On the pond

We have been planning a small pond in the front garden since shortly after we moved in 7+ years ago. Well, this was the weekend for it. The ground wasn't too hard, so shifting all of the dirt wasn't as challenging as it could be if we put it off until later in the summer when the soil is like concrete.

We got the dirt (and debris) out, the sand in, and the liner down. Then off to a nearby garden shop to buy some stone to edge with (and really to help keep the liner from shifting once the water went in). When it came time to fill, I was surprised that it took almost an hour to top it up. Nice start.

So all of that together was really 'step one'. Next comes putting in the water plants, the waterfall, tidying up the edging and ultimately some goldfish. I'll post some pictures as we are further along in the process.

Book: Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather

Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather by Gao Xing Jian

I bought this book after it was rather deliriously reviewed on NPR.

While there are a few interesting moments in the book on the whole, I was left wondering what all of the breathless praise in the review was about. The last two short stories in the book where particularly unsatisfying. The short that shares the same name as the book moves along nicely then absolutely disintegrates into a stream of consciousness load of blather. It's almost as if the author couldn't figure out an ending so he pulled the literary equivalent of the last 10 minutes of Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey movie.

The final short in the book reads like a collection of snippets for ideas for scenes in a book (or even a film for that matter). They don't come close to hanging together and have the jarring effect of poorly done free jazz (to my eyes anyway).

I'd give this book about 2 out of 5. Not a total clanger, but definitely not one that I would read again.