Don’t forget to click on the picture for a larger view.

The funny thing is, we were assured repeatedly by the previous owners and their landscaper that there was fish in that pond. But we did not see a single fish after we had moved in.

Until now. Here are the residents of the famous water body. They must have been hibernating already in the cool September of 2009, finally waking up in the nice weather of last week.
 

This fall’s party was styled after some Japanese fertility festival (豊年祭, pronounced something like Ho-nan Ma-tsu-ri). If you Google using those three characters, you will undoubtedly come across pictures of the phallic centerpiece of the proceedings in the land of the Rising Sun. Despite such undertones, the costumes at our party were primarily after common Japanese themes: several geishas, a few samurai, a ninja or two, a couple of sumo wrestlers… A few costumes were truly inventive and spectacular, such as an overgrown Bonsai tree or an Origami (made entirely of paper, by the way).

Our personal approach to party costumes is low-cost/effort first. Yet, as anyone would, we prefer to exhibit some originality. Right from the beginning, I had a brilliant idea of dressing up as some anime characters – none of my friends have more than a passing idea of what anime is, so we were guaranteed to stand out from the crowd. The problem is, I myself have a little more than passing idea about it. However, I do have a teenage child who is quite familiar with whatever anime offerings there exist on American TV. So, we enlisted Becky as an advisor and she suggested that we go as Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask from the Sailor Moon franchise.

Natasha scoured our wardrobes for appropriate attributes, borrowed some stuff from friends, hand-made a couple of accessories, etc. We simplified some elements, but ended up with sufficient resemblance.
 

  

 
We were unique. Of course, no one at the party had the slightest idea of who we were, but that mattered little…

To say nothing of a couple-of-times-a-week market during the summer.

One of these recently-held fairs revolved around cranberry. I did not bother to get into details of the occasion, but it lasted a couple of days, with long lines to the couple of points where cranberry-based products were sold – or, maybe, given away. Must have been some publicity event for Ocean Spray.

The centerpiece of the occasion was this large cranberry bog. I ended up taking a picture that did not feature a human in it, so you’ll have to believe me that it’s almost knee-deep. The machine in the corner does point to that.
 

People! Let’s get this straight!

This is not the London Bridge.
 

 
It is one of the symbolic sights in the City of London, but it is called Tower Bridge.

The London Bridge happens to look nothing special – just another modern river crossing.
 

 
Can we be clear on that once and for all?

A big branch split off a tree at the edge of our front lawn.

Natasha always had a lumberjack fantasy.

Not what you thought!
 

 

 
By the time I came home, she already talked a neighbor into taking a chainsaw to the thickest parts… The lawn is clean, but we have a pile of chopped wood and branches by the curb. Hopefully, the township will pick it up.

Ah, the joys of homeownership…

P.S. [next day] It suddenly occurred to me that if we dumped a chopped-up fallen tree by the curb in front of a house in England, it would block the entire street. In front of our house in New Jersey, it just looks like a weird little Halloween decoration.

 
It caused us quite a lot of pain in the run up to closing the house purchase. We’ve been given several versions of the events by various sources, and were finally able to piece it all together.

The previous owners of the house liked that pond very much. They installed it over 15 years ago, with appropriate permits from the township, and enjoyed the sound of gently cascading water and the pleasing ambiance of having it in the garden. Adding to the charm, a bunch of koi fish lived in the pond.

Then, a few years ago, the owners decided to add frogs to the mix.

Yep. They figured that the sound of a dozen croaking frogs is exactly what’s been missing from the picture.

And the frogs croaked. Or barked, given that this species of amphibians is known as “barking frog”. The owners loved it.

The neighbors, however, were not happy at all. Their much younger children could not fall asleep under the constant accompaniment of frogs. I am not sure how many times, if at all, they asked our sellers to get rid of the frogs, but eventually they complained to the township. I fully understand their desperation.

The township couldn’t or wouldn’t do anything about the frogs directly, but it suddenly “realized” that the pond was built on top of a utility easement. Which is a serious no-no.

The sellers did remove the frogs eventually. Or the frogs died out, I am not sure. But when the owners applied for a Certificate of Occupancy in order to sell the house to us, the township refused to issue one unless the pond was altogether removed, correcting the issue with the easement. For practical and impractical reasons, nobody wanted to do that. The sellers’ attorney engaged in negotiations with the township, which yielded the following result: The CO was issued in exchange for us signing a document that granted us a revocable license from the township to use the koi pond – and nothing else – on this particular easement. The township has the right to demand that we remove the pond from the property at our sole expense, but nobody seems to think that this will ever happen. (Whether this will become an issue when we decide to sell the place is a point of concern, but I’m not willing to lose sleep over it for the next ten years or so.)

These negotiations ended up pushing the entire process back by a week, which sounds like an unremarkable inconvenience until you factor in all of the other inconveniences related to being in between houses.

On the plus side, we have a beautiful pond.

A couple of days after we moved in, the landscaper who worked on our new garden for the last however-many years paid us a visit to introduce himself and to offer his continuous services. Our neighbors saw him and almost had a heart attack. They inferred from his visit that we would be getting the frogs as well.

We assured them that we have no interest in that. I can’t say that I much enjoy any night-time noises. The chirping of crickets, at least, largely becomes white noise after a while…

Please click on the pictures to enlarge.

First, the view from the street.
 

 
A closer view of the façade.
 

 
The view from the back, which turned out in rather dramatic light.
 

 
A view of the pool and the garden.
 

 
Our garden ends where the tall trees end. There are three levels: The main patio underneath (the picture was taken an upper bedroom window), the pool on the middle level, and the “woods” on the lower level.

The pool, unfortunately, will be closed this coming Wednesday. We only managed a few short dips in the week+ since we bought the house. Even a heated pool is not warm enough in this weather…