frogapalooza

Accidental art

2010-12-19T20:43:00.000-05:00

Glam shot

2010-11-15T20:07:00.000-05:00

Squeakers looking glamorous and even intelligent (don't be fooled.) My father used to say that the purpose of cats was to show us how life is supposed to be lived. Which is funny because he certainly wasn't the type to lie around the house all day goofing off, at least not until he had reached a senior enough age that that sort of thing becomes respectable. I guess he never learned his lesson.

Out n' about

2010-11-02T19:16:00.000-04:00

In the new pool!

Engineering

2010-09-01T10:25:00.000-04:00

Almost there

2010-07-09T07:51:00.000-04:00

New pool in spring

2010-07-07T07:49:00.000-04:00

Lily bud

2010-07-06T07:48:00.000-04:00

Regeneration

2010-07-05T07:46:00.000-04:00

New pool in the snow

2010-07-04T07:45:00.000-04:00

Big icicle

2010-07-03T07:43:00.000-04:00

Big snow

2010-07-02T07:43:00.000-04:00

Down dog

2010-01-08T21:57:00.001-05:00

Rainy pond

2009-08-29T15:26:00.002-04:00

It is not yet September but it is definitely fall again. It is the story of this summer, rain and cold and no frogs. It was warm for about 3 weeks, maybe less, and I doubt it will be warm again. The pond is full almost up to the edge, you can see it in the upper right corner of this picture, it is raining so much that the pond is actually overflowing and that despite the continuing leakage problem. I really have given up on the frogs for this year, it's too bad but I guess it was just never warm enough. But who knows, maybe we'll have a killer September. The tomatoes finally ripened about a week ago and hopefully we'll have them for a bit longer, at least they didn't succumb to the dread potato virus.

Transmogrification part II

2009-08-27T21:16:00.001-04:00

I was on the side of the pond today and I swear, one of my baby fish is turning orange. Really that's not too surprising given what we have already learned about fish changing color, but I wonder if I am just lying to myself. Which also worries me, because I value the pretty orange and gold fish more than the ugly gray and brown fish. Does that make me a bad person? On the one hand, it doesn't, because my fish are decorative objects to me and, as such, should be decorative. On the other hand, my fish obviously have personalities - Some of the big ones like to hide in the plants, other like to spend time in the deep end, and all of them know when I come to the pond and wait for me to feed them. So despite the tiny brains there is something going on there. But still, I hope my little ugly ducklings turn into swans before I have to decide what to do with them before the winter freeze (hint hint!)

Spider mites

2009-08-24T21:04:00.000-04:00

I have something infecting my lily pads, I think they are spider mites. They look like little spiders, and they cause spots on the leaves and the plants look unhealthy. On the other hand, maybe the spider mites are the symptom and not the cause. I think they're bad, but also the other bugs and the fish seem to enjoy eating them so its all good. But I don't think the lily pads are happy about it. Which leads me to another wonder, which is why are some of my water plants looking dried out? They live in the water, how could they be dried out! When I fill up the pool, the little mites all climb on top of each other to escape the water.

Morning Glory Blues

2009-08-23T08:59:00.001-04:00

I know I shouldn't complain about flowers, but I will. I bought a big bag of Morning Glory seeds a couple of years ago and I am sure that they were supposed to be blue. I found them in the basement this spring and planted them around the pool. I absolutely adore blue Morning Glories, there is something about that particular shade of blue which is quite amazing, so I have been looking forward to their appearance all summer. And then, voila, they start blooming and they are all white with pink streaks. Imagine my disappointment. I'm not sure if they used to be blue seeds and then changed, that is probably not a real possibility. I'm not sure what to do with the rest of the seeds, I guess I will throw them in the back of the field and buy some blue Morning Glories for next year.

My cute neighbors

2009-08-21T21:00:00.002-04:00

There were four raccoons that came to the pond this afternoon/evening, around 6PM so it was still light out. They are very beautiful, they were obviously a family group and I tried to catch them all drinking and cleaning and fishing in the pond but of course I scared them off when I went for my crappy camera and opened the back door. It's been a bad summer for visitors, I haven't seen the turkeys at all, or the fox, or the coyote (but that's a good thing). AND NOT FROGS. But we won't talk about that it's too depressing.

Too many fish

2009-08-16T19:17:00.002-04:00

It's finally hot and they pond got real low, a combination of ongoing leakage and evaporation. While I was filling it up the baby fish got real excited, they started trying to jump up the little waterfall between what used to be the two lower ponds - Different levels of depth, but there is only a waterfall there if the water level gets real low. A lot of the baby fish are getting pretty big so they are easier to spot and there are A LOT of them. At least 30, probably more, all sizes. None of them gold, they're all kind of a dull gray silver. I don't know what I am going to do with them once winter comes, there are really too many to keep in the fish tank and I don't really want to have a fish farm. I need a natural predator, maybe a snake, but that whole add-a-new-species-to-eat-the-other-introduced-species thing tends to end badly so I probably shouldn't go that route. Maybe I can put an add on Craig's looking for people who want to buy feeder fish.

Flotilla

2009-07-28T20:07:00.002-04:00

I was stilling by my pond today and I noticed that I have more than two baby fish. The water had gotten really low and so I had just refilled the bottom part of the pond, and that brought them all out or something. I looked carefully and I saw that I actually have LOTS of baby fish, all different sizes, some as big as my finger nail and some as small as mosquito larvae (although they're not, they move differently.) There are so many baby fish I can even begin to count them. They appear to be gold fish but they are not gold colored, they are all kind of gray, but as I have noted previously in this blog gold fish do tend to change color so hopefully this is not a permanent condition at least not for all of them (the photo is NOT of the baby fish, it is the older fish in the upper pool, I don't think my camera is good enough to photograph the babies yet.) There are so many that I'm a bit worried about what will happen over the winter, I don't know if my fish tank is big enough ... But no thoughts of winter now! It is hot and muggy and normally I would hate it but after all the rain it's quite pleasant and anyway there is a little breeze too which cools things off.

Transmogrification

2009-07-26T17:28:00.003-04:00

I came home from a business trip the other day and noticed that there are now only seven fish in my pool. I'm pretty sure I used to have nine fish, at any rate definitely more than seven. There were also some mild signs of disturbance in the plant life. I think some sort of animal, probably a raccoon, came and caught them. They now have access to a really deep pool but also to the shallower end which would be easy to fish them out of. Then today I was sitting by the pool, practicing my new concertina, and I noticed two little baby fish swimming around in the lower pool! They must have been born and then swept over the waterfall and therefore survived being eaten by their ancestors! I was hoping this would happen. I only have positive ID on one of them, but I am pretty sure I saw two silver ones. I also saw a lovely water bug. But no frogs, I don't know what is up with the frogs, it's lonely without them. The photo here is of my cat tails, they are looking quite nice, I will definitely cut them and keep them as a souvenir this fall.

Cat tails

2009-07-05T09:30:00.002-04:00

The cat tails which I planted last year are thriving, and it looks like I will be getting two actual cat tails out of them. You can't see them very well in this picture, they are not very far along yet, I will post a better picture when I have one. It finally appears to have stopped raining, just in time to not ruin everyone's weekend, but the wind is strong and the cat tails are leaning over in the breeze and bobbing around so it is hard to get a good photo of them. I need to get a better camera one of these days. The pond is leaking less but still leaking, I will have to do some more experiments to figure out where it is leaking from this time. I keep getting new lilies, all yellow ones, I thought I had a white lily in there but if I do it hasn't flowered. And still no frogs, obviously, because if there were frogs that would be the first thing I would mention in my post.

