At War With Himself

After about 48 hours in his new home Solomon discovered he had a rival next door.

It wasn't long before the war began. He spends well over an hour each morning flaring aggressively at his reflection in the glass, even attacking that annoying mimic at times.

Some flaring is rumoured to be good for a Betta fish, something like flexing one's muscles, but too much time spent flaring and charging back and forth must be stressful for the poor fish. I can just imagine the strain caused by the need to defend your home against an aggressive and threatening neighbour each and every day! 

I tried leaving the lights off in the tank but it didn't completely eliminate the problem, and what's the point in having a fish tank if you can't see the fish?!

Today, after reading about fixes for this kind of Betta behaviour, I went out and bought a bushy fern type plant that will fill the 6" x 10" end of his tank where most of the problem occurs. 

He's a very curious little guy and it wasn't more than a minute before he was over there checking it out.

Was that a nibble I saw? Hopefully now he knows it's fake and not edible.

But now there is another problem!

His curiosity may just get him into trouble!! I'll have to watch him carefully. I was worried about him there for a bit, thinking him stuck, but when I moved my hand closer he scurried out of there with no difficulty. Now he seems to have found a favourite spot, resting way up at the top near the surface of the water. 

I read on a spiritual site recently that if you pay attention to the animals and nature around you they can have a message for you. After watching Solomon fight with himself with such ferocity and persistence, possibly bringing harm to himself in the long term, I can't help but see that there is an important message in that for me.

Bonus picture! 

Solomon's Debut

Meet my beautiful new Betta fish, Solomon, just purchased today. His name means "peace" in Hebrew.

I'm not sure, but I think he'd be classified as a "Half Moon Fancy". 

I chose him for his striking colours, but I'm happy to find that he is also a very peaceful fish, not bothering his tank mates at all. 

With Love and Gratitude

My husband asked me to sew up a few holes in the safety overalls he wears at work. He's hoping to make them last until his retirement, which isn't too terribly far off.

He said it didn't have to be pretty. I think what he actually meant was "please don't make it pretty!!" as he has seen my ongoing work on my own Boro/Sashiko vest.

So here we are, a few discrete patches hidden in behind the main fabric, with stitching matched as close as possible to the overall fabric. 

Completely invisible mends were not possible since some of the rips, including this three corner tear, were large, gaping, and surrounded by fabric that was nearly worn through. I think I closed them up quite nicely. 

Once I had the overalls in my hands I noticed many more, smaller tears and holes and I stitched those up too. I made sure I sewed down the areas where the reflective safety tape was coming loose too. 

As I contemplated the 44+ years my husband has put in as a telephone lineman I couldn't help but feel an immense love, gratitude, and respect for this hardworking man of mine and his dedication to supporting his family and doing his best for his employer.

Dwindling Macaw

January in this area saw temperatures that remained predominantly in the grass to macaw range. Errm -- I mean in the 3 to 8 degrees celsius range, (37 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit).

I've been keeping up with the knitting of the "My Year In Temperatures" scarf by knitting 6 rows every second day. That's 3 rows to represent the high temperature for each day. The speckles in the scarf represent each day's low temperature. 

If you look very carefully you might spot a row where you would assume I forgot the speckles. I didn't. In my colour line up each colour spans 3 degrees. That particular day the high temperature and the low temperature were within 3 degrees of each other so they were both represented by the same colour.

I've been going through an awful lot of the colour "macaw", which is a problem because it was the one colour that I did not start off with a full ball of. I'll have to order more. Soon.