Last Monday, Robert and I spent the afternoon in the back garden.  He puttered around with the rocks in the fountain, adjusting the protective grid he made to cover the tiny fish pond and rearranging some of the water plants.  He's taken quite a fancy to keeping the four little goldfish alive, and reading up on their care.

I planted a few new plants, and also spray-painted black some old frames in order to put up some of the photos and drawings I want to display in my office and front bedroom.  It's a project I've been wanting to do for awhile.

At twilight, I hand-wantered with the hose my new Santa Baraba daisies and fuschia-colored iceplants.  As I stood watering, the hummingbird who often comes into the yard, came right up close into my spray from the hose. She was only 12 inches away from me!  Thrilling.

It was a lovely day. 

My stone fountain and little pond in my back garden have become my new focus in the past couple of weeks.

Robert and I have been trying to get the ecosystem friendly to the little goldfish we put in the pond.  True to his mathematical mind's propensity to seek answers, Robert has read a lot about raising gold fish lately.

We've been sad to lose several fish since last year when we started putting them in the pond.  I so enjoy sitting on the rock next to the pond and gazing at them as they dart around.

The night after I returned from Lisbon,  a racoon raided the pond, and ate all but one black fish.  We were very upset.  Robert set about constructing something to put over the pond to protect it at night from predators.

After some experimentation, he built a removable lath and chicken wire "lid" to place over the main part of the pond.  It really works great.

We now have the black fish and three gold fish, more aquatic plants, an ammonia 'trap" and the protective lid.  In the late afternoon, the little fish swim out from their rock hiding place.  It's so fun to watch them. We stand and whisper to each other, noting each fish's position.

Robert read that fish can talk (!)  We think the black fish has been indoctrinating the new ones with tales of the racoon's murderous raid, and noting our clumsy splashing around adding gravel, plants, and the protection device. 

This is our anthropomorphic explanation of why they seem reluctant to come out from under the rocks.

Some of you have asked to see the photos from my son, Gunther's recent ride for Tour de Cure, the fundraiser for the American Diabetes Association.  You can click here to see him and Anders (who has Type 1) and his brother, August.

http://picasaweb.google.com/rohrer.gunther/TourDeCure2009

Tomorrow I leave for Milan for the two-day numerology seminar, and Lisbon for the conference in Portugal.

I know I have not written in a long time. Should one feel guilty for not blogging enough?

It's been a beautiful spring

Cleaning out old files

Changing the desk in my study for a simpler, lighter look

Weeding

Buying and planting pink and purple flowers

Observing the five tiny fish in my funny tiny pond

Reading library books to Auggie and Anders on the couch on the deck

Making polenta with mushroom marinara sauce and

Shrimp in coconut sauce

Talking with my old friend, Jaye and her daughter, Palin, who are visiting from New Mexico

Going to the Andy Warhol exhibit with Jaye and Palin. Being fascinated by his four "video auditions" of the members of the Velvet Underground--(each man just looks steadily at the camera, hardly moving; one of them slowly drags on a cigarette) mesmerizing.  I realize how much Warhol has affected my viewpoint.  He said he liked boring things.  I like repetition and monotonous sounds, rain, music like chanting, didgeridoo sounds.

Going with Rainey to the Fraenkle Gallery for the last day of the exhibit of photographers who captured a view of the world much like Edward Hopper.  I fell in love with one beautiful photograph of a store window empty of everything except a small, old-fashioned adding machine with a crank handle.  The sign on the store said Calculators.  This image is as beautiful as a Vermeer to me.  It IS a Vermeer!  The light quality, the serenity, the creamy colors, the interior space. Timeless.

Art.  You gotta love it.