Pond patches

2009-07-02T20:34:00.004-04:00

I figured out where the leak was, it was in the shallow area between the two pools. I am not sure whether it wasn't leaking before, or the volume of water was lower and so it didn't matter as much. Note the beautiful yellow flowers that have been growing beside the leak, fed from the large amounts of water, no doubt. It is very interesting how the leaks work, I think the water slowly finds it's way out and then, as it keeps flowing through the same path, becomes slowly larger and larger and finally becomes noticeable to me, filling the pool. I made this particular part of the pool early on, before I realized that you really can't use regular cement for that purpose because it is so porous. Last weekend I slapped a good dose of hydrolyc cement on and that has done the trick. But STILL NO FROGS. I'm starting to get worried by maybe it is so cold and rainy that the frogs don't realize that it is summer yet. Neither do the rest of us.

The finished product

2009-06-28T09:52:00.001-04:00

This is the current state of the pond. I used a sledge hammer to combine the two lower pools into one and likewise I merged the new big upper pool with the older upper pool. Now there are just two larger pools and the fish are in the upper one, which is a better arrangement because I am pumping the water out of the lower one into the upper one so if the hose from the pump gets knocked out of place and drains the lower pool the fish won't die, a constant concern of mine last summer. The fish are very happy in the upper pool, it is deep in the new part and shallow in the old part and it has lots of plants, some that wintered over and some that I planted this year. The fish are growing at an almost alarming rate, sort of like my nephew.

Major leakage

2009-06-22T21:50:00.000-04:00

The pond is up and actually running quite well, with many new and old plants. The fish are frolicking, they love their new deep pool. However, there is a major water loss going on and I'm not sure where it is coming from. This photo is actually the wall of the upper pond leaking into the lower pond, which was some of my earliest pond construction before I had the revelation that if I added sand and gravel to the mortar that would become a conduit for water - now I stick to 100% pure hydrolic cement. Anyways I'm doing a scientific experiment and turning off the pump for a few days with the pond full to see where the water is coming from. Normally I would worry about not circulating the water but SINCE IT WON'T STOP RAINING I'm not so worried. So far it seems fairly stable and I suspect that the leaks have something to do with the higher water levels when the pump is in action. And PS, still no frogs. I wonder what's up with them.

I have a flower!

2009-06-01T22:35:00.000-04:00

Well, that was a long vacation. Maybe partially because I got a house mate and therefore had someone to listen to me babble on about the pond, maybe because I'm just lazy. But now my house mate is moving out and so I'm back to it. This is a bull head lily flower, it is from one of the lily plants I dug up in NH last summer. That shimmery stuff on the surface is pollen, which is driving me crazy this spring as usual. It's everywhere. The lilies and other plants survived the winter just fine, which means they too can freeze solid and come back to life, just like the frog. No signs of the frog yet, but much has happened with the pond since my last post in January, so stay tuned for the exciting news!

Blogcation

2009-01-03T20:23:00.000-05:00

The frogs are frozen in the mud, the fish seem to be recovering from there recent ecological disaster, the birds are busy at the bird feeder, Squeakers the cat is sleeping in her cave of blankets, and I have decided to go on a vacation from my blog for a little while, probably for one to two weeks. I'll still be around town and going to work, but the Blog has a flight booked for St. Thomas and is planning to spend some quality time on the beach, hence the photo. I'll be back soon when I have more to report ...

Bird feeder

2009-01-02T19:31:00.000-05:00

The birds have discovered my bird seed, and now they are out in force. I was lying in bed wondering where they go at night when it's cold, I suppose they have warm little nests somewhere. And where do the deer go? They must huddle together for warmth deep in the trees or something since they can't build nests. Which got me to thinking, which animals don't cuddle together to stay warm? I know of one example, the Tasmanian Devil, which is so unfriendly it's a wonder they get close enough to reproduce (it's not a date movie moment either.) Definitely not on the short list for evolving into a house pet. It has been cold, with a wicked wind from the North West and when it blows from that direction there is no way to keep the house warm so I'm mostly staying in bed when I can.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T18:35:00.001-05:00

Another wonderful piece of art from my friend in NH. So far the year is looking good at least for the fish, they are perky and hungry. It was freezing and windy today, and when it's windy it's impossible to heat my house, I was alone all day freezing to death. Now I've gotten smart and I'm wearing my ski coat while I'm writing this. I think we are all happy to say goodbye to last year and hello to 2009. Yeah!

New frog

2008-12-31T18:28:00.001-05:00

I'm happy to report that my remaining fish appear to be recovering well. Their Dorsal fins are up, their tails are healing, and they are eagerly consuming the fish flakes in the morning. I now have twelve fish, not counting the glass one. And now I have a glass frog too, or rather it arrived at the same time as my glass fish, as a Christmas present from my adorable nephew (who is now taller than me, I can't wait until he grows even bigger and I can make him do all of the heavy lifting.) Here's what the card with the frog says: To the Chinese, frogs represent the lunar, yin principle. It was once believed that frogs came from the moon (well, considering the freezing thing, I can believe that), hatching from eggs that fall from the sky with the dew, so their images were often used in rain ceremonies (hence the snow?) Like all frogs, our little green friend symbolizes joy, luck and transformation.

New fish

2008-12-30T22:07:00.004-05:00

Today was a good day because there were no dead fish to wake up to or come home to. And now I can introduce my new fish, which was a Christmas present from my lovely niece (it's made of glass.) It says on the card that came with it: In China, the delicate (don't we know) and lively (when it's not sick) goldfish is revered as a symbol of wealth ($0.15 at PetCo) and good fortune (not necessarily for the goldfish) - in fact, its Chinese name - jin-yu - sounds like "gold in abundance". Traditionally eight yellow and one black goldfish are placed in an aquarium to attract money (not sure how the silver and white goldfish effect the equation.) But having a school of our little guys in the house couldn't hurt (unless you kill them en-mass by mistake and it breaks your heart.) By the way, isn't it interesting that 'fish' is one of the few nouns in English which is the same for the singular and the plural. Can you name them all?

Milky water

2008-12-29T19:58:00.004-05:00

I woke up this morning to three dead fish, including my biggest fish which I had had the longest. Very depressing, but I chucked them out in the garden and went to work. I don't think I can get bereavement leave for dead fish, maybe for a dead cat, I have a very understanding workplace, but not a fish or even three. I was pretty upset about the big fish, although not surprised because it looked rather sick last night. Also this morning the water was very milky looking and it still was when I got home. I asked a friend of mine who used to have a lot of fish and he says that the milky color is due to the water conditioner and not to worry about it. I don't really believe him, on the other hand I don't want to do any more water changes because I don't want to keep shocking the fish. I set up the pumps to make sure I was maximizing the aeration before I went to work this morning because the fish were all at the top of the tank looking like they were gasping for air. When I got home 12 hours later the water was still milky but the fish look better. I don't see any that look like they are ready to go belly up on me. I hope not. I still have all of the four babies that were born last summer.

Early thaw

2008-12-28T19:07:00.002-05:00

I was going to call this post "January thaw" but then I realized it is not January yet. Not quite. Usually we have a big thaw around mid January which is why I thought of that. It got really warm today, I'm not sure exactly how warm here but it was over 61 degrees at 4PM. Most of the snow is gone although there are still bits hanging out around the edges, and all of the ice is gone from the pond. I lost another fish overnight, I threw it in the yard and I think Squeakers may have eaten it when I let her out to enjoy the warm day. Most of the other fish are doing much better, they are swimming around and they ate and I think they will be ok. Unfortunately my biggest fish, which I feel rather attached to, is not looking well. I really hope it makes it through the night, I dosed it with fish medicine and tried to hand feed it some fish pellets but it is floating near the top and not eating and kind of listing to one side, although sometimes they just do that for no reason. I don't know what else I can do.

Sick fish

2008-12-27T18:33:00.001-05:00

I set up my brand new 29 gallon tank with a light hood. I moved all of the fish back into it, but they are still real sick. They are covered with ick. So far I have lost three fish, there is another one that looks like it is not doing so well. You can see the blue bottle of fish medicine in the back ground, I don't know if it is doing any good. I guess the best thing I can do at this point is nothing, but it doesn't feel good. The ick is kind of like thrush, white stuff growing on their bodies. I hope they are better tomorrow morning.

