Winter Views

I love how sunny the kitchen is. It, the master bedroom,laundry room and bathroom are the sunniest rooms in the house since they have a southern exposure.
I took this picture late in the afternoon when the sun was setting. Just wanted to share what I thought was a happy photo with you.

Since we ladies are always curious about each other's homes, the cabinets are natural cherry wood. The counter tops are tile. Can you tell I love Delft? There are framed tiles and delft canisters on the shelf over my counter top.




I knocked these big icicles down after taking the photo. They were very long and they curve in like saber tooth tiger tusks. Teeth maybe? Saber teeth? Well whatever , they did look like those things on those old tigers.

The big pond in winter is pretty.It has its own charms in every season I think.

You can see how deep the snow is all around the sides. It will provide clean water for the pond as it melts.

Once established a big pond is a complete ecosystem on it's own.

The waterfall continues to flow down from the stream keeping the ice open a bit.

The powerful pump on the stream keeps the ice open so that harmful gases escape and the fish get oxygen. It pumps through thousands of gallons of water every hour but there is no filtration really in winter as the bacteria die off in my homemade filter system.

So, you stop feeding fish when the water temperature goes below 55°F. They go into hiberation and cease to create waste.

But gases can build up from the sediment and sand on the bottom so you must keep a hole open in winter for it to escape.

Shubunkin and Comets are carp so they are used to living in the wild.They can grow several feet in length too. My fish here started out as little 2 inch goldfish I got for 10¢ each. That was over 14 years ago now. They still thrive, have reproduced many times over and some are 16 inches long now. In a good situation fish multiply like crazy. I stated with 8 and now have more than 70 in two ponds.

Comets and shebunkins live to be about 40 if things go well. Comets and Shebunkin can grow to 2 feet and weight over 9lbs. They were first domesticated during the Tang Dynasty (618–907) and it was in 1167 that Empress of the Song dynasty began breeding them. Commoners were forbidden to own the lovely pale yellow and white. They would be very mad at me, since I have bred quite a few in that glorious color.

Usually I lose most of my clams in winter and they must be replaced in spring time. They are fresh water clams you find in streams all over. Want to come pearl diving?

Frogs hibernate too. Birds are happy there is still a place to drink.