Pond digging

There are a few days of rain coming so I thought it would be a good idea to get the pond ready today so that rain could fill some or all of it. It was near 3pm before I got a chance to start digging though. I continued until 10.45pm, apart from a few short breaks. I used camping lights to see what I was doing, but there will probably be lots of tidying to do later. I still need to make sure all sharp stones are gone and finish landscaping the edges before putting down the underlay and pond liner. The rain started just as I was walking back to the house. I hope it won't do it any damage, and that it's not too heavy tomorrow so I can finish the job. I can fill it with the hose, but would prefer to catch the rain.

First shelf dug.

Overflow/rain channel. This will be filled with stones and gravel. 

Second layer dug.

I added some of the top soil to this middle bed. Will dig it in later.

Very bad photo, but I filled in the area that was lower around the gravel at the tree trunk. 

I had gotten this far by the time it was getting dark, before I went in for dinner.

I looked up the weather forecast during dinner and discovered the rain was coming very soon, so I went back out with some camping lights to finish the digging.

It's hard to see in the photos, but the pond digging is done apart from some tidying up.