It’s bright and sunny out today and our new fish are busy exploring their new home. They really seem to be enjoying themselves as they swim briskly in circles around the pond — under the waterfall, over the cave, in the splashes of the frog spitter, around the waterlily, into the cave, over the cave . . . . .

I took a few photos of them out and about in the sun at about noon EDT — four of the six of them visible here.

Also snapped a picture of Phyllis the frog looking much like she is the lifeguard of the pond. She’s sitting staring into the water watching the lap swimming of her new friends.

Then, the fish decided I had been around the pond a bit too long, or was a bit too close, and everyone swam to the bottom and disappeared into the cave. I can see from my kitchen window that the day was much too nice for them to stay “inside” either — and they are now all back out swimming again. The sun is glinting off their golden backs!

Six new fish (our new Best Fish Friends) were relocated from Rhode Island to our pond home today.  It’s cold here, and as soon as they were freed from their transportation bags, they swam a bit and then headed to the cave at the bottom of the pond.  Hopefully, we’ll see them again tomorrow when they come up to look around their new home.

We have three frogs in the pond this spring, a female, a youngster, and a male, who answers all questions, including “what’s your name?” with “Gurk!”.   He’s trying to blend in with petals from the weeping cherry tree.

I was in NYC the other day, and had my Sony Cybershot in my pocket. I’m always struck by the contrasts in the city. Here are a couple scenes that caught my eye:

Trinity Churchyard: as you walk into the churchyard on this spring day, you have blooming trees and brightly-colored tulips reminding you of freshness and renewal, in a setting with some of the oldest gravestones in NYC. That’s Broadway (at Wall St.) in the background, where the hustle and bustle of the financial district is on display every weekday.

Here, from the churchyard, you can look up and see the church’s spire contrasted with the skyscraper behind it.

Statue of Liberty: seen from Battery Park. This must be one of the most recognizable shapes in the world. Even at this distance, there’s no question that it’s Lady Liberty across the water. I used The GIMP to raise the contrast (and reduce the detail) of everything but the statue to try to focus attention on it.

Update 4/29/08: most, if not all of the link issues have been fixed.   Still working out one issue with the “previous” link on the pond pages…

Our hosting service made some changes recently that broke some of the links on the site. I’m aware of it, but haven’t gotten around to sorting them out yet. We’ve also upgrade to the latest version of Wordpress, so who knows if there may be some other issues lurking around to fix. Meanwhile, stay tuned for more spring pictures.

Spring is busting out all over at 87 Squirrels. Today’s photos are the weeping cherry and the pjm outside the kitchen window. Stay tuned for photos of croaking frogs and toads, for sure.

We really enjoy the cardinals that visit our feeders. This one entertained us for quite a while hopping from place to place picking up seeds dropped by other birds. It’s a treat to catch them posing in the sunlight, as they generally keep their bright plumage a bit more in the shadows.

Not quite ready to pull a sleigh perhaps, but I happened to catch this doe with all four feet in the air.

We hope that you had a Merry and Blessed Christmas Day!

In front of one of the Rockefeller Center office buildings along the Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan.

Bryant Park’s tree, with a tinge of twilight remaining in the sky. Antenna from the Empire State Building is to the right.