Dead fish

2008-12-26T17:19:00.002-05:00

Today has been quite a traumatic day in the fish world. Yesterday I cleaned the small tank and replaced a third of the water, thinking I was doing a good thing by the fish. Unfortunately, there must have been a contaminant which got in the water and when I got up this morning I noticed that the fish looked real bad. I moved them all into one of my pots in fresh water and did a complete water change on the tank, but it was too much for one of the gold fish and he died. I put him out in the garden. I also lost all of the guppies which I was taking care of for my sister's kids. Now I have to decide whether to tell them that their guppies died or just get new replacement guppies on the theory that they will never know the difference. Or pubish it on my blog and see if they are reading. I looked into fixing my bigger fish tank, but then I went to the pet store and saw that I could get exactly the same tank for only $23, which ment that fixing it really isn't worth it. In the end I got a 29 gallon tank with a light, which is nice because I won't have to keep it near the window. I am going to put all of the fish in the new tank which will also make my life a lot easier. I also bought fish medicine at the pet store, God knows what's in it but it seems to be working the fish have already perked up quite a bit. There is one in particular which looks like it won't make it through the night, but the others are improving. I set up the new tank, I will transfer the fish first thing next morning. Thank goodness they're carp, any other fish would be dead after all of this stress.

Frogger ho ho ho

2008-12-25T12:24:00.000-05:00

Frogger is having a very merry time showing off the Christmas card he got from his close personal friend, the president elect. In other news, I came home late at night (for me) on Christmas eve to discover my new fish tank leaking all over the floor. Turns out that the glass floor of the fish tank cracked, probably due to the change in temperature and the fact that I had not properly supported it. Which is shameful considering I should know better since I know how much water weighs and I'm very familiar with power laws. Bad, bad mathematician. I am going to ask the people at the local glass store if they can cut me a new piece because it looks like it can be repaired and it would be silly to throw the whole thing out. In the mean time, everyone (fish) is in the small 10 gallon tank, along with some guppies that I took from my sister, so it is quite over crowded and will have to be cleaned at least once a week if not more. Good thing I wasn't on vacation or the fish would be dead! Next time I will make sure to properly support the tank.

Tomten

2008-12-24T20:18:00.002-05:00

One of my loyal fans (and oh yes she's my sister too) reminded me that the paw prints I saw the other night MAY have actually been the foot prints of a Tomten patrolling the grounds late a night. A Tomten is a sort of house elf and precursor to Santa Claus which we were introduced to as children through the wonderful books "The Tomten" and "The Tomten and the fox" adapted by Astrid Lindgren (who also wrote Pipi Longstockings) and illustrated by Harald Wiberg. The photo above is from the cover of the book, it is copyrighted but I hope the copyright owner will consider this use free advertising. And it would be wonderful if I had a house elf sneaking around and fixing things in the middle of the night, unfortunately I haven't seen any evidence of mysterious repairs. I'd say I'll keep my eyes open, but the Tomten is one of those magic creatures which goes away or worse starts making mischief if you spy on it, so best to leave it alone.

Decorations

2008-12-23T18:47:00.001-05:00

Looks like I don't have to worry about decorating my Christmas tree any time too soon. It would still look kind of neat if it had lights shining out from under the snow but it's too late for that now and I guess it will have to wait for next year. I hope the snow doesn't damage the branches of my little tree in a micro-environment version of the devastation that has occurred up in New Hampshire over the past weeks. The temperature is supposed to go up to the forties tomorrow so it should all melt.

My humidifier

2008-12-22T18:32:00.000-05:00

I got an underwater filter with my new fish tank. The fish tank used to be home to some turtles, and they probably don't need as much aeration as fish because they are surface breathers, but I figured that the fish need some bubbles so I jerry-rigged the thing so that the output is above the water level and makes a little fountain. I think this set up, and also just having two fish tanks in the house, is helping to keep the humidity up in my house. I haven't had the severe dryness problems I usually have in the winter, and it wasn't as bad last winter either. I cleaned out both of the tanks this weekend, using my special siphon to suck the fish poo out of the bottom of the tank as instructed by the fish store people. I am cleaning the tanks every two weeks, so far the fish look fine, I'll keep a close eye on their fins for signs of stress. Supposedly a lot of people mistakenly think their fish are canablising each other because there fins look chewed off, but really it is becasue of bad water quality.

Rockwell

2008-12-21T19:33:00.000-05:00

A former roommate of mine named the local flicker Rockwell. Maybe this is the same one, probably not because it has been a long time since the bird was named. The flickers are especially amusing in the spring when they are young and stupid and haven't figured out how to perch on the stand yet. Today is the winter solstice, and I spent it in bed sick (still) with a cold (which may be the flu, although not THE flu becuase I got a shot for that one but some secondary flu of lesser import) watching the wet snow fall outside my window. Thankfully my neighbors very well behaved children shovled out my car, although I still anticipate and unpleasant slog to work tomorrow.

Champagne snow

2008-12-20T19:11:00.002-05:00

We had a big snow storm here, as did much of the country. I am told that this is the best kind of snow for skiing, light and solid crystals which we don't often get in New England. Unfortunately I am still sick, I even had to get the neighbor's kids to shovel out my walk for me I was so wiped out. Tomorrow we get more snow, but it is going to be wet and sticky and ruin the consistency, oh well. This photo is of the pond, you can just see the edge of the rock wall next to the pathway in the forground and the edge of the rock wall I've been building for the new pool in the upper left. Otherwise it's kind of like the polar bear in the snow joke.

Early morning

2008-12-19T22:40:00.002-05:00

This is the morning glow when I woke up and went to work. The lot is where the fox and the turkeys live behind my house when they are not off looking for food. I left work today and came back home as soon as possible because I was afraid of getting caught in the latest snow storm and because I had a horrid cold and wanted to get some sleep. Which I will do now, again.

Xmas tree

2008-12-18T18:01:00.003-05:00

This is my Christmas tree. I dug it out of the ground in New Hampshire about seven years ago when it was just a tiny little thing. It's still pretty small, maybe three feet high, and it stays outside all winter. It is some kind of fir tree. I am thinking that maybe this year I will put lights on it, if I can find were I stashed them last time I was overcome by the urge to decorate a tree. Maybe this weekend. I have kept the tree in its same pot for a long time because I don't want it to grow. I have another tree in my house, a Norfolk pine I think which isn't hardy. I made the mistake of transplanting it to a bigger pot a few years ago and now it has taken over a large section of my living room. Luckily I still have about three times the space I need in this house so it doesn't really matter, but it was a useful lesson.

Paw prints

2008-12-17T19:24:00.004-05:00

I woke up this morning to the first real snow fall of the year. I was taking pictures of it from the second floor window and I noticed paw prints in the snow going up the walk-way stairs in my back yard and circling the pond. The snow fell last night and there were no human prints around these. They look too big to be a cats, although that can be deceiving, they weren't very clear and foot prints can grow causing big foot evidence and the like. I don't think they are a dog's prints because dogs aren't usually that subtitle, there would be a whole mess of prints running back and forth. I've decided they must be from the fox, might as well believe that. If you look close you can see a paw print right at the upper edge of the wedge of the upper pool.

Cat tv

2008-12-16T19:22:00.002-05:00

I finally went out and bought some new bird seed. I hadn't refilled the bird feeder all fall, I hope the birds weren't counting on it too much. I figure that now that the weather is really getting cold I have to continue to fulfill my obligations to my feathered friends, also it helps keep Squeakers amused. I haven't seen any birds on them yet, but I only filled them this morning and I have this silly habit of going to work during the week days and coming home in the dark.

Silver fish

2008-12-15T20:47:00.001-05:00

This is a photo (from above) of one of my two little silver fish. They are just tweens now, I have four tween fish total, the other two are gold and white with gold spots. I am curious now to see if the silver fish will change colors as they get older, given the color changing history of this group. Today I went to the pet store to buy bird food and kitty litter and fish pellets. I walked past the big tank of feeder fish and I had to resist the temptation to take them all home. It's like a visit to the pound now that I've bounded with my own fish.

