Ten-Finger Exercises

Birds and Fishes

It's been a lovely day. I haven't been past the back yard. Planted some forget-me-nots by the fish pond and watched all the fish mouths coming to the top begging. There are so many black ones this year. I call them stealth fish because they're really hard to see until they break the surface. What is it they call it when the whales come up? Breach? I don't know if that applies to anything but whales. Do you?

The breaker switch flipped off accidentally this winter and the pond froze over. (That's one of those electricity things I don't understand, and if I didn't say it right, you'll probably know what I mean anyway.)The koi all died. There were just 4, but they don't take the cold or the lack of oxygen. We felt terrible about it. The huge old gold fish just keep on going, just getting fewer orange ones in the mix.

The tulips whose bulbs we bought in Amsterdam six years ago have just about finished blooming for the year. I think there are still a couple of late ones yet to come, but the dog lay on some of them and cramped their style. I never knew I liked tulips so well. They're so whimsical!

The very tall red ones in the window boxes multiply like crazy. Every year I've thinned them. I can't see that the others have done any more than doubled, if that. I wonder why.

I dug out some big dandelions on the other side of the pond. Some are vigilantly growing between the bricks of the grape arbor where the swing hangs. I can't get them out very well, and they're blowing seeds everywhere already.

There is such a crowd of birds around the feeders now, hunting for free lunch I guess. They must be saving their energy for the more fun things of spring that they're busy with now too. A lot of them are sparrows, but there are a lot of finches and doves in the bunch as well. There are some that may be sparrows, but they look a little sleeker and wear little back and white striped bicycle helmets, or at least that's what it looks like.

I'll go fill up their feeders again and get the mail.