FISH!!

Look at these fish!! Aren't they gorgeous??? See, there are two? They are out in the big pond in the back yard. The one on the top is Queenie and the one on the bottom.....I didn't even know was in the pond!!

Then I started looking more closely and there about 7 fish!! I am so surprised. You should go to the News Page of the Glass Pond Studio, http://www.glasspondstudio.com/ and you can read all about the huge heron that speared and feasted on all of our 2 foot long japanese koi.

It is so exciting to have new fish. We have had Queenie for about 2 years. I got her from my friend Linda's pond. Linda (Grande 7 sugar mocha) has huge gigantic fish like we used to have, but she has nets and all kinds of gidgets and gadgets that go off now and then in order to keep away the heron.

One day when I was over there, she stood with a net on one side of her pond and tried chasing some of the big fish across the pond where I was supposed to sneak up on them with my net and bring them in. I was going to take a few big ones home to put in our lonely empty pond. Well, the only fish we could get was Queenie and she was 1 1/2 inches long and covered with black spots.....now she looks like she is 3 inches long!!!! Very exciting stuff!

It really doesn't get any better than new fish you didn't know you had, but I do have a few other interesting topics. The photo above is of the earth house next door to us. That is a garbage can on the very top.

I am taking this photo looking east to the Cascades, our house is on the left and this is the underground earth house on the right. It has not always looked this clean. That is Carlos in the photo. This is not kitchen Carlos, this is yard Carlos. He has just finished clearing this entire hillside of blackberry bushes and shrubs and assorted dead things of which I won't bother mentioning names.....just little creature things.

When people come visit and are worried about getting here because they think we live out in the middle of nowhere, we always say we are next to the earth house. That usually makes us easier to find, but generates a lot of interesting conversation because people don't really believe there is a house in there. Bill used to tell people it was a former NASA bunker...some people had to think twice about that. Especially those who were here the afternoon a huge round silver something lifted off of the mountain tops across from us.

Here is another photo below, now facing west.
There really is a house in there.

I LOVE THIS PHOTO!!! Now it is just like the Christmas tree photo in my very first blog. You will have to turn your head because I do not know how to turn the photo.

Above the ladder there are about 10 more feet of wall. Around the 6th rung of the tall ladder is where I have stopped painting. The main reason I love this photo is that this is Craig's ladder and he has to get on it and paint the rest!!

I also love the photo below. It tells me how much I will miss the Northwest. I took this last night, just as the pink glow of the sunset reflected its colors on the Cascades. I have always loved the mountains, the mystery and the magic of them. I will miss these mysteries, but am looking forward to the magic of the Sierra Madres in Alamos.....

Now, I have to go out and help Carlos pick up some of those little dead things before Cookies and Ashes find them.....