Rippled Effects – Page 18 – Living on the edge

May 15, 2008May 15, 2008

Crazy Fish

Our new fish are still somewhat shy, but in the last couple of days have begun to be a little less afraid of us when we are near the pond. For the last two days they have been swimming swiftly around the pond in circles around the plants, through the cave, past the skimmer, under the floating plants, under the waterfall, and just around and around. It sometimes looks like they are playing tag, but I cannot figure out what the rules are. Hubby has read that this fast swimming and what appears to be chasing of each other is spawning behavior. I call them my crazy fish. It does look like they are having glorious fun swimming in their new pond. When I am out near the pond they won’t come very near the top. I did manage to catch all 5 of them together in the bottom (with my camera of course!).

And, just for fun, I sat the ceramic frogs next to the frog spitter and they are now out there keeping an eye on my crazy fish. The ceramic frogs were birthday gifts for hubby and me for our birthdays last year — made by my sister. The middle one looks a little fierce, doesn’t he? Perhaps we can have her make us a smiley frog this year.

May 12, 2008May 12, 2008

Pink snow

Spring has been very cold here in Connecticut but this has seemed to make the blooming trees hang onto their beauty for longer than usual. Well, today — they are really letting go of their “beauty”. We have a Kwanzan cherry right outside our front door. This means it is also right next to our pond and waterfalls. We were supposed to have a storm today with lots of rain, but all we are getting is the wind. The big puffy pink blooms are being blown off the cherry tree in enormous quantities.

There is “pink snow” everywhere — sidewalks, flower beds, front steps, my bench, my flower pots, and unfortunately, the pond.

The petals from the blooms, and in some cases entire blooms, are filling the pond surface, being drawn into the skimmer for the pump, and eventually getting so thick that they are stopping the flow of water into the pump. Talk about your ripple effects!

Hubby turned off the pump this morning as he left for work and I headed off to a quilt guild meeting. But now I’m back home having used the leaf blower to blow away some of the “snow’, used the net to skim the top of the pond, and turned the pump back on. I’ve set a timer and every 20 minutes I go out and check the skimmer net — turn off the pump — clear the net — turn on the pump — come back in and reset the timer. I’m using this as an excuse to sit in the living room where I can hear the waterfalls and knit — claiming I cannot get anything else done in 20 minute intervals. So my summer vest is making good progress (I may even get it done before summer) and the pond is being taken care of. Note that, during this whole time, the fish are nowhere to be seen. They are still quite shy in their new home and I’m guessing that they are at the bottom of the pond in their cave wondering why the waterfall keeps going off and back on.

Here’s the vest front — in progress — ready for armhole shaping.

May 6, 2008May 7, 2008

Par

Tuesdays are ladies day at the golf course. I had my camera along to photograph various holes for the new course brochure. Couldn’t resist this photo of where my approach shot landed on the 485 yard par 5. A 3-inch putt for par! Fun!

May 3, 2008May 3, 2008

Welcome!

Welcome to the Rippled Effects blog. Here you will find some random thoughts, some notes on my various activities (knitting, quilting, stained glass, music, gardening, photography, ……. I could go on and on) and some musings on the effects of our actions, big and small, as they ripple through the world around us.

And to start things off, here is today’s photo — the “launching” of the new fish into our garden pond. After a disastrous winter where all the fish in the pond came floating to the top of the pond, one by one, we have added six new fish to the pond today. Here some of them are — Half-and-Half being the third one out of the plastic bag into the pond.

Tomorrow, we will be anxiously checking on our new BFFs (Best Fish Friends) to watch their adjustment to their new home. It is wonderful to see fish in the pond again. Welcome to your new home guys!