Springtime?

Spring has been slow to arrive here, so our backyard pond is still thawing out. It was covered with about a foot of snow and several inches of ice just three weeks ago, so it's making progress. Still at least four or five inches of ice under this layer of water though.

I went ahead and raked off a layer of leaves today. Normally I net them, but with the ice there it's still easier to rake. It's not even our ash tree that's the problem. Most of the leaves are from the neighbor's big oak.

Here is a closer look at the ice. I did pull out some dead feeder gold fish today. A couple of winters ago I managed to keep the pond open with a powerhead filter. Unfortunately, the last two winters have just been too cold to keep the surface from freezing.

Still trying to decide what fish to keep in it this year. Goldfish of some kind.