Wildlife in Vegas

So Paul-the-pond-guy called yesterday afternoon and said he's got some fish for us. I'm thinkin, wahoo! Salmon for dinner! No, no, no, not that kind of fish...it's koi...for our pond.

Paul-the-pond-guy (yes, I think that is his real name), keeps promising that once it really gets hot the algae will die. But, I'm a little concerned because he also keeps smiling lovingly at the algae and calling it an "ecosystem." Yeah, so is kudzu, but ya don't want that around, now do ya?? Not all ecosystems are to be cultivated, am I right? We bought a net and are scooping the algae out every day. Good times.

It's been 100+ every day this week. Not a cloud in the sky. Sun beating down on said pond. Algae seems healthy and is certainly growing. Am wondering just how hot REALLY HOT is?

But I digress...

So he brought us new fish. Four to be exact. Two of them are frankly enormous. I feel like we have whales in our little pond. But, it is fun to have fish - Chase and I spent as much time as we could stand in the heat watching the fish swim and eat. Guess what Koi eat? ALGAE!! Eat, little guys, eat!

We also have finally mastered the art of the hummingbird feeder. After about three beautiful blown-glass purchases (that leaked sugar water all over my patio thankyouverymuch) and one lovely terra-cotta feeder I found in a cabinet at the house (that leaked sugar water all over my $%#@ patio, thankyouverymuch), we have a very unattractive plastic one. That hangs from a metal hook on our patio. It does NOT leak and the hummingbirds love it!

So the moral of this story is: beautiful is not always functional. And at my house, algae seems to grow in the heat. Who knew?