He Called Me a "Fish Murderer"!!

When my Grandmom passed I inherited her iron cauldron that was kept at the barn, just outta site of the chicken coop. I got stories about that for another day! Well we keep the cauldron in our screened room with a St. Frances of Assisi statue, that has turned it into a fountain. Wayne brought home some tiny, what they call feeder fish from the pet store, he started training the fish by tapping on the side of the cauldron each time he went to feed them. So cute, they would just come running. Over the months those fish grew to be about 3 inches long, we had about 5 of them. While adding water to the "Fishing Hole" , which by the way had that battery operated fish plaque that sings "Don't Worry Be Happy" hanging above it, I accidentally slopped some water on the cords that the fountain part was plugged into. I ended up electrocuting Wayne's cute trained fish. Oh God they were all floating, and when I reached in to pick up one of the floaters, I received a shock too. Now I had to tell Wayne. He took the news better than I thought and proceeded to cover any exposed plugs with electrical tape. Back to the pet shop he went, more feeder fish and more training. Soon these little guys were coming up at the first sign of a tap to be fed. Wayne was pleased again, and again months passed and they grew to be about 3 inches long. Sooo one day I decided to clean out the "Fishing Hole", I scooped some of the water out of the tank and then netted the fish and put into the water in my bucket. Took the cauldron outside and cleaned out all the old fish poop, and washed all the rocks, filled it with fresh water and returned the fish to their home. Later that night as I was putting the dog out in the back yard, I looked down at the sparkling "Fishing Hole" and Holy Shit! They were all floating!! When Wayne heard all my commotion he came running out, looked down and and started yelling "Why are you Murdering all the fish"? "That's it, I'm not buying you anymore fish, ever again"!

So now we have a "Fishing Hole" sans Fish!
As time went by I told Wayne I wanted to build a little pond in the back yard, and you know husbands, they always have a million excuses why you can't do something. Not having the word never in my vocabulary, I went to the garage and got one of those blue tubs that have nylon handles on each side, that you might store kids toys in, and cut off the handles. It's about 2 feet across and 26 inches deep. I took it outside and measured around it, dug a hole up to the lip of the tub, sunk it in the hole, filled it with water, put in a pump and There you have it...a pond. I took a ceramic fish off my garden table, knocked a hole in the bottom and put a tube up through the fish and out its mouth and made my own fountain. When I showed Wayne what I had done, he was so impressed he took me to the Rock Yard, and bought me about 100 lbs of flat rocks to put around the lip of the pond. It turned out so pretty! I was well pleased with myself!

See how cute! It wasn't long before Wayne came home with a surprise for me, a bag of fish for the pond!! Well ok, here we go again, of course Wayne trained the fish to surface when they heard the tapping and he would feed them, he was soo happy!
Months went by, and over the winter with all the leaves falling in to the water, it was like a black hole, you couldn't see the fish at all. The leaves I guess had dyed the water such a dark brown. Well to me what was the use of having fish in the pond if you couldn't see them??? Right?? So I decided to clean out the pond, but having learned my lesson, I was not going to touch the fish, I took the hose and ran it to the bottom of the pond slowly filling it so that it would overflow, sending all the brown water out into the yard, leaving clean water in the pond. It was now so pretty and all the fish could be seen and were swimming around so happy! Ta Da!
UNTIL...Wayne went out to feed the fish...THEY WERE ALL DEAD AS DOORNAILS!!! Wayne didn't say a word, we fished them out of the pond, put them in a plastic bag and threw them in the trashcan. I have never asked for, nor has he ever mentioned getting fish again, What is it with me and fish?? I don't understand, but for now there will be no more, I just can't take the carnage! I now have a cauldron with no fish, and a pond with no fish..Truce..

 

Mixed Nuts!

Hi All! I haven't posted for almost the whole month of March! I guess life just gets in the way sometimes. I have called this post "Mixed Nuts" because I have a collection of things I want to post before I start showing Easter Decor, and Spring Time in the yard.
I have had the winter constellation of Orion overhead guarding my home, but now that he is moving away, I have the constellations of Hercules and Leo taking the place as centurions for the summer. Just makes me feel good. My constellation Virgo will be off to the side of the night sky. Check out the constellations that will be over your home this summer.
 The header picture that I have on my blog is of the Goddess Flora, I painted her about 8 years ago and I just wanted to show that she really does reside on the gate leading to our back yard at our home.

She is life size and I painted her with a sponge. I had seen her picture in a magazine and tore out the page and put in one of my "Save it folders". Do you do that? Have save it folders? I tear out any page that has something that I love, or that may spark a new project. Fun to go through all the pictures that I collect, that is a good way to find out what your style is, by placing all the pictures out, you can see a pattern emerge in how all the pictures relate to each other. And voila! Your style! I found mine is Traditional with a lean to the Neo Classical for my home, but my garden is more Shabby Chic. Oh don't forget I do mosaics too, that rusted shovel head was another trash find, I used plates from Goodwill and a porcelain rose to design the mosaic. Love it!

Now talking about Shabby Chic, I have a fun collection of  Bird Houses scattered throughout the yard, some I've made and some I've decorated, others I've bought or gifts from friends. Don't they just add so much fun to the garden?

Huge bird cage that I use hanging from a tree in the corner of the yard, planted with ferns and a spider plant.

 

Some of the houses I've made and painted, or covered in shells, or have added porcelain flowers and birds, I also painted the wooden cat I found at a garage sale. I love the ones with the porcelain on them, my neighbor had thrown out a piece of bead board, so I went over and got it, and it was enough to make three houses!

This is just a few of what is in my yard, but I know you don't want to look at tons of houses, now they aren't just hanging willy nilly , they are hidden gems that you just discover as you walk the yard, and that is how all things in your garden should be, hidden discoveries at every opportunity.

It's crazy whenever I see a new project that I feel I can attempt, I'm right on it! When I saw the postings of people making cement leaves I knew I had to try it!! So I got an Elephant Ear from the yard and made one! I loved it, and was so easy! Just type in Cement Leaves on Pinterest and you will find all the instructions there.

I found a Mardi Gras mask at Goodwill, it was out of shiny gold plastic, like a Lone Ranger mask you would find at Woolworths (dating) LOL. But when I saw it, I knew it would be perfect for a cement mold, using quickcrete I made this sun, I still have the mold, but have chosen not to make another one, as when I looked at the finished sun, he had a down turned mouth, kinda didn't like that. Gotta be positive! And this thing is so heavy, I have to have my hubs move it for me, it's about 2 feet across!