Heron's attack, straw garden.

G'Day,
I had my second of 2 days off work today. It was nice and sunny again so I went out the back to attempt the straw garden I was wanting to try. I laid a thick bed of newspaper then wet it and then a layer of the sugar cane mulch with dolomite and blood and bone sprinkled on top then a bag of the cow manure over that. Next went the seed potatoes and another layer of the mulch. then another watering and finally a cover of chicken wire to keep Rufus from digging it all over the yard. I have seen this type of garden done many times and called different names, but have not tried it myself, so... here goes. It is under the old swing set and is about 7ft square. I will have to take the wire off later when it all settles in but hopefully Rufus will be used to it by then. Also I did a bit more pruning and tidying around the yard, but I didn't get back to the roses. Except for one monster sized rose down the side of the house and all the miniature roses I have them done anyway.
I rang my sister tonight, she was having a party. Just her, my niece Cassie, her soon to be husband and their baby Ivory. They were celebrating because El had some of her stitches removed today but also my niece had moved into her new house, after a long wait settling red tape etc associated with the purchase of it. They were cooking the first meal in their own home. A nice milestone.
For the last week or so the Heron has been visiting our fishpond and has finally succeeded in emptying it of fish. I couldn't find any there today at all. It sneaks silently in at first light and because nobody is around to see it, he waits silent and motionless until a fish comes by and has it for an easy breakfast. Rufus is too silly to even notice it is there and does not chase it away. My pond is covered by a net but that has not stopped the heron from getting at my fish. There was 18 fish in there last time I counted them. The heron usually comes in winter, I don't know if they migrate from somewhere colder to here for the winter. About 4 years ago another heron came and cleaned out the pond. There was a few really big fish that it couldn't swallow so it threw them out of the pond and they died anyway. The fish had eggs there and a few months later they all hatched and I had dozens of baby fish that survived because there was no adults to cannibalize them. The fish that were taken this time were what was left of the hatchlings. Maybe I will be lucky again.