January 2,........2016

I was previewing a book about Christmas decorating in large mansions.  Our Salisbury House in Des Moines was one of the featured houses.  I came away from the book while checking out the decorations that they varied the sized of the ball ornaments.  They had very large ball ornaments mixed with smaller ones that created a very good result in decoration,   Some of the old houses had actual antique decorations and the others I questioned that they might be newly purchased ones.  This blue ball is much larger than some but it is a ahiny plastic one.  I would be disappointed if I was admiring plastic ball ornaments but I could have doing just that.  This tree won't come down for another week.

One doesn't set out to train their fish but these fish know that they get fed by me.  When they see me in the room they hit the glass expecting something to eat. As  some experts say, they would eat themselves to an uncomfortable point and still beg for more food. If they were in the wild they would have to go scouting for food and put out a lot of energy to get to it.

As they head to the area where I can drop down the food they all go into an eating frenzy just like a bunch of sharks eating at fish. As you can see my algae eater is doing a great job clearing the glass.  I don't know what he is eating now unless the plastic plants have algae on them.

I have one calico fan tailed gold fish and it just doesn't associate with this common comet goldfish.  The fantail stays at the top of the water a lot of the time and will go down if the food is flying around in the water because of the filter system sending it down there.  He is a lot like a guppy that likes to only feed at the top of the water.



We are headed out on an adventure this morning.  My wife needs some art supplies and I will check out all the sales.  I am sure Hobby Lobby has cleared all Christmas things by now as they need to get the next few holidays up immediately the day after Christmas. Garden items were being put out right before Christmas.  An hour or so at the bookstore and maybe we will hit Mennards.  I need some wood to face the edge of my porch and we need dog biscuits.   The dogs needs are really important especially to Barney as he thinks the milk bones box is a never ending source.

I hope everyone will have a great weekend.  I know everyone's weather is ever changing with the El Nino messing with us.  We are looking forward to a little bit of a warming period.  It isn't hot weather but it is above freezing.   Thanks for hanging around.