All grown up

2008-12-14T20:02:00.003-05:00

The turkey family came back, fortuitously just when my niece and nephew were visiting. Since they are from far enough into the city to never see turkeys they were totally thrilled. The male turkey is big enough to call, and they recorded the turkey call on their cell phones, the clever little monkeys. My niece sent me her recording, and I will post it when I figure out how. The turkeys are all really big, I couldn't tell which one was mom anymore. I wonder if they will stay together through the winter. And where they stay. And why their legs don't freeze. I should look it up. Maybe they are hunkered down on the empty but forested lot next to my house.

Imbalance

2008-12-13T19:43:00.001-05:00

Poor devil duck, his shameful secret is that he doesn't float correctly like a real rubber ducky is supposed to. Maybe that's why he's so mean all of the time. I tried filling him up with water, hoping that that would act as ballast, but it didn't work and he keeps flopping over. I guess the horns are weighing him down so it's not his fault, but I must say it is quite a disappointment. I took him out of the tank so that his secret would be safe. Then I published his secret on the web.

Rain storm

2008-12-12T19:42:00.001-05:00

We are close enough to the ocean that we were off the edge of the ice storm, we just got a lot of rain but no ice on the trees. Still, I skipped work, didn't seem to make sense to deal with the mess. By mid-day the weather was really quite warm and the pond was as full as it can get, as you can see from the photo. No frog sitings though, it wasn't quite warm enough. Maybe on Monday, the weather man says it will be 56 degrees. I tried to call my friend in southern New Hampshire and it went directly to some sort of voice mail that she doesn't subscribe to, so I suspect she is deep in the ice.

Fish eyes

2008-12-11T21:19:00.000-05:00

Can the fish in the tank see me watching them? Are their eyes that good? And do they mind the flash? Probably they do mind the flash, I know that fish hide from the light and I have seen them hiding under the leaves when I was trying to find them and fish them out of the pool, so maybe their eyes are better than I imagine.

Winter home

2008-12-10T23:21:00.002-05:00

I took the iron frog in for the winter, I'm not sure whether that was strictly necessary, of course this frog won't freeze but it does rust. It already has one rust spot on it's back and I think that sitting under the freezing and melting snow would make it worse. I put it on the low shelf of the stand for the small fish tank. Actually the small tnK and stand and iron frog were gifts from my friend in NH. Truthfully I kind of took the frog of my own initiative but she said it was ok.

Final fish

2008-12-09T19:20:00.003-05:00

The picture says it all. But I'll say some more anyway. This is the last of the fish from the pool which my friend helped me catch. He has been checking during the day and there definitely no more in there. Which confirms the fact that I no longer have ANY fish with even a TOUCH of black on them. How odd. I wonder if the two silver baby fish will turn gold when they grow up.

Squeakers in the snow

2008-12-08T18:56:00.003-05:00

Squeakers contemplating her cruel fate, hoping that just hoping will make it warm and dry outside. The white spots on her fur are snow flakes but they haven't penetrated the outer coat. Excellent jacket she has on there but I know her feet get cold. Which makes me wonder what the foxes and squirrels do, they must get cold feet too or is it just something we've breed into our domestic pets? I hear there is a shortage of acorns this fall, almost none for some reason, so if you like squirrels put some food out for the poor little rats. A friend of mine emailed me a wonderful link today, enjoy.

First snow

2008-12-07T19:06:00.002-05:00

Last night we had our first snow. Not very much, but it didn't melt all day. It must have been hovering near freezing because the pond never froze either, it had the consistency of a giant slushy. A giant slushy made out of pond water, yuck. My friend was by during the day last week on one of the warm days and he saw one of the frogs out. Pretty amazing, I wonder what the exact temperature is to wake them back up again. Maybe it depends on how frozen they are. Now I REALLY think that was the final frog siting, but considering how crazy the weather is in New England I guess it's perfectly possible that we have another one of those 70 degree thaws in January and then I'm sure they'd be out again.

Fish poster

2008-12-06T16:43:00.004-05:00

My sister has been scanning all of the old slides that my dad took when we were kids. She found this poster which I drew for my mom when I was little, I'm not sure the exact age. It says "to mom" on the bottom left corner although it is kind of hard to see because the exposure is difficult, the slides have started to deteriorate. This poster appears to demonstrate an early obsession with fish on my part, it also appears to be heavily inspired by the reading I was doing at the time, I'm guessing one of my favorite books, "red fish, blue fish", by Dr. Seuss. A true classic and a sure sign of early good taste and a predilection for the absurd. I imagine mom was thrilled with the scientific rigor of the whole thing. It also demonstrates the beginnings of my life long struggle with spelling, recently made much less difficult by the fact that everything these days includes a built in spell checker, including this blogging software. Meanwhile, my cat Squeakers is suffering from some scary hallucinations in the other room, I'd better go investigate.

Fish art

2008-12-05T18:18:00.000-05:00

I discovered that the best fish photos of fish in the tank are taken by looking down from the top, since that way the glass doesn't get in the way and cause reflections. Of course that assumes that you don't want the reflections off of the glass, I suppose that too could be a desired effect. Anyway this particular photo has a nice clean look along with some lenses distortions caused by the whorls in the water coming out of the pump. Kind of neat. I still haven't taken the time to load photo shop onto my machine (and then to learn it, which is even more time.) Maybe I should try doing some watercolors of my fish and my pond. Really that would have been something to do last summer. Where did the time go? So little time, and so much of it wasted.

Sneaky gator

2008-12-04T20:15:00.002-05:00

The sneaky gator has snuck over to the fish tank in the middle of the night and now he appears to be trying to get in and get at the fish. Luckily I found him while he was only in the planning stages and removed him from the area. I'll have to keep an eye on him in the future. Good thing the fox can't get into the house because I don't think I could take that on. Although cute and furry usually goes a long way for making people like you.

Art glass

2008-12-03T19:11:00.001-05:00

I'm getting up in the dark these days and leaving the house just as dawn is breaking, then getting home at night. Pretty tiring and depressing. When I got up this morning there was ice on the pool, just on the top layer. It forms in long triangular patterns, not quite sure why, it is very pretty. The pool has been keeping its level quite well since I took the pump out, I want to keep it filled all winter, if it stays full it looks nicer and I can take more photos of the beautiful ice and watch how it forms. And somehow I feel like the frogs are safer under a good solid layer of ice. One of my loyal fans posted a link to a video on youtube showing how frogs freeze in the comments to this blog, I am reposting it here in case you missed it. So now I know, I guess I don't have to risk any of my own frogs in ill-concieved scientific experiments fraught with risk and peril.

Where's Waldo?

2008-12-02T18:08:00.000-05:00

There was one fish left in my pond, but a friend of mine who is better with the net stopped by and helped me get the last one out. I think. I'll have to keep checking in case there is another one in there which was hiding really well. He is the same friend who saw the fox, he described it to me so now I do believe that it was a fox, he says it wasn't very big and it was very cute and furry, in my experience the local coyotes are big and mangey looking, nobody would describe them as cute. So maybe it was eating fish, there don't seem to be less of them, but on the other hand not one of them has a single spot of black on its entire body and as we all know I used to have a black fish. I'll keep looking until it freezes.

New fish tank

2008-12-01T21:52:00.002-05:00

Another bad photo of a fish tank. This is the new 20+ gallon tank I bought over the weekend for $10. Turns out fish tanks are really hard to photograph, especially if it is dark out which it mostly is when I am at home on week days. Too many reflections in the glass and the flash really doesn't work right, just bounces off of the tank and the water. No surprises there. I still kind of like this photo, it is symbolic of my life at this point, kind of unstable and off kilter. Actually this photo really makes it look like the fish tank is about to come smashing to the ground but I must assure my readers that it is not really that bad, it is more the effect of my bad photographic technique.

Old fish tank

2008-11-30T19:35:00.003-05:00

I know this is an amazingly bad photo, but I included it because you can kind of see how badly crowded my old fish tank was. It is about 13 gallons, and according to some websites (I think they're excessive) you should only have 1 fish per 5 gallons, which means I had 14.666 too many fish in the tank. Actually I think that number is a bit ridiculous for carp, so I'm figuring 1 gallon per fish will work. Less than that worked last winter, I had about 15 in this tank all winter and they did fine although they were smaller back then and they hadn't reproduced. Anyway, I bought a new fish tank on Craig's list yesterday, only 4 blocks away. It was advertised as a 20 gallon tank but I think it is bigger ... I haven't done the calculation for the real volume but I will. I washed the tank out and ran it over night to stablize it, and today I put 10 of the biggest fish in. I am planning to run two tanks all winter because I don't think either are big enough for the fish now. I'll post a picture of the new tank soon, not that it's so excitingly different from any other fish tank.

Fish in a pot

2008-11-29T19:40:00.001-05:00

No, I'm not planning to have them for dinner, this was just the cleanest recepticle I could find when I was taking the fish out of the pond. I am still fishing out fish, I got two more today but there is still at least one in there who is evading me. I took out the pump too and filled the pond back up all of the way to the top before taking in the garden hose, I even took in the iron frog, so now the pond is officially shut down for the winter although I am sure it will continue to get visitors when it is not totally frozen over. The second floor bedroom which overlooks the pond is being painted, and my painter said he say a fox in the back yard drinking at the pond and trying to catch the fish. Actually I think it was probably a coyote, not a fox. We did have a fox here a couple of years ago, for two seasons, raising pups in the vacant wooded lot next door, but I haven't seen her this year and I have seen quite a few coyotes, I even almost hit one coming home one night. I haven't gotten any photos of one yet, but I will try, the painter is on the look-out too.

Half frozen frog

2008-11-28T18:37:00.001-05:00

While I was fishing the fish out I disturbed Frogger at the bottom of the lower pool. He was in looking flattened an mushy but he did eventually swim away. He is right there in the middle of the photo, and those are my fingers reflected in the bottom of the frame. It appears that the whole body gets mushy when he is in the process of freezing. I would like to document a controlled experiment on how the frog freezes but I am not willing to sacrifice one of my precious frogs in the interst of science. Not that it would necessarily mean sacrificing a frog, but in my experience field test usually go horribly wrong (and even worse, the data get corrupted and is unusable.) Maybe that is just evidence that experimental science is not really my calling, but it sure pays better than being an unknown artist.

Happy Turkey Day!

2008-11-27T19:17:00.006-05:00

I was hoping to get a shot of a turkey this morning but the turkey family is not showing itself so I had to use a "stock" photo I took in October. I wonder if the turkeys go south for the winter. I was out this morning fishing out the fish, I got most of them, even the two little grey ones by pure luck since they are very hard to see. I think there is still one orange fish in there, in fact I'm sure there is at least one because I saw it, but it is a wiley one and doesn't want to be caught. I set up the fish tank in the living room and now the 16 fish that I did catch are in a pot of pond water in my kitchen slowly coming up to room temperature while I get the fish tank going. I will probably wait a couple more hours before I put them in the tank, I don't want to shock them with the temperature change too quickly. I'll go out later and try to catch the remaining fish, the big dummy, hopefully he will get lonely and come out of the muck to look for his friends or else it's going to be a long hard winter for the little fishy. I just realised the dark fish is missing too ... I gotta get him out! Even though I maligned him as having evil tendancies in the past and, I recall threatened to leave him out ... Hummm.

Cold fish

2008-11-26T19:08:00.002-05:00

I took this picture this morning. The ice is totally gone but the fish are not very lively, they are mostly hiding out at the bottom of the pool under the leaves an muck. This could be a problem when I go to fish them out, unless they get livelier again. I should also remember to check the weather so I can schedule the big fish move on a sunny not-to-cold day because it is so much fun to play in the water on cold rainy days. I wish I had a total head count going in so that I knew when I had gotten them all out but I am not sure how many there were since they never stayed still long enough for me to count them. I may just do it tomorrow before I go to my sister's for dinner, if the weather is pleasant. I also have high hopes of seeing the turkey family again for their thanksgiving day portrait.

Crazy happy

2008-11-25T18:35:00.001-05:00

This photo kind of violates my no-pictures-of-people policy, but I am posting it as art. I love the way it turned out, this is the big sister of the babies from Sunday's post and my bff under 10. I was telling her to hold still so I could get a good picture but she was having too much fun and obviously her instincts were good. Today it rained like crazy and was warm, and all the ice melted. I got home after dark and checked on the fish, they are all still in there looking alive but annoyed, I don't blame them, they probably have some serious complaints about the management around here. Hopefully none of my loyal fans will call the MSPCA on me for fish abuse. I promise I'll take them out this week end - Gotta buy that fish tank!

Ice sculpture

2008-11-24T19:45:00.005-05:00

This picture is from this morning. I thought that all of the ice would melt today, because it was above freezing, but when I came home at night there was still a layer on the pond. The pump seems to be pumping less water, so I threw in a few more bucket fulls to bring up the level in case it had gotten too low. Tomorrow it really should all melt, since I believe that it is going to get into the forties, in fact the web site I just looked at claims it will get up to fifty degrees which should definitely get rid of all of the ice. It was also a lot less windy today. The ice on the pond is really pretty, it reminds me of when a friend in grad school had an apartment overlooking the Charles river. The ice on the river was amazing, it was a great view, something that my friend would never have been able to afford if it wasn't student housing. We watched the ice and the birds flying with the wind from above and they all fitted together.

Babies!

2008-11-23T11:16:00.002-05:00

These are my two newest best friends, they joined us in this vale of tears on Monday. Funny story, I always thought the phrase was "veil of tears" as in screen or illusion, it only occured to me today that the actual phrase is "vale" as in dale or valley. I like my version better, but if you are going to throw quotations around I guess you are obligied to try to be acurate. Anyway, these two little beings joined us on Monday and they are currently in that really boring baby state where all they do is eat and cry and sleep, soon to be followed by that really cute baby state followed by the state where you have to watch them every freaking minute to make sure they aren't killing themselves, followed by the state where you have to forget about retirement and spend every last penny sending them through college. At the moment they are almost unbelivebly small, but they are already trying to assert their little personalities I can tell. The one with the insignia on his hat is the boy, he has a cute Arabic name which is impossible to pronounce for the non-Arabic speaker. I wonder what it will morph into when he hits pre-school. And mom says the girl twin loves it when you talk to her. What a chick! And to both of them, welcome to this phase of the cycle!

Current set up

2008-11-22T18:40:00.001-05:00

This is the current pond set up. The water is still running even though it hasn't gotten above freezing all day today. The wind is wickedly strong and the cat has been complaining all day about not being able to go outside, I am resisting the urge to let her out and teach her a lesson. Bad enough that I am subjecting my fish to freezing conditions, however. They are still there under the water, they have been moving around. The little pond heater is still in there, completely frozen in and I have no idea if it is doing any good or even working. I looked for a better pond heater today but I have a feeling that this area isn't sufficiently rural for stores to stock those (I believe they are mostly used to keep water from freezing for livestock.) It will be warming up tomorrow and through next week so I probably won't need one, I plan to take the fish inside on Thanksgiving morning unless the weather improves enough to wait until the weekend. I really need to start shopping for a bigger tank.

Fishes sous glace

2008-11-21T23:59:00.001-05:00

The fish under the layer of ice. I'm gambling that they make it through the next two nights, and then it is going to warm up again. They are moving around under the ice, at least they were this morning. Tonight I came home late at night and put more water into the pond with buckets of water to make sure the level was maxed out, but of course I couldn't see anything except that the pump was still running. Yesterday night I moved the end of the hose and the iron frog that weighs it down so that the water is only circulating in the lower pond, that probably helps. Now my fingers are so frozen that I can barely type and I feel kind of guilty about that. This is a picure taken through the ice, those orange stripes are the goldfish.

