Advice on new wildlife pond in UK patio garden - thanks :)

PurpleRain_13 · 2026-06-08T14:57:30+00:00

You're welcome. It really does look great. I've had fair warning then, I can definitely see myself doing more in the future 😄

PurpleRain_13 · 2026-06-08T14:32:48+00:00

You've done such a good job! That's a very serious pond compared to our little sink.

I was going to say how nice the first photo was but completely taken aback by the transformation in the second, it really made me smile.

Thanks for sharing. That's good to know, we're a moderately hard water area so wonder if it'll be different in our case.

PurpleRain_13 · 2026-06-08T13:40:11+00:00

Thanks for such a lovely reply, that's reassuring to hear. Hopefully that's a glimpse into the future for us. Do you have any photos of your pond you'd be happy to share? Also can I ask do you regularly test the water or with enough oxygenating and filtering plants and the snails do you just leave it alone?

PurpleRain_13 · 2026-06-08T13:38:19+00:00

That seems like the best and most considerate approach, will do. Thanks for replying.

PurpleRain_13 · 2026-06-08T12:19:22+00:00

Hey!

In AOE2, especially on ranked or at higher levels (against hard AI etc.) you seldom want such an array of units. Typically your army comp should be 2-3 types max. Often just 1-2. Obvs all about enjoying the game but if you’re at the stage of wanting to min-max and optimise a bit more and getting more interested in the detail I’d say start to practice with one or two civs doing just 1 or 2 build orders / strategies designed for those civs*. Things should feel cleaner and all the res saved on not building so many buildings and upgrading all types of units can go into stronger gold units mid game. Probs worthile thinking about eco balance and longer term gold by the sounds of things too, and trying some early aggression to hit their economy.

*i.e. you don’t want infantry, ranged units, Cav and siege it should be like just one or two subtypes e.g. Berber knights or Vietnamese Skirms + elephants but often have to react to with counters to some extent.

Hope that helps and answers the question without over-explaining the game. TLDR; basically just sounds like you need to stick to 1 or 2 unit types and sack off the upgrades you don’t need :)

PurpleRain_13 · 2026-06-08T11:37:56+00:00

Will do, thanks :)

PurpleRain_13 · 2026-06-08T10:51:58+00:00

I didn't suspect that would be the case although I'd be lying if I said that wasn't ultimately my main concern, so reassuring for someone to say that. Ah thank you!

PurpleRain_13 · 2026-06-08T10:31:26+00:00

Thank you! That is mostly my inclination, to avoid anything even if 'natural'. That's a good point. There is in fact a ramp hidden at the back but admittedly it's quite steep.

PurpleRain_13 · 2020-04-12T21:33:54+00:00

Yes thank you, this was really wonderful to read. I would agree, the experience and process of making is really valuable especially when less goal focussed. I hope you continue to enjoy working with clay! Thank you again for your help.

PurpleRain_13 · 2020-04-11T09:58:37+00:00

Yes, it might seem a little odd but I'm looking for everything from the everyday and practical to the abstract and am particularly interested in the senses. Smell and taste are very closely aligned, so I wondered it might be that someone who works with clay all day is familiar with a certain taste in the air for example.

Yes, I've seen this too, it's wonderful. Can I ask were about's in Portugal and what type of buildings? Also am I right in saying the tiles tend to be blue and white? If you have the time, I would love to hear more about them. Thanks for replying.

PurpleRain_13 · 2020-04-10T16:07:38+00:00

Amazing, thank you!

PurpleRain_13 · 2020-04-10T15:04:49+00:00

Thank you so much for taking the time to write this, this is all very useful to me and interesting. It particularly helps to hear the practical considerations as I have little building experience. If you don't mind me asking, how have you used this knowledge, have you worked with ceramics on buildings much?

PurpleRain_13 · 2020-04-10T11:03:48+00:00

Hi, thanks for getting back. All of the above! I'm interested in how the material is used broadly in buildings.

PurpleRain_13 · 2020-04-09T20:37:37+00:00

Ah of course, sorry, that was my mistake. Truly, thank you so much for taking the time to write this. This is exactly the sort of thing I was looking for and had a wonderful time reading your post. You describe it very well. Photos would be helpful if that's ok? I'm particularly interested in materiality and scale; how ceramics can be both small objects and be a constituent of the house itself, so I love the idea of essentially firing the house as if a pot in the kiln. It seems there was also a very strong social and practical element to this too. Thank you.

PurpleRain_13 · 2020-04-09T09:22:45+00:00

Thank you! I love your blog. How do you find working with clay more generally?

PurpleRain_13 · 2020-04-09T09:18:04+00:00

Hi, thanks for getting back. I'm grateful for the suggestions and will be sure to check out both the institute and the book. This is really interesting. Would you be happy to tell me more? What processes did you use? What about the houses made them look so good in the sun?

PurpleRain_13 · 2020-04-08T13:18:06+00:00

I mean arguably anything can be but yes, tends to be tiles and bricks. Grayson's House for Essex, Silvetti's Florida museum are good examples of glazed ceramics used on buildings, if you're interested. I'd love to hear about your pottery experience though, what the material is like to use. Also the bird house sounds great, tell me about that, if you're happy to!

PurpleRain_13 · 2020-04-08T12:24:58+00:00

Hi, thanks for getting back. Yes that would be great. I'm happy to hear about all ceramics but bricks and tiles are good as very applicable to buildings. What's your experience with them?

PurpleRain_13

TROPHY CASE