About a month ago I told the story of my efforts to turn a plant pot into a bird bath. It involved a small solar-powered fountain, a small hanging birdbath, a large plant pot, some drip trays, some salsa jars, and some heavy-duty outdoor double-sided tape. To cut a long story short, I brought all the ingredients together and eventually the fountain happily floated and spurted above a big pot of water. Until last night.

Last night two raccoons visited my patio and as far as I could tell from my security camera recording they just went from one side of the patio to the other, briefly sniffing about my plant pots before going on their merry way.

This morning, however, I discovered that my fountain had sunk to the bottom of the pot. It could not float because the foam that holds it up was missing, as were the four arms that kept the foam and fountain central in the pot. After a minute or two of bewilderment, it dawned on me that one of the raccoons must have tried to take the fountain out of the pot by grabbing on to one of the arms. I found one of the arms in the neighbouring plant pot, but had to go foraging about in the shrubbery adjacent to my patio to find the other three. I could not find the foam anywhere.

I took this as a sign that I was not meant to have a birdbath in a big plant pot, so today I dumped out the water, uncovered the drainage hole, drilled a few more holes in the bottom, and filled the pot with the same dirt I had taken out a month ago. I transferred in a rose that had been growing in a smaller pot, and now the big pot is being put to much better use.

This left the foam-free fountain and the small hanging birdbath to consider. I took the chains off the birdbath and put it on top of a small stool, and I then put in some shells from the beach and a painted rock. The fountain went in the middle, resting on the shells, and – Ta Da! – the water is now joyfully spurting once again. Whether or not the birds will like it remains to be seen. I’m just happy to have a fountain.