Iced over

2008-11-20T18:54:00.002-05:00

This isn't a very good ice photo but an interesting photo. I came home early today and thought that it would get warm over the weekend so I filled up the pond with water and figured that I would fish the fish out (ha ha) on the weekend. Problem is, it won't be warm on the weekend, I'm thinking of getting a pond warmer. I broke up all of the ice when I got home and it was only about 1/2 inch thick, and the wonderful little pump is still going strong, which keeps the water flowing and the fish from freezing, however if it REALLY dips down there could be trouble. I'm not sure what I should do at this point. I dug up a little water heater, the kind you use for a tropical fish tank, that will hopefully be enough to keep the pump running and the whole system functioning although it is not really the "eco-friendly" solution. As of now, the fish are still alive but not moving around too much. In other news, my friend gave me a copy of photo shop, so now my attempts at photo-modification-art should get a bit better.

REALLY final sighting!

2008-11-19T20:56:00.002-05:00

This is from last weekend. It's a bit of a frog spotting test, personally I am a super prow I can spot them in a second from across the garden at this point. But I shouldn't brag, even if I AM fabulous. Last Saturday, as I mentioned earlier, was freakishly warm as any of you who live in this part of the country will remember. I didn't see the frog on Saturday, but Sunday was still warm and Out was out (or maybe it's In) and about. I really think this is it because the temperature dropped like a rock yesterday and now the pond is covered with ice. As I mentioned before, I was out of town on business and I didn't get back 'til late and so I took a rubber mallet and smashed the ice. The pump is still running, the ice isn't very thick, so hopefully the fish are fine, I think they are basically fine unless they freeze solid. I will probably make myself late for work tomorrow fishing them out of the pond, although on the other hand if they make it through the night they'll probably make it through another day.

Devil duck

2008-11-18T20:50:00.003-05:00

Devil duck has come to town and he's dangerous, so dangerous. Here he is trying to attack Out from behind, he has no shame. I should probably get the alligator out to take care of him. And change the locks on the door.

Frogger's trip

2008-11-17T20:06:00.001-05:00

Here is my latest attempt at turning my photos into art via Picnik, however the possibilities are kind of limited with that tool, just your basic filters and no layers or anything like that. Pretty much everything I make with it looks like bad psychedelic art, hence the name of this post. Also because I have a business related road trip to Rome NY, big whoop. I really would like Photoshop, but I can't think of any good reason why my work would buy it for me and it's kind of expensive. I should poke around more online, there is probably something decent out their that doesn't cost quite as much as photo shop, I'd definitely be willing to pony up $40 or even a bit more. I figure it's going to be a long winter and my many readers may get sick of looking at pictures of the big pile of snow that will be hiding the pool. Then again, interesting things are always happening, maybe it won't be boring at all! My friend came home the other day to a beautiful racoon sitting in her kitchen eating her cat food, she had to work at it a bit to scary it out of the house and then spend the next morning modifying the cat door. Unfortunately she didn't get a picture.

Cool lizard

2008-11-16T18:01:00.004-05:00

My best friend in New Hampshire sent this to me today with the following note: "We found a yellow spotted salamander strolling down the hallway on it's way to the swim meet his morning. It was about 7" long. Of course yellow spotted salamanders are not allowed to race because they are too cute, so we put him outside." Pretty amazing. I guess this is what the red newts morph into before the become fully mature. Which is when they go to the base of the dam near my cabin in NH and have the big salamander orgy in the early spring. I will do my best to supply pictures although I'll have to really work on my wild life photography skills. On the other hand, salamander orgy's are very calm and there's not a lot of moving around so it's not like photographing dolphins or something like that.

Another warm day

2008-11-15T18:15:00.004-05:00

It was freakishly warm but wet today. The fish were feeling fiesty, moving around quite a bit. I didn't see any frogs, but I did here one plopping into the pond. I had to do some work today from home, and I am found it quite difficult to concentrate due to the lure of the warm weather. Or maybe it's really just due to the fact that I am putting together power point charts on a project I find particularily boring. Not the best way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Oh-oh, I feel another hamster dance coming on ...

Final sighting?

2008-11-14T19:20:00.000-05:00

I took this photo last weekend and I was pretty sure it would be the last frog sighting of the year, but now I'm not so sure. After 7 PM on Friday night and it is 56 degrees out! Rainy, yes, but I don't think that the frogs mind the rain. It probably brings out the extra bugs, in fact. Speaking of which, I have been finding a lot of sodden dead worms on the blue stone pavers outside my back door in the last few days. As devotees of my blog will know, I no longer try to rescue them since I have learned that they are a harmful invasive species, however I'm puzzled by the number of dead ones. Maybe something about the combination of cold weather and wet ground? That theory doesn't really fit the data, but I haven't got a better one at the moment.

Ice on the pond

2008-11-13T18:02:00.003-05:00

Today as I was leaving for work at 6:30 in the morning I noticed that there was ice on the pond. Just a small amount, but definitely ice. It was all gone by the time I got back from work, needless to say, and I doubt I will be seeing it tomorrow morning. I knew that it was a very cold night because the cat abandoned her spot next to me on the bed for the radiators, which I can't really blame her for because it's like sleeping on a heating pad and it doesn't move around in the middle of the night. Not very soft, but she doesn't seem to mind that. There was also an amazing purple sunrise this morning, one of the benefits of getting up too early in the morning. I can't decide whether to bring the fish in this weekend or push it to one more week. Probably just depends on how lazy I'm feeling.

Alligartors in the house!

2008-11-12T18:08:00.002-05:00

I felt sorry for the alligator who hitchhiked home in my luggage from Miami, so I let him come inside for the winter. And now here he is, stealing my snacks! The little sneak. I tried to fish the dead mouse out of my light fixture today, but it seems it already disappeared. Maybe it just dried up and crumbled away? It's hard to feel sorry for a mouse in the house, but still, it's not a great way to go. I hope the alligator makes a good winter housemate, I wonder what his name is, any suggestions?

Feeding fish

2008-11-11T18:03:00.000-05:00

Here is a picture of the fish feeding. This is right before I spilled most of the fish food into the pond, oops! On the left hand side is the dark fish, you can see that his nose is very orange now, so is the side of his body, but I still haven't managed to get a good picture of him. Remember how I used to have a calico fish? I had forgotten myself, but now I remember and it must have turned totally orange because it isn't distinguishable from the other fish now and I don't think anyone ate it. It is rather cold and windy today, the water is cold, but the fish are still pretty active, I guess their doing good. I don't remember when I brought them inside last year, but I think it was some time in November.

Time to rake the leaves

2008-11-10T21:39:00.003-05:00

Another view from my second floor window. That's the pond in the foreground and all of those brown things lying around are the oak leaves from the beautiful tall oak trees in my back yard. Usually I wait as long as possible before raking because I live on a hill and if the leaves dry up enough then the wind will just blown them away. Also because my standards of lawn care are so low at this point that it hardly seems worth the effort. Today I took a burnt out light out of the recessed socket in my bathroom and it came out with part of a dead mouse stuck to it. I guess the mouse fried itself or burnt itself to death, not pretty. The rest of the mouse is still in the ceiling, I should fish it out but I'm really not looking forward to that, maybe it will just dry up and crumble to nothing but mousey bones. I guess mice coming inside is another aspect of fall, one that the cat is really enjoying, but not me so much.

He's back!

2008-11-09T20:12:00.002-05:00

Yeah, my 100th post! Good reason to get back to basics with a photo of Frogger. I disturbed him when I was digging around the pond to find the leaks. He must have been hiding in the mud, I hadn't seen him for a long time. He's gotten HUGE! It's not just me who thinks that, either, my friend stopped by and was amazed at how big he's gotten. Unfortunately the photo really doesn't show scale well, I need to pose him next to a penny or a pencil or something but I don't think he would stick around for that. Or maybe it is another frog altogether. This spring I got a toad with the shipments of flowers for the charity flower sale I organized and I let it loose in the garden but I haven't seen it since, too bad. Shortly after I took this photo Frogger (if that's his real identity) jumped into the pond and dug himself into the muck at the bottom. I wonder if he has been coming out during the warm days while I am at work.

