Introduction

Things have finally relaxed. Our flat is almost completely redecorated, the kitchen is done, my parents have been here and left, and now I find myself with time in my hands - so I blog, among other things.

Today I'd like to introduce you to the newest members of our small household. For a very long time I have wished for them, although my hopes were quite modest and I never expected something like this:

My new aquarium!

I had hoped for a cute fishbowl with a couple of goldfish named Abi and Nepomuceno (Nepo, for short), perhaps a third one eventually, but that was all. Then one day my husband arrived home and asked me, "How would you like to have an aquarium?"

Apparently, some friends of ours who owned it wanted to buy a larger one and expand their fish breeding and, having heard my wish for fish, were willing to start me off with their old one and some fish. I was thrilled! Of course I said yes.

Therefore, allow me to introduce my little 'uns.

Forgive me for being biased, but he's my favourite! Meet Nepomuceno
(Nepo for short), a cardinal tetra.

Nepomuceno used to have a brother named Nemo. The day we went to pick up the aquarium and the fish, our friend had emptied it almost completely in order to be able to fish them out of the water more easily. Somehow, Nemo hid and our friend couldn't find it, and concluded he must have miscounted, or something similar.

The small amount of water and all the stones and plants remained in the aquarium and for an hour were tossed and turned during our drive back home. That evening, as I tried to put some order among them, we found Nemo! Hence the name. He was rather battered and a little bit dumb, but as soon as I put him in with the rest of the fish while I cleaned up the aquarium, he cheered up and ate with the rest.

A couple of days later he died, poor thing. Nepo is rather lonely, and because of the kind of fish he is he needs company, so when we get a chance, my husband and I hope to buy him some friends. [smile] To know more about his kind, click HERE.

Meet Gustavo and his Clan!

Gustavo and his Clan are swordtail fish. We have one male (notice the sword-shaped tail? Beautiful with black streaks) and three females. Because the only one who could be told apart from the rest was the male (the females are all alike, they don't have different physical characteristics) we decided to name him, and the rest as his clan. They reproduce very quickly so I hope to soon present you with a nursery. [smile]

To know more about the different kind of swordtail fish, click HERE.

Meet Abi, Cora and Unnamed-for-now, very orange, very dumb tiger
barbs.

They are also known as the Three Musketeers, although they used to be four. One of them was bullied to death by a swordtail female, so now they are the Three Musketeers. They are absolutely inseparable and quite funny in their dumbness.

We can name them because of their differentiating spots (or lack thereof) on their middle orange section. However, we still haven't memorized them, so for now they are Abi-Cora-Unnamed instead of being this one Cora and that one... you get the idea. We are thinking of a suitable name for the third. Any suggestions? We suspect they're all females...

To know more about tiger barbs, click HERE.

I must not forget the snails! No, the big one isn't their grandpa... it's a
shell I picked up from the shores of the Black Sea.

Included with the fish were plenty of snails. We must keep an eye on them because they reproduce with lightning speed and may become pests. However, I'm glad to see that the swordtails are keeping them at bay for now. They seem to really enjoy eating them up.

Who would know that one day I would own an aquarium and several fish, not just a fishbowl with two or three? Like I sometimes tell my husband jokingly, I have a new TV! Honestly, I have to check myself sometimes because I could sit down in front of it and watch the fish swim and play all day! My fishies are great and I really enjoy taking care of them!

Please, please

It's already March and this Dreamy girl is busy, busy. Too busy, in fact, to remember to log out when she uses other people's computers...

Please, Dreamy girl, please post something new.

Perseverance For Food

Talk about having patience, eh?

Aaawww

There's a polar bear running towards me! *x*

CATcerto

No words!

Small

Mr. Bunny & Mr. Swine

()_()
(._.)
(")_(")

Mr. Bunny. =)


<(0(oo)0)>

Mr. Swine. =)

Nuba

My favourite kitten - cat... she's grown! I took this picture today. She is expecting and about to have her kittens, so Mummy told me to take pictures of her now that she's so big! This is my favourite picture of her, though you can't see her tummy. Isn't she sweet!

