figured out to remove the SMALL plants, and let the BIG ones grow enough to bloom.
Here is some in the trash pile. One of them bloomed after I threw it away!

Water Hyacinth has the most beautiful flowers in the garden: