A Fish, Some Birds and a Hoodie

So what do all these things have in common?  Nothing but ME and my camera.......

I have a sick fish - a koi in fact.  She's been a member of our fishy family for about 7 years now, so it's sad that she's dying.  And what's sadder is that there's nothing I can do to comfort her or heal her.  I can only watch and hope she passes very soon.

She has a condition known as Dropsey.  It's such a nasty infection and almost always fatal.  It's basically an infection of an internal organ, often the kidney.  My koi is no longer able to process her fluids.  They build up inside her causing severe bloat.  What makes dropsy so hard to diagnose in time to treat it is that the symptoms do not show up until the fish has entered the final stages of the disease.  The fish literally blows up like a balloon.  Its scales stick out, making the fish resemble a pinecone.  The eyes will bulge out from the trapped fluids beneath, and fin rot, ulcers and red streaks appear.

I'm not going to display a photo - it's not a pretty sight.

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In other news...

Every year about this time, we have a zillion little black birds fill our trees and make one helluva racket like you wouldn't believe.  Kinda reminds me of galahs back home in Australia.  Just try to imagine thousands of parrots talking at the same time!  The trees were totally covered.  Then the birds lifted together and swooped down at the same time to Mega Pond for what I presume was a last drink.  Then they all lifted up at the same time and continued on their migration.  Wish I knew what they are.....

Black birds

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And finally, a hoodie for my nephew, Hunter.

It turned out really well in the end. No knitting issues, but I did run out of yarn - completely!  I had to seam it up with some left over yarn from another project that closely matched the colour!  Thank goodness for stashed leftovers!
 

Hunter's Hoodie

Hunter's Hoodie

I learned a new sleeve seaming technique with this hoodie.  I was having trouble seaming the raglan sleeves so that you could see the double knit stitching.  I found a great website that offered a brilliant solution.  I used a crochet hook and slip stitch crochet stitch to join the seams together.  It worked so well and made such a nice finish on the inside, that I crocheted the hood to the sweater in the same way!

Genius!  Thank you Bonne Marie Burns!