Pleeeeeze...

"...may I come in?¿?"

My bedroom window, second floor... he climbed the tree!

Fotos d'Aquests Dies

Various pictures I've taken these days I'm on holidays... Sea, gardens, birds...









No captions! Have no idea what to write... but aren't the birdies sweet? They sing beautifully.

Pat The Pet Hamster

Introducing a new addition to our household.

Mr. Pat the Pet Hamster

My brother was given the hamster for his birthday. We are enjoying him very much, he's so soft and cuddly!

Compensation

Three favourite pictures I took last Thursday, a butterfly that had just gotten out of its cocoon, a funny leaf my Mummy found, and Zippo, my little lizard.

A Goldfinch

We have a goldfinch nest in our olive tree!! ^^ Sunday noon after the meeting, my Papa came to me and asked, "You like taking pictures?". When he says that, I know there is something interesting to take a photo of. So I went with him with my camera, and he showed me a sweet little nest a goldfinch had made in our olive tree. We could see it perfectly because the olive tree was right by my parents' window.
Then, (it had to happen), my batteries went dead. Thankfully, my Mummy's batteries were available, so I could take the pictures in the end.

At first, the nest was empty, but I took a pic anyway.

Then Mamma Goldfinch came along, and sat quietly on the nest for me. That was nice of her! :) I like the red feathers on her head.

And in the afternoon my little brother came crying, "She's laid her eggs! She has laid her eggs!" so I had to grab Mummy's batteries again, and take the picture. I don't know if you can see the eggs... but they were pale blue. :)

Kittie!

Last Saturday we visited some dear friends of ours, this family, and we really had a great time!
They had a cute little black and white cat with green eyes that I liked very much, and therefore I took many pictures of it. Here are my favourites!

Somehow, Oreo (that was her name) thought that my Mummy's lap was comfotable, even thought she was crossing her legs.

Here you have her again, like a queen, looking at... something on the floor...?

I, of course, had a great time caressing her... you could hear her purring half a mile away! :)

A really closer look... cute nose!

Then she hid under the table, but I could take pictures of her even there (haha, she didn't escape! I had this feeling she didn't like photos... she almost scratched my camera after a photo with flash! :S). Anyway, I think she was trying to hide...

One has to keep herself clean... even before a camera taking a photo of her. (Manners...!)

I don't really know what to say about that one... maybe she was calculating the jump she had to do to go back on the floor.

Aha! This one is my favourite! Comfortable on Kevin's shoulder. And now I am saying it seriously, I could hear the kitty purring from where I was taking the picture.

Awww, I like this one very much too. She looks like she is saying, "Who, me? Nah, I'm just a cute little purring thing!"
I just like her eyes so much.

We really had fun that day, only it rained all the time, during the whole day, and I wasn't able to go outside and check the little woods they had at the back. I bet I could have taken plenty more pictures! :)
I hope we can see them again! We had good talks and lunch was delicious!

My Blog on 2007

This year there have been...

- One hundred and nine posts! (Counting this one).
- Many visits from around the world.
- Three surveys.
- Two template changes.
- A Cbox added!
- Many new friends met by blogs.

I love blogging! *Smile*

What Kind Of Horse...?

What breed of horse are you? Find out!


Giggles. I don't know what to think of this...

A Seasonal Update

I would say that this is a seasonal update, but also, as I promised long ago, I’ll kill two birds with one stone, and I’ll make it a gardening update too.

I always thought I would enjoy being a farmer’s wife, but now I am sure of it. Our garden is lovely. This morning, as I was hanging the washing, I exclaimed, “Oh, Papa, I love the way the garden smells!” And it’s true. Think of the sweet fall smell, everything wet and humid, with the leaves falling on the ground, and the ground smelling so fresh and sweet. Then, with the combination of the morning birds singing, and a soft breeze blowing, I was in a dream. I love being outside!

