Yesterday was National Night Out, to encourage block parties.  Gunther put the word out to five or six neighbor families to come to my driveway after work for "street tacos."  He chose my driveway because it's flat, and now we have three swings to occupy the kids.  He set up his BBQ, a table, some chairs.  Everyone showed up with meat to grill, fantastic hot chili rellenos, wine, guacamole, and chips.  

I enjoyed holding Anya and Mateo's 2-month old Sadie, bundled up like a little loaf.

We talked about Glenn and Sunook's new roof, traveling to Oaxaca where Mateo saw people carrying turkeys on their heads, and chicken ordnances.  Sam has written a proposal to the City of El Cerrito to make it legal to raise a few chickens in the backyards.  He found a really great source where a man put together chicken ordnances, raising all the concerns about  raising livestock in the city limits. 

We were blessed with an unusually warm, non-windy, non-foggy beautiful evening.  Everyone drifted home as darkness set in. 

Red Spot is okay.  But Minnie died. We didn't see her this morning when we put in some mosquito larvae.  Robert was worried so he took out some of the rocks and found her little body caught in the plants.  Why did she die?  She wasn't eating yesterday, but we just thought she didn't want to compete with the bigger fish.

Anders and Auggie were over, so we did an autopsy with my Exacto knife and the magnifying glass, which Robert bought yesterday.  Of course, we didn't find anything conclusive.

We gave Minnie a Viking burial with a little paper boat and some paper scraps.  We set it on fire and then launched the boat in the back pond.  Anders drew some fish friends to help her in the afterlife. 

I just came in from the garden.  It's a beautiful quiet and cool twilight.  About 7 pm each day, my neighbor behind the back fence starts to practice his fiddle.  The notes hang in the air, punctuated with the sound of children's voices.  The combination is such a wonderful sound in the dusk.

We fed some more larvae to the fish.  Robert is observing them right now, but I came in to finish the blog.

A opinion poll canvasser just called--to ask questions about the election in the Fall.  It's so embarrassing not to know anything, and to see how shallow my opinions are--and I do listen to the radio and try to keep up.  In the end, I'll ask Rainey what she thinks, because she really keeps up with politics and is in the League of  Women Voters.

Gunther just rang the bell.  He wanted to know where I got the little airplane for Auggie that fits on his handlebars.  He wants one for his and Eliza's too!

He just told me Tuesday is National Block Party night, so he's going to put his BBQ in my driveway and make carne asada tacos.  We have the swings that will keep the kids busy.  Should be fun.

Robert just came in and said he thinks Red Spot is acting funny. 

Well, we found Red Stripe dead today, under the lily pad.  Too bad, isn't it?

We can't figure out why she died, since Robert sees no sign of any disease.

Now we have left seven fish.  There's Blackie. He's big, like a submarine.  He shoulders away the other fish when he sees something to eat.   There's the triplets, all gold, hard to tell apart. There's White Head, Red Spot, and Minnie the Minnow. 

We discovered mosquito larvae in the back pond where we removed all our fish.  Now it's empty and breeding these vile, wiggly, little creatures.  However, Robert got the little green net and is catching them---and feeding them to the fish in the pot pond.  Wow, they love these things.  Kind of labor-intensive, though, catching the larvae and handfeeding them to the fish.  Wow, we got the fish originally just for this purpose, and now they live in different ponds. 

Gunther, Eliza, Auggie, and Anders came over for pork chili stew and rice tonight.  I wanted to hear about their five-day camping trip at Bearskin Meadows.  This is their third time (it's the family camp for families with children with Type 1 Diabetes.)  I am so grateful that this camp is available for the information and support is offers families.  They learned some new strategies for working with the insulin pump.  The kids had a great time with the counselors and daily activities.  They even have gluten-free food, which we were excoted about, although Eliza's biscuits are better than theirs, so they thought!  

It's so good to have them all home.