Not so very long ago, the new volume “Ponds, Pools, and Puddles” by Jeremy Biggs and Penny Williams found its way from Devon to my post box in Oregon. The 148th volume in the series, this most recently published volume takes, as I’m confident you could easily guess, as its subject the ecology of the smaller-than-lake sized bodies of fresh water as they appear in the U.K.
Ever since acquiring a new microscope, I have been spending quite a lot of time renewing old acquaintances with some once familiar microscopic flora and fauna. Needless to say, despite my best efforts and plenty of dipping into assorted local ponds for specimens, blowing the dust off my identification skills has been progressing somewhat less quickly than I’d hoped.