This morning we got a load of firewood, a ton of wood, to be exact, and we had to get it in. We had so much fun getting it in, all together but Mummy (at first she helped too, but later had to go and get lunch ready) and my sister, who was busy. We worked in line, first my older bro by the wood plile, who passed logs and things to my youngest brother (who being only six years old is very strong). Then he passed them to me, I passed them to my younger brother and he passed it to Papa through a big window, who piled the wood neatly at the back of the porch. Some minutes later, when the pile had decreased considerably, we had to go to the back of the pile, and throw logs in the front of it, so we could go on doing the same without Bro having to walk a mile to get the next log… :P After that, we went back to our places in the line, and on and on we went until the pile was done. Working in a normal way, it took us 44 minutes to sort 1 ton of wood, five people working on it. It was fun!

Talking about the zucchini… well, it’s been better than we all expected, even better than Mama expected! In about three and a half months, we got about thirty-five zucchinies from nine plants, and Mummy found seven more this morning, while we worked in the garden. It has really been a very good summer for the garden, not too hot, and quite wet, for Spanish weather… and they’ve grown big, fat and green… they should, now that I say so… :P The first zuchini weighed 1 quilo 150 grams, and it was huge! (That’s 2 pounds and a half, aprox.) My younger brother was very proud, the plants were his, and he had taken care of them, and watered them.

And well, to finish, I have to tell you that today we found two mice in our house… that’s the fourth we see this summer-autumn, and it’s awful to have to kill them. Mice are so cute.

I will tell you again… I wish I could be a farmer’s wife!!

Proven!

Mantis swim!
Yesterday afternoon my Mummy called me to see a HUGE mantis. It was about eight cm long, that's about three inches, a little more. It was hiding under the entrance sideboard, and our jaws dropped to see how HUGE it was. :P
This morning my Mummy called me and everybody again out to the entrance... where the turtle pool is. In the middle of it there's a rock for the turtle to be and have a "sun bath" whenever she wants. And happy as a May bee, in the middle of the water, on the rock, was the mantis, busily washing her face (we knew it was a "she" because "he" mantis are smaller). Now, the question was, HOW ON EARTH DID SHE GET ON THE ROCK????
Soon we had our answer. The mantis got into the water, AND BEGAN TO SWIM!!!! Would you ever say it, a mantis SWIMMING! We were all amazed. It was swimming with her back legs, and the two front ones. It was really surprising to see that!
"O Lord, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom hast thou made them all; the earth is full of thy riches." Psalm 104:24

Results

Well, here go the enquest results!

4 votes for Tigger (66%)!! Yeah, he's the best.
1 vote for Piglet (16%). He's really cute, but I like Tigger best.
1 vote for Eeore (16%). I like the way he always is... but Tigger is definitely the best!!

If you haven't realised yet, I was one of the ones that voted Tigger. Could the rest that voted please tell whom they voted?

A New Experience

Today I did something I hadn't done before, not even helping. I bathed Machli!! Well, I hadn't bathed a dog in my life before, so it was quite new to me, and lots of fun!
I had to dress in the oldest clothes I had, and then I began to prepare the bath we have outside for things like this. I filled it with water from the hose, and took the collar off Machli. But it wasn’t all that easy... somehow, Machli hates water, and when she saw that I was filling the bath she escaped! So, I had to chase her, and pick her up so she wouldn’t run away.
So I got the hose, and placed Machli IN the bath. Once in there, she was a good dog, and didn’t run away. I wet her all over, and then I got the special shampoo on her. I scrubbed, and scrubbed, and rubbed all over her body, carefully, though, because I was scared I would hurt her. Machli got cold, and began to tremble, so then I rinsed her, and with a towel I rubbed her again dry, and she stopped trembling.
Then came the brushing. Once she was quite dry, I brushed her all over, and right now she looks white and brown, and quite pretty!
It was fun to bathe her, and I’m waiting for the next time!
Now we’re going for a walk to pick blackberries, so if I can, I’ll tell you about it when we come back.