A dirty job but...

...somebody had to do it. The pond in the courtyard was really overdue for the removal of vegetation that didn't belong there... like grass, oleanders (two coming up in the center of the grass), and a total compaction of water lily roots and underwater trunks.  Here's the before photo.

I set my camera timer midway through the removal process and got back into the smelly muck. It was necessary to saw the under-muck roots and trunks into manageable chunks in order for me to lift them out of the pond.

The "after" photo below. I left one clump of lilies but in the future I'm not going to let the pond go so long without attention. Note: No frogs or fish were hurt during the performance of this job.