On Ponds and Bees

Two things more that I would love to have in my garden , but cant afford....... a lovely big pond and bees.
 Every year I look into it , reviewing the situation , but always coming to the same conclusion , I just cant afford it !
That special rubber pond lining and sumptuous underlay , pump , four or five boulders.....beehives , spacesuit , smoky sedation puffer thing , honey extraction centrifuge thing....expensive...sigh ...
 So last year I bought myself one of those wooden half barrels..actually  , it is not even a half barrel , being just the bottom 12" or so I,d say . Just big enough for one or two aquatic plants.
I couldn't afford the lovely Water-lilies , so settled for a funny looking Water hyacinth and a small bunch of that weed that people put into their fish tanks to aerate and clean the water.
Just these simple plants , the reflections of the sky and the occasional damsel fly , looked lovely , the barrel placed  between the lavender plants in my herb garden .
Then came winter and all the recent rotten weather ....and my little pond didn't look so good any more .