The bigger pond on the balcony also had, after the inroads of predators in December, to have protective netting placed all round it. This was easier than for the small pond, since much of the bigger one is under the main roof of the house. Still, Kithsiri put up netting all round the wall of the pond, to stop the polecat prowling along the top, from which he could easily scoop up any fish near the surface.

He had tried to do this, as the crane had done, sticking its beak in from the front, as I knew from not only the fearful cowering of the fish but from one dead one that seemed to have been skewered. But after the netting was placed they began to return more quickly when I put in their food, though this is still just in swift darts upward, and it is only after I have moved away that the bulk of the food is devoured. But there seem to be quite a lot of the angels there still, which causes me great joy, for these are children as it were of the house.

The bud in the pond when the railings were put up died without blossoming and then for a month and more there were no new lotus blossoms in that pond. I was just beginning to worry that there would be no more when I saw, after it had risen quite high, a bud at the front of the pond, just next to the seat. And a few days later it had begun to blossom early in the morning, and the next day it was in full flower.

I show first the bud and the opening blossom and the flower, followed by glimpses of the angels coming up to feed, above them the green netting visible on the edge of the pond. Finally there is a picture of the pond after the little green netting was put up around it.