I started shaping the pond and discovered that it’s not so much that the sand had slipped, some of the earth has slipped over the sand. So when I scraped at it, as soon as I’d got rid of the sand, I knew I was back to the original carved shape.

I straightened the sides of the pond and carved out much better small shelves front and back. I’m hopeful that some stones will catch here and not immediately roll down to the bottom. The underlay and liner might undo some of the shape, but we’ll see.

There’s a much more defined bowl for the beach / bird bowl now. I’ve tried to keep a lip to stop stones being knocked to the bottom; it might be that more farm rock goes here too.

The last piece of bank by the gate was too difficult to shift. The plants behind the fence posts have stayed, because the liner goes in front. The tile to the left was too firmly wedged under two poles that were behind the fenceposts, so I’ve cut the liner and the new underlay and liner will have to go over it and be covered by the rock.

Having spent so long working in the corner, I made sure to enjoy this little piece of my left border. Everything else in the plot is so desperate for water and there’s now a bunch of weeding to be done too.