From a Fountain to a Planter and Still Loved

When I wrote the blog post Sleek & Shiny, I mentioned that my favorite planter had originally  been something else.

It's actually a fountain and can be used indoors or out.

2012, still a working fountain and on its second motor.

I was going to put a couple of goldfish in it and use it outdoors when the weather was warm and then bring it inside for winter. Sadly, there were two problems.

First,

Great Blue Herons. They fish in neighborhood ponds, and with the Wabash River just on the other side of the woods by us, and a creek, two ponds, and a lake in the neighborhood, we are riddled with Great Blue Herons - they are everywhere! 

Tim and Loni have a beautiful Tim-built pond at their home out by the barn that they put koi into and those Herons fished it until it was empty. Ate them all! But then, that wasn't a surprise, either - a Great Blue Heron rookery is behind their home.

There are four huge trees, each one with 20+ nests in it. Quite a sight to see and VERY loud. 

Needless to say, I did not want my goldfish to be an easy meal for the Herons.

2) 

Goldfish grow to fit their surroundings. Fishy was actually my school classroom fish. I took her to school when I first got her and put her in a medium sized aquarium. Very quickly she grew to fit it and before the school year was over, she'd outgrown that home and needed a bigger one.

And by then she was WAY too big to fit into the fountain. I had to get another, bigger aquarium for her. (Eventually she got too big and unwieldy for me to transfer her back and forth to school in August and May. She died when she was five and was 10 inches long and weighed a pound and a half.)

I enjoyed the fountain with just water burbling in it until the pump died and could not be repaired. I tried replacements but they did not work. I set it sadly into the garage, not wanting to throw it out until I'd exhausted all my repair options. 

The next spring as I was planting my flowers, I spied it sitting forlornly in the garage. And suddenly I had an idea. That would make a perfect planter; I'd just be enjoying it differently!

And it's been a planter ever since.