Pondering Around

We went on the San Francisco Bay Area Koi Club’s annual pond tour yesterday. What fun!!

The first ponds we saw were at a place in Los Altos Hills. The first “pond” was more like a lake: 250,000 gallons! It had about 15? good-sized koi lazing around, and tons and tons of tiny ones, too. The next pond on the path, near the house, was the hospital/quarantine pond; not a tank, mind you, but a permanent installation. (I want one!) The “house pond” was on the back porch/deck. Lots of big koi, and lots of big rocks and ledges for them to swim over and around and under.

Our next stop was just up 280 in San Mateo. This house had a relatively small back yard with a in-ground swimming pool. They had a very nice waterfall/stream arrangement, down the side fence, into a gravity-feed arrangement to the koi pond next to the side of the house.

We had planned to visit the pond in Hillsborough, just up 280 from our 2nd stop; the ticket-taker in Los Altos Hills mentioned that that pond was not available, due to an emergency.

Instead, we headed over 92 and arrived at “the moat”. In this backyard, the waterfall was in the back corner, and the water split around an “island” where there was just enough room for a standing umbrella and a few chairs. The two waterflows met across from the waterfall, where the goldfish and koi live.

This was our favorite pond of the bunch! Such a clever idea, the noise level of the waterfall was just right; if we didn’t already have a pond, I’d be lobbying heavily for something along these lines. OTOH, maybe we can sneak one in somewhere…