Algae-licious

Summer has arrived like opening the door into a steam room... sudden, breath-taking: hot, humid, hazy. The pond responded by blooming with algae. It needs more shade, but as I cut it down and replanted it, hasn't had time to grow. So the algae says, thank-you-very-much-we-like-it-here.

It was rather nice, standing in the pond in wellies on a very hot-and-humid Sunday afternoon, winding strands of algae around a stick and dumping it into a bucket... then grabbing the stuff by the armful and just wrestling it out of the water. It is so fine, like a veil... and yet so strong. It is so bright green: like the trees' new leaves.

I thought it would be slimy. It is surprisingly fibrous: tough, almost rough.

Like all good green things, it has gone to the compost heap.

Now the skies have opened; thunder and laughing rain.