oh, the cleverness of you!

My title today comes from Wendy's remark to Peter in the wonderful live-action 2003 film of Peter Pan (vastly superior in every way to the animated Walt Disney version so many of us grew up with). The perpetual child, Peter doesn't really get irony, and actually, I don't mean it ironically - I just really like the line!
     What I'm talking about specifically is this wonderful low-tech fountain Joe put together on our patio, from 2 pots - one very large and deep and one fairly large but low and shallow - and 3 saucers, along with a couple of corks, a currently unused plant stand, and a metal cachepot for bailing. It provides an hour or more of the relaxing sound of trickling water without the hassle of pumps and electric wires (we did have a nice water feature with an inexpensive solar pump a few years ago, but it was an illustration of the saying that you get what you pay for - we didn't pay much for the pump and it didn't last long).

He used, or rather re-used, a wine cork in the low flat pot at the bottom to keep the water from leaking out and a champagne cork in the larger hole in the larger pot at the top to let just a trickle through. It did involve some fiddling to get just the right angle and position of the cork to get the desired effect, but when he was done, it trickled just right into the very small saucer underneath, then the larger vessels below that. When all the water's out of the big pot, you just pour what's in the bottom two containers back into it - the large saucer in the middle is heavy and awkward to move, so that's where the little green cachepot comes in - it's perfect for bailing. The three wide containers at the bottom are positioned/tilted so the water flows slowly and gently from one to the other. It's very nice and it was a lovely Mother's Day surprise.