Fibermania

Fish Story

When we lived in Illinois we often visited Boerner Botanical Gardens in Hales Corners, Wisconsin. This is a beautiful place where I developed my love for hostas, mulching and gardening in general. In the Rose Garden they have reflecting pools and one of them was the home of a huge school of koi. We were able to hand feed them (Purina Koi Pellets) and it was so much fun that it engendered a desire in me to one day have such a pool of my own.

Our pond is now supports at least a dozen mature goldfish and twice as many unnamed native fish, and we have been trying to train them to come for dinner by repeatedly feeding them Cheerios at the same time every day, cocktail time. How convenient. We have our lawn chairs set up under the oaks on the one flat spot of the bank and I can make my way to the water's edge to get a good look at the feeding frenzy. Since the end of June the water has been so dark that I can't see any fish at all until I toss out the food. But with the recent rains, the water has started clearing up a bit and I can now see orange shadows under the surface.

The other day I walked along the bank and saw the fish swirling around in their dinner spot WAITING FOR ME.

Now I know it is not affection but food that brings them to the edge, but I don't mind. This is what I wanted to have happen. They are trained! Greedy little mouths gobbling up the Cheerios, letting me see all the different colors and sizes that they are. The older ones are practically RED and then we have the typical very orange and yellow-orange ones and the two or three tones with lots of black on their backs, tails or fins. Their other pond mates are silver and about the same size, and when they are close to a goldie, their bodies reflect the orange color and they flash, glissen and disappear.
At the end of last summer there were only three goldfish remaining from our original Wal-Mart 20 and I hoped that they would last the winter, which happily they did. Then in the late Spring I watched them perform some mating dances and waited to see what would come of that. Of course teeny baby fish are invisible, and I just had to be patient.

Then the water went dark. For. Months.

But this week we have the happy denoument and I am happy to report a big brood of entertaining, colorful, hungry, bug and Cheerios eating trained goldfish. Sigh.

On the knitting front...While visiting my sister and shopping at Hobby Lobby we spied some yarn called Melody.

O my.

Nothing is ever my exact name, and when it is, I gotta have it. Usually it is Melanie or Melissa on those trinket-y displays and I just have to realize that my name isn't all that popular, which I guess is alright. But the combination of yarn and my name pushed me over the edge from never buying anymore yarn to grabbing four skeins. They were on sale. (weak excuse).

I will be warm if it ever gets cold here.

Goes nicely with my pajamas, no?