Priceless fur coat

2008-11-08T20:20:00.002-05:00

It glows, it moves, it gets trailed in the pond and still comes out looking great! Compared to the fur coats at Sax, Squeakers is way ahead. She probably has the best fur coat in the world ... Well if we don't mention her cousins the white tigers etc. I don't think Squeakers would know what to do with a white tiger. Probably hide, I hope. Here she was on one of the last perfect fall weekends, hanging by the pond with me, taking it all in. And yes, I'm going somewhere with this, it's not just another excuse to put a picture of my cat on the blog. Actually domestic cat fur is very low quality and, for some reason, does not make good coats. At least that's what my mother told me and she was a fountain of bizarre trivia and almost always correct. Also I believe her because if not I presume there would be a very active industry of cat farming, not good for the cats. Unfortunately that doesn't help the minks, don't get me started ... again.

95K fur coat

2008-11-07T19:47:00.002-05:00

Funny story, I ended up at a fur coat sale at Sax in Boston. Luckily there was free food and cocktails, I was shilling for a charity, hopefully I did some good. As you might imagine, normally I wouldn't be caught dead in a fur shop since it's quite the opposite of my political and moral inclinations. The coat in the picture cost 95 thousand dollars, although I was told that a) the prices are negotiable, and b) this wasn't the most expensive fur there. Pretty amazing that there were still people out looking at spending that kind of money on a coat when the stock market had just dropped by about 5% and is still going down. Well, most of the people were older so hopefully they had taken their money out of the market. Also as a post-script: I said I was happy that the ballot referendums I had been following (like prop 2 in CA) went my way, but obviously I wasn't paying attention to the gay marriage amendments which all went horribly wrong. Interesting insight into the election demographic.

Frogger watches with the kids

2008-11-06T18:16:00.002-05:00

I mentioned how much I enjoyed watching the election results with my sister and her kids, and now here is the artist's rendering of the event. Fabulous. It was the first time that the kids have really been old enough to get into the whole process, and they were very enthusiastic. My niece did a great job painting her face, one side red with "McCain" written on it and the other blue with "Obama" and a purple strip down the middle. I would post it except for my strict policy against posting pictures of people, and also the photo really didn't show off her beautiful face in its best light. I'm pretty amazed that Obama won, and especially because it was all over so quickly with no dragged out ballot counts. I had a dream last night that there was a recount and McCain actually won, horrors! I turned on the tv as soon as I got up to make sure it hadn't happened. Everyone I know has been having nightmares recently, I think it is the generally unsettled times.

Full pond from above

2008-11-05T19:53:00.000-05:00

Hello, President-elect Obama! (He's a big fan of my blog, you know, reads it every day.) I'm also psyched and rather shocked that all of the other votes that I was tracking came out the way I was hoping, including Proposition 2 in California. Let's make factory farming illegal across the country! Why is it OK to torture a pig in a pen just because you are planning to eat it? Why are farm animals legally exempt from the protection we give house pets? I bet I could be prosecuted if I started abusing my frogs, and yet literally thousand of farm animals are tourtured to death every day in this country and nobody seems to be aware of it ... Ok, that's my rant, and I'm sticking to it. As far as the pond goes, this photo is what my pond will look like from above when I get the leak fixed. Full of happy frogs and fishes and snails and assorted bugs living out their lives in safety and dignity, except for the occasional raccoon visit.

Cat n' frog

2008-11-04T18:56:00.002-05:00

You can see the frog in the lower right hand corner of this photo, and obviously my handsome neighbor with the annoying voice in center stage. Cat doesn't notice frog at all, and if frog is aware of cat then perhaps he knows that not moving is the best strategy when it comes to furry predators. Of course the frog rarely moves anyway, his capacity for sitting absolutely still is amazing. The neighbor cat comes by every day for a drink, it's definitely part of his turf, although I don't know how Squeakers feels about that. I can't tell whether she has a crush on him or wants to kill him. It must be love. Today is very warm and I'm sure Squeakers was sitting at the window all annoyed that she can't go outside and soak it up which I'm at work and the frogs probably warmed up enough to come out of hibernation for the day. Too bad I can't just work from home next to the pond.

The other side

2008-11-03T19:14:00.000-05:00

Not such a fabulous photo but it's to illustrate what I did with my Sunday morning, which was to dig out the outside of the pond (and then cut down the tomatoes and take in the poles and wire and plant all of my bulbs and do some much needed weeding.) I tried to photograph the water depth on both sides but then I gave up because now I am learning how difficult it is to take photos like that. Suffice to say that almost ALL of the water drained out of the new pool. I think it is two reasons: First of all, I realized that I was too lazy about getting rid of the dirt when I first built the new wall, and there isn't enough mortar where the wall meets the rock - Which is really where the worst problems occur because we all know that it is very difficult to bind together to things which are fundamentally different in nature. Secondly there are some areas in the wall which are too thin, between the rocks, but that's not a big problem because I can fill it up and see where it is leaching and then just slap some more mortar on it. I may even try painting the exterior with some sort of substance which is impenetrable to water, although any such substance is probably highly toxic. At any rate, I probably won't do any of this until spring.

Full new pool

2008-11-02T19:17:00.002-05:00

I had to see what it would look like. And it looked good. But it didn't last. Turns out that the seal at the base is pretty bad, also a lot of areas in the new wall are too thin and bleed through really quickly. I kind of suspected it while I was filling the pool because it took a really long time, and seriously, not just because I am a mathematician, I had some sort of basic instinct about rate of flow out and rate of flow in, just like those word problems that everyone hates even though they instinctively can correctly solve them in real life without even thinking about it too hard. Why is that? I love word problems. And when I dug the dirt away from the side of the pool, there was clearly a positive water flow, there was even a whorl. More photos soon!

Drunken Fish

2008-11-01T17:26:00.003-04:00

Actually more like drunken fools, as in who did you hang out with on Halloween? No, actually I had fun being a fool dancing like a fool with the fools but not a SINGLE frog costume to be seen. Lots of slutty nurses and slutty fairies and slutty witches etc. and a very nice costume made out of toothpicks and rubbber bands which showed some real creativity. I can't claim much of that for my costume, but at least it didn't fall off at any point in the evening. And a special thank you to the very nice young man who gave me and my neighbor a ride home even though it was completely out of his way and we are complete strangers and of course he will never read this blog. Why Boston doesn't keep the subways running until the bars close at 1:30 is beyond me, seems like a no-brainer, especially on a major party night. And then this morning I found a diminutive soft spoken Bangladeshi man in my drive way who was looking for the ocean, so I ended up giving him coffee and food and a ride to Revere Beach. He is on some sort of walk about, but I think God sent him to me as an antidote to the very arrogant young Indian entrepreneur I had the displeasure of meeting last night. Two very different vibes from the subcontinent.

Another frog photo

2008-10-31T17:44:00.000-04:00

I guess this is my Halloween frog picture, but I am going to be doing some serious frog hunting when I go out partying tonight, I hope I catch some good ones with my cell phone. Maybe I'll try kissing some and see if I can come up with a good prince as well. I was a frog once when I was a kid, my amazing mother helped me make a frog's head out of paper mache and I work a green leotard or something - Wasn't the best costume but at least it was home made. I'm not going as a frog this year, I should have thought of that earlier. I have a turquoise wig and the bustier and belt from a belly dancing outfit and a cheap pair of turquoise wings from the party store so I think I'm going as some sort of fairy. Not extremely original but next year I'll do better, I promise. Really the best way to prepare for holidays is to prepare for next year's holiday right after this year's holiday; for example, buy all your Xmass presents in January for added savings and so that you will have plenty of time and remember what people did or didn't like. The only flaw with this plan is that you have to remember where you put them in a year.

