Imagine a perfect world in which a beautiful large crescent shaped pond is dug to create a riding arena in which Lipizzan stallions perform, and that pond is populated with glowing waterlilies and even a Victoria. Is it Oz? No, but close.

It's the home and horse farm of Rhonda and Terry Tippin in Malabar, Florida, where we keep our horses. By a stroke of incredible luck, a vein of blue clay runs right through their property, under several feet of pure sand and this mixture is perfect for creating a world class riding arena. Naturally the hole became a pond that frames one end of the ring.

Because the pond is less than a year old at this time (summer 2002), only native cattails have volunteered in it so far but we have helped the process along with N. ampla cross waterlilies, seeds from capensis types and recently a Victoria that we didn't have room to grow out. The Tippins also admire giant papyrus so there are numerous starts of that around the edges

Tyler and his Quarter Horse Bitz

Rhonda's and Terry's son Tyler not only helps take care of the horses and the pond at home but looks after Cheech and the Victorias at our house when we are away. He has quite an eye for images and we feature some of his photographs below.