Just for Fun

 

 

 

It seems I'm usually making and crafting for my Etsy shop, and sometimes gifts for others, but I don't very often make or sew for myself. But I made two plush koi fish just for me.

As I enjoy watching our koi and goldfish in our backyard pond, I can't help but admire the colorful spots and patterns. So I tried to duplicate the look by needle felting sweater wool to make soft plush koi pillows. I started with the orange koi with black spots and then made the "calico" koi, white with bright orange and black spots.
They now reside on the back of the family room sofa.

Happy Fish

 

 

All of our koi and goldfish are very happy in the new backyard pond. They have lots of room to swim and have all gotten much bigger in the extra space.
Some of the goldfish, the first inhabitants of the new pond, spawned when we first put them in the pond. Quite a few of the baby goldfish have survived and are about three inches long now!

After all of my husband's hard work on this project to dig, fill and landscape the pond, it's been so relaxing to sit and enjoy the beautiful fish enjoying their new home.

Pond Life

It's almost time to start moving our koi fish into the new big pond. But the pond is already full of life.
The new filter system is almost complete and the goldfish we put in already seem to be enjoying their new home.

The lotus is growing and blooming. 

 

 

The newest resident is "Flip" the green frog. He likes to float in the shade under the lotus leaves.

 

 

A big dragonfly larvae.

 

 

 

 A wonderful surprise. . . the first goldfish we put in the pond have already spawned and we have little baby goldfish! These tiny goldfish will be brown in color, for protection, until they get a bit bigger. They are able to hide amongst the rocks around the side of the pond.

 

 

Trap door snails, collected from a local garden center's big natural pond, will eat algae from the sides of our pond and act as nature's cleaners.

Feeding Time!

Watch a short video clip of the koi in our new koi pond.

Be sure to turn on your speakers!

Saturday Morning Field Trip

All winter, my husband has been working on his plans to install a koi pond in our backyard patio area. He has measured and calculated gallons of water. He's done a lot of online research, made lists of possible plants to include and sketches of the the pond to be.

Now we already have two small garden ponds full of water lillies and goldfish, but we want a larger, deeper pond just for koi. So for a little inspiration, this morning we took a drive to visit a water garden center - Aquatic Design and Supplies in Monrovia, Indiana.

Some of the beautiful koi in the large display pond.

This is a small, shallow pond with a pretty moss covered waterfall. It's smaller size would make it perfect for most backyards.

It was fun to watch the colorful koi as they followed us as we walked around the edge of the pond.

Such a beautiful variety of colors and patterns. I like the orange guy with the whiskers!

This is the large display pond at the garden center.
You can see the big waterfall at the far side.
 

Another view across the large pond. Such a pretty natural setting with the mature trees in the background and the smaller plantings closer to the pond edge.

This was great inspiration for our upcoming koi pond project in our own backyard!

I'll be sure to share our progress with you here.