•Whether it is a spreading lake in autumn splendor like the one above, or a rather more modest garden pond amidst new spring shoots, there can surely be nothing more relaxing than sitting in the sun beside sparkling water, listening to the trickle of a waterfall or the spray of a glittering fountain falling on to a rippled surface. ..

But what might you see if you looked a little closer?  The surface of clean, clear water acts as both a mirror and a window, showing us two worlds that can sometimes seem quite separate.  Yet, get to know more of the lives that develop in and around the water's edge, and you will find a whole new world that encompasses air, water, and land.  And what a truly fascinating world it is!  Full of creatures that may spend half of their allotted lifespan swimming, and the other half flying!  Creatures that live, as we might only dream of, in air, water, or earth.  Beautifully graceful, or fearsomely ugly - which is the dragonfly to be described as?  The fully grown fly that darts from a lily's velvet petals is thought to have been mistaken by many as a fairy sprite, and is maybe one of the most beautiful creatures of the waterside.  Yet it's nymph, that crawls in the roots and fronds of water plants or moves clumsily through the water, will attack and kill without mercy - a dragon indeed!

At a time when  much of our British wildlife is under threat, the rewards of a wildlife garden are obvious and abundant. They are also there to be reaped not just by the owners of that garden today, but by the people who live in the countryside around it (remember to remind them of that, if they should complain about your "weed seeds" falling on their immaculate lawns!), and the generations to come.  Birds, bats, butterflies, insects, small mammals... All will be attracted by water, the commodity that is so essential to all life, yet so easily and widely taken for granted.    

Encouraging wildlife does not necessarily mean leaving the lawn to grow into a wasteland.  How many of us have a bird bath that is constantly topped up by rain in winter, but is forgotten and dry on a scorching summer's day?  Oh, yes - we do sometimes have scorching summer days!  And many British birds actually die of thirst!  Incredible yet true.  Some of you may have nesting boxes which are never frequented, or from which young do not always appear.  Remember that birds must have clean water within a short flight of  their chicks, or they will quickly perish. 

I always think of water as being the essence of life, and so it is water, and it's inhabitants, that I weave this web site around.  Revisit it as it develops, and remember that a little water, if that is all you have space for, may provide for a lot of life.