Goldfish Pond
The goldfish pond is doing well, aside from the horrid drought, holding its own. I don't have to keep it very full, there are only 5 goldfish in it.
We had one frog 4 weeks ago. Then I saw a garter snake. No frog.
Three weeks ago, there were two.
Two weeks past, 6! Last week, Josie counted 10 little green frogs. Now, we are back down to 9. Either they have gone off into the wet grass, or the garter snake has been by!
The goldfish look pretty good. They've had babies!
The same cannot be said of the frog pond.
After the rains...
A day later, the fishes like the new water level!
The frog pond
It is, by definition, a vernal pond created by spring melt. If we have heavy rains it fill up, rain rolling down the hill. July 12th it was dried up, with birds picking off the dead and floundering tadpoles. Hopefully, many will settle into a summer torpor deep in the mud. I haven't seen this since 2012.
This is a bullfrog tadpole. They live two years as a tadpole, and I hope they can dig deep into the mud bottom. The frogs are fine.
This almost looks like a perch. I put it in the goldfish pond, loathing the idea of it languishing in the dried mud. It's probably just one of the alewives, an introduced species.
After our 31 mm of rain, my footsteps are filled with water, but that is about all.
More news, the book Josee and I wrote arrived!
Travels around the world
Then, our kids. It's been tricky talking to them, even when they have wifi. There is a 7-hour difference!
This is Lucy, in the Museum of Ethiopia.
The have made their way from Turkey, to Ethiopia (a few days), and now they are in a camp in Kilimanjaro. They were off-line for a couple of days whilst in transit. It is peculiar not being able to communicate in this day and age.
Here are the girls visiting with kids from the near-by school in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. Kids love other kids!
This is their camp dining area.
This is their cabin in Kilimanjaro camp. Josee narrated a video, while Izzy worked the camera.
We've been here before, but what an opportunity. We had lunch at The Waterfront, and always stop in at the park. This was a bonus, several turtles and a blue heron feeding.
Another adventure. JB found one of his special fibre granola bars had a hole in one end. There were crumbs. He didn't look too much further, but threw it out, just in case. Later, I was in the pantry, and pulled out the can that contains our crackers for snackies. Behind the can: mice poo. Sigh.
