A Pond is dug...

Hi, The other half here for this one.
I have always wanted a pond Since we have both space and available water, It seemed that now was a good time....

Though I'd really have liked to make it about half the size of the field, common sense and finances ruled and I settled on 8m x 6m ranging from 30cm to a metre in depth, with an added boggy area for raising thoroughbred mosquitoes, er, bog irises and such. So I marked out the outline, planning to leave it till finances allowed for hiring a mechanical digger.
Having marked out the pond I thought awww, what the hell, may as well remove the turf. So I did and discovered the amazing extent of the willow's roots...
Then I thought that I'd just take it down a spade depth all over...After that it seemed a small thing just to make sure there were no hidden springs, giant boulders or lost civilizations under where I was digging so I did a test dig to a metre.
After a day or two I was getting carried away with the whole thing and decided to see if I could actually do it without killing myself in the process!...and I did, much to my amazement. Pass the Ibuprofen...
After all that digging all that remained was putting in the underfelt,

the lining,

filling,Fettling the lining for minimum pleats,
and landscaping, which is in progress and will take a lot longer than the digging. The willow, which was pretty rotten was felled but will be replaced with another a bit further down the irrigation ditch, and further from the pond, to the left. We filled it on the 14th. It took me 8 days to dig. I only just worked that out - What was I thinking? Worth it though. The Herons are already queuing.