Our back yard is sheltered by the fence, the wind was still, and though we wore coats and shivered a bit, it was nice to sit out by the pond for lunch. We saw many of the koi from the windows—looking good, with clear skins. Last year when Denys emerged from hibernation, he had a thick growth of green algae on his skin that was just very bad: he was lethargic and sick, and would come up in the shallows, lie partially out of the water and gasp. He was so bad I tried to catch him to medicate him, and was thinking I might have to put him down—but every time I had such thoughts, and approached him, he’d be off like a flash, into deep water, using up precious energy. So I began to leave him alone, and just tried to assure he got food, once they started taking food. And it took over half the summer, but the skin improved.
So when he went into winter I wasn’t sure I’d see him again: fish that die in the winter usually just disintegrate and get consumed by bacteria. But I think that was him: he’s hard to tell from Giraud and, at a distance, both of them can be hard to tell from Renji, but I’m pretty sure that was him, and with a clear skin, if that was him. I will be very happy if that’s the case. He’s not a pretty koi, but he’s our koi, and we want him to be healthy.
So far, on the roll call, I’ve clearly seen Ari, Maddy, and Amy, Renji, Ichigo [aptly named with the strawberry spot between the eyes], Rukia, Ishida, either Banichi or Jago, and Byakuya. I’m still looking for Kenpachi, Orihime and Grant, and a clear sight of either Denys or Giraud. OSG knows them.
Lunching out in the cold! Ilisidi would be proud.
Brr, I’d want a coat at that temp, but it sounded good.
LOL at the names from Bleach. I got stuck when they began with the dolls and vampire / incubus / succubus analogues, but have enjoyed it too much to let it go.
Denys et Giraud, I feel sure I should know… Oh, Cyteen, but what Moyen Age source?
Hmm, the one fish, it seems like a nice fishy start for an alien species.
Here’s hoping all the koi, of whichever colors, do fine.
For longer series like Bleach and Naruto they make a lot of filler episodes while the anime waits for the manga (where the real writer tells the story) to put out new stories. When a show gets that popular they’d prefer to put out sub-quality stuff than not air anything new at all because they can still make money. Usually when the show starts to get weird like that I look it up and find it wasn’t penned by the real writer. These days I just keep tabs on the official story from the manga and skip the filler episodes of the anime because to me there is nothing worse than characters acting weird and generic baddies. I’d rather wait it out for the real writer’s story.
There are sites out there that can help you figure out which is which. Here is one for Bleach. It tells you which episodes are part of the real story and which can be skipped. The vampire episodes are filler. I tried to watch it…oh dear. Do it right or not at all, I say. The real story starts again around ep 109-110.
Hi,
Sorry if this is the wrong topic for this comment, but I just wanted to express how much I enjoy the books about Bren Cameron and the Atevi. Thank you for all the great reading!
*counts on fingers* That’s 14 koi! How big are they? I remember seeing some venerable ones 18″ long in a hotel pond. Not a huge pond, but if they thought you were going to feed them, it was tail-room-only at that end of the pond.
Glad to hear the roll call! It sounds like the pond is clearing up. Have you restarted the waterfall yet?
I was at the frozen non-koi pond today & missed you — then came home & slept for *5* hours. Didn’t fall out of bed, either.
Just woke up — and as soon as possible, I’m headed back to bed. I feel like a koi in winter: torporous. TTYL!
The smallest of our koi is about 4″ long: Byakuya: he’s new last year, a black koi with gold butterfly fins and a gold belly. Banichi and Jago are just as old, but are proving atevi-sized, at 5″. Then the ones a year older: the largest is pale gold Ari, at about a foot, Amy, gold, at about 7″, and probably Kenpachi, who’s quite stout as well as about 7″. Most of the year-old school is about 5-6″. I swear, this year we’re going to get pictures of them individually. Jane has some on her page that she has titled—you have to dig in her slideshow.
Glad to read that all the fishies seem to have survived the winter. Isn’t is nice to go outside without having to dress for the south pole?
After several days of sun and temps in the high 40’s and 50’s and even 60 on Saturday we woke up to freezing rain which turned into a very lazy snow. Woke up to about an inch and a half this morning. It’s a frosting snow stuck to everything. Very pretty, but I am *so* tired of winter! 🙁 On the other hand with another day of strong sun I should have daffodils blooming. YES! 🙂 😀 😆
The branches on our espaliered apple tree are thickened and healthy, ready to bud. The winter was hard on the rhodies and azaleas, but they’ve made it. I fear we’ve lost the Italian cypress that had made it through one winter. But even the Hinoki Cypress the swing fell over on — twice — looks as if it’s going to be ok.
How big do they have to get before dinner? Just kidding. We have some snow showers up here in NH for a change.