Hidden frog IV

2008-10-30T20:57:00.002-04:00

Here is the frog hiding again, at the bottom of the new pool under the leaves. I wonder what they are thinking when they are trying to hide at the bottom of 2 inches of water, or if they really are trying to hide. I think that this weekend I am going to try filling up the new pool with water to see how badly it leaks. Also I have found that I can't judge the levels of the different sections of the pool by eye, the natural shapes play tricks on you. So the only way to see which side is higher than the other and where needs to be built up is to use a real level and a board or string, or to fill it up with water, since water always seeks its level.

3 sheets 2 the wind

2008-10-29T23:43:00.000-04:00

Actually one is a pillow case so it probably doesn't count. This may be the last time I get to hang sheets out to dry this summer. It wasn't very warm out this weekend, but it was above 50 and there was quite a wind, which makes all the difference. I once had an apartment in Barcelona where I had to dry my clothes on the clothes line on the roof, but it was so windy there that the first things I'd hung up would be already dry by the time I finished hanging everything. Very efficient. I'm of the "sheets are nicer if they're line dried" school of laundry, also I'm cheap and trying to be a good environmentalist so I've been drying stuff on the line as much as possible this summer. I suppose I could rig something up inside for the winter and once the heat is really on stuff should dry pretty quickly. What does all this have to do with fish, you ask? Well, not much except that if I had turned around 180 degrees after taking this photo and taken another one, it would be a photo of the pond, and this photo shows how neglected my lawn is due to my pond obsession.

Frog and fish

2008-10-28T18:36:00.000-04:00

This is a photo from this weekend, it shows how much the frog and the fish ignore each other. They don't pay any attention to each other at all, I guess because neither of them is interested in the other as food. A friend of mine pointed out that I should quarantine the froglettes (I believe they're called tadpoles?) when they are little so they don't get eaten by the fish. Good point, I will have to put the frog eggs in an empty pool as soon as I find them, assuming I am lucky enough to be blessed with frog eggs next spring. Of course, it should also be a pool below the pools containing the fish, because if not the tadpoles will just get swept into the lower pools and eaten by the fish anyway. That won't be a problem if I can finish the new pool becasue it will be higher than all of the others. Of course, the fish get swept down too ... life is so complicated.

Aerial photography

2008-10-27T18:33:00.001-04:00

Actually from a window on the second floor, I don't know why I didn't think of doing this before, it gives a much better view of the new pool and the pond layout in general. You can see the oak leaves on the surface of the pond and in the lower right had corner the grill brush which for some reason I still haven't put away. Gotta do that before snow flies, maybe I'm still hoping there'll be another barbecue day before it's all over. I fished the oak leaves out but I haven't done any raking yet in my yard, I'm on the top of a hill and most of the leaves get blown away after they fall. Of course, other leave blow up the hill to take their place. Some years there really aren't any leaves to rake except in the areas where they get caught in up against the stone walls, and since I've neglected my garden so completely this summer there isn't much reason to worry about damaging the plants. I'm trying to decide whether to take the garden in hand next summer or ignore it for another year and see how bad it gets. Eventually the neighbors will start to complain.

Frogger in the fall II

2008-10-26T17:37:00.002-04:00

I was sick all weekend and didn't get anything done, I was hoping this would be the weekend I would finish the new pool but now I am giving up hope on that and making the call to buy the used 75 gallon fish tank. At least I was feeling well enough today to be out of bed, and it was a fabulous fall day, warm in the sun, so I spent most of it outside next to the pond reading Dr. Zhivago and wishing I could remember who were the Reds and who were the Whites. Since it was such a nice day the frogs were out, I saw two of them, I think that's all there is at the moment. This one was in the new pool, which surprised me because I thought that the mortar residue would be toxic, but I guess the residue dilutes over time and the rain water is filling the pool now, I assume the frog knows what's good for him. I took a lot of good frog photos today, they will probably have to last me for a while because even if the frogs are out during the day they are certainly asleep by the time I get home from work.

Florida snake

2008-10-25T18:29:00.002-04:00

I was at a conference in Orlando last year and I went to the herpetology museum. Maybe it isn't exactly in Orlando, but it is an easy drive south from there. It is a fabulous relief if your not a big fan of Mickey and his gang. I am trying to find their website but maybe they're so old school they don't have one because I can't find it. I went there not expecting much and was surprised to find a SERIOUS snake collection, they make their money selling venom to research labs which is great because as we have already discovered the simple Massachusetts green frog holds secrets which could grant us almost eternal life (think about it!) and snake venom is one of natures coolest inventions and I am sure holds a lot of interesting secrets for us. I saw two snakes having sex, which was kind of scary. I also did a lot of water colors, snakes are GREAT models because they rarely move and they don't have really well defined geometries, so the perspective is very forgiving.

Fall garden

2008-10-24T21:39:00.004-04:00

This is the current state of my garden. As you can see, the Dalias are still blooming but not for long, and the tomatoes are still giving me a few tomatoes. I planted the Dalias in empty cat litter containers, last year, which made them easy to store over the winter, but not very attractive. I don't think I will try to keep these bulbs over the winter this year, they are getting kind of tired and the bulbs are actually so cheap to buy it probably makes more sense to just buy new ones next spring. One less chore to do. Today it was warm, but it is supposed to be rainy all weekend and then cold again. I can't decide whether or not to bring in the fish. Even if I don't take all of the fish inside, I will have to transfer them temporarily out of the lower pool because it shares a wall with the new pool, and the mortar is very toxic so even if a little bit falls in the lower pool it could be a total disaster. I think I'd better buy that bigger tank. I was kinda depressed today, so I decided I needed another hamster dance, this one is dedicated to Mo, if you're reading!

Not much progress

2008-10-23T18:30:00.003-04:00

This is the current state of the pond. You can check back to the picture I posted last Friday and you won't see much of a difference. I worked on it a couple of hours last Saturday, but I didn't work on it at all on Sunday, it was cold and I was lazy so I only got a couple of stones put on the wall. It has been very cold all week and I am beginning to think that I'm not going to be able to finish the new pool in time to get the fish situated over the winter. I have started to look at fish tanks on Craig's list, I had them all in a 10 gallon tank over the winter last year, but now that several of them are getting big and they've managed to reproduce themselves I don't think I can keep them all in such a small tank over this winter.

Family fun

2008-10-22T19:00:00.006-04:00

Here is the turkey family out by the pond. There are two others who didn't make it to the picture, I suspect it was mom and goofy bringing up the rear, probably mom trying to make sure that goofy doesn't get eaten for Thanksgiving. They all came by and took turns drinking in the pond, a touching scene of family togetherness. It reminds me of my sister and the kids coming over for dinner on Sunday, I didn't get it done on time but it tasted good and the kids are actually old enough now to eat something other than macaroni and cheese. In fact my nephew regaled himself with the fat off of the roast, the lucky guy is growing so fast now that he can eat that sort of dinner with no worries. We also found out that he is taller than me now! Not such an amazing feat since I'm a real shrimp, but still an important milestone.

Big drama

2008-10-21T20:21:00.002-04:00

I let a friend store some stuff in the attic of my ridiculously large house while she was moving and she came over today to pick some of it up while I was at work. Unfortunately, she must have left the door propped open when she was here and Squeakers got out. When I came home at around 8PM Squeaks wasn't at the back door to greet me and was nowhere to be found. Luckily, I didn't panic, since it was pretty obvious what had happened, I just opened up the back door and called her. She came in pretty quick, since she knows she's got it good here, but she brought a little gray mouse in with her, still alive! Since I don't enjoy watching small animals being tortured to death a chase ensued. I ended up trapping Squeakers in the upstairs bedroom, where she is still hiding under the bed, but the mouse went into the living room, I think, and I couldn't find it. I left the front door open for it to escape, but I think it probably went through a crack in the floor into the basement. Or rather I hope, I don't want to be woken up in the middle of the night to the sound of whack-a-mouse. You may be wondering what this has to do with the picture; the picture is of the alligator from the back yard, who has clearly eaten one of the frogs. So there's murder and mayhem in the air tonight, for sure.