Nicolette's Notebook

How creativity seems to colour every day of my life

Saga of the Koi...

31 December 2010


We have had just gone through the coldest December in Northern Ireland since records began in 1890 and we have experienced many days of -6 deg Celsius through the day and colder than -10 at night which is very extreme for us. It was so bad that the airports were closed for some days not just here but in the rest of UK and parts of Europe due to the heavy snow falls and the problems caused by the ice... This affected us when my mum was unable to fly over for Christmas and ended up spending the holiday on her own in Kent. We skyped her for the opening of the Christmas presents on Christmas Day and my sister Pip opened hers for her... Skyping during Christmas Dinner was a little less successful...
 The problem with the Koi pond was first noticed just before Christmas and by Christmas Eve (after a phone call to the Mid Ulster Garden Centre near Maghera to make sure they were open) we had no option but to set off in dreadful driving conditions to purchase a new pond liner...

I took a few snaps using my mobile phone through the car window as we drove slowly along the icy roads.  In Belfast when we set off it was -3 deg Celsius by the time we arrived at the garden centre the temperatures had fallen to -8 deg Celsius and the nozzles on the car windscreen washer had frozen which caused us a few problems with visibility... 

When we arrived and asked for pond liner the young man at the till looked at us as though we were utterly mad and repeated "Pond Liner???"  then someone else came over and said, yes, you phoned earlier and he very helpfully worked out the size we would need from our pond dimensions.

It took a surprisingly short time to empty the pond as it was already 2/3 drained and most of the remaining water went into the large tub we bought to put the koi carp into.  

The old liner had become very brittle after over a decade underwater and the piece of slate that had fallen off the waterfall had caused a gash in the side...

 Neil is brilliant when it comes to these awkward jobs.  We cleaned the old liner and removed anything sharp and as much of the sludge as possible.  We had been advised that it would be best to lay the liner directly over the old one. 

It was surprisingly difficult to deal with the liner which was 4 metres wide by 3 metres long.  We had kept it in the house from Christmas Eve until we were able to start work on New Years Eve as this helped to make it supple and pliant and easier to manipulate.  In the end we decided that after we had got it roughly into place it would be easiest to use the weight of the water to fit the pondliner into the shape of the pond.

We are very attached to the koi carp.  They all have names and are quite friendly.  We did have one very friendly fish but it was killed by the heron which caused us to have to cover the pond with chicken wire to keep the remaining fish safe from harm.  This however, has prevented us from being able to interact with the fish as much as we used to which I think is a shame but better that than the fish being killed.

Neil stroking the koi.... before their imminent release.

Neil did a wonderful job rebuilding the waterfall area.  It looked really great.  I rather couldn't help laughing when he stepped back lost his balance and ended up with two very wet feet as the icy cold water made its way inside his wellington boots... he said a couple of choice expletives as he emptied out his boots... but gallantly continued...

Pond refilled and fish back in situ and the edges of the liner being trimmed off by Neil (behind the camelia).  After which he was definitely ready for a warm bath just to try to thaw out...

There is a gap in the wire and a set of steps created using small paviers at the point of the yellow hose where any small mammal that might fall in will be able to clamber out and escape...

I love Pigeons...

22 December 2010

I love the pigeons who come to our bird table... I suspect they are feral pigeons...

We have quite a lot of pigeons who are regular visitors... Often we have about 15 sitting on the kitchen roof waiting at any one time... Now and again... they crash into the glass door and we are left with a pigeon shaped mark on the glass... 

We have a couple in the group who wear rings on their legs...

Incoming pigeon...

My bird table is really big and can accommodate 8 pigeons at one time... (okay, they are a little squashed)...

Neil made my birdtable for my birthday a few years ago... I wanted a big one and we couldn't find one the right size anywhere... It used to be at the end of the garden and then we moved it so we could watch the birds from the kitchen...

Pigeons are very patient... always wait their turn...

They prefer the cracked wheat and corn in the feed...

Always a couple waiting on the fence, on the birdtable roof and on neighbouring roof tops...

Magpies are definitely higher up the pecking order...

Magpies are also a lot less patient...

Starlings in Winter...

21 December 2010

The starlings are really beautiful... I love their dark plumage and white speckles... this one is eating a brambly apple that was left on the tree... we always leave a few apples and autumn raspberries on the plants for the birds to finish off...

They are also frequent visitors to the birdtable...

and don't expect the pigeons to leave first...

Macro Monday... Cosy Sock...

20 December 2010

It is Macro Monday at Lisa's Chaos...

This week I decided to blog about the sock that I have just finished knitting...  It has been so very cold, frosty and snowy outside that I thought it would be nice to look at soft cuddly wool...

Unusually for me... rofl... a new book arrived on the same day as an order for sock yarn...  What was unusual about this was that as I browsed through the book I came upon a pattern that really appealed to me and guess what...

I actually had some of the Kaffe Fassett yarn used in the pattern contained in my new order... in a different colourway.  Mine is Landscape Canyon 4352 Regia Design Line by Kaffe Fassett but I think it was Jungle that was used in the book...  so of course... I dropped other projects on my needles and cast on...

 I have wanted to try knitting a "sideways" sock for a long time as I have often wondered about the fit...

It was the first time in many many months that I have used metal knitting needles (2.25mm) and I felt it in my hands.  My hands and wrists get very very sore when I do a lot of knitting on metal needles which is why I have almost entirely moved across to knitting using my wooden and bamboo dpn's.  

This is a very well written pattern... easy to follow... very clever way of creating the stitches for knitting the toe and cuff while knitting the rest of the sock...  giving a lovely smooth flat join (really important for the toe).

A necessity to love doing kitchener stitch as I grafted 111 stitches on one needle with 111 stitches on another needle  (a bit of a marathon run)... 

I personally couldn't get the crochet chain method to work for my provisional caston and after getting rather frustrated with my practice runs... I cast on with scrap yarn and worked a couple of rows in it before starting the actual sock and then carefully unpicked this... worked well for me...
 It is a very pretty zig zag pattern on the sock...

The shaping for the heel and the short row gusset is amazing... she has a fabulous way of working the turn and slip stitch for the short row gusset that prevents the little hole appearing...

My one niggle is that even with the cuff being 60 sts and worked on a 2.25mm dpn's, the leg part of the sock isn't as fitted as I would have liked and tends to slip down into more of a concertina slouch sock shape which I think may irritate me when I am wearing them... Also hoping that the first row of patterning above the heel isn't going to be an issue with the back of my shoes when I am walking in them... First sock worked now it will join the other 10 single socks who are waiting for me to have time to knit a partner...

All in all... a fun sock project to knit... and a great sock pattern book...

PS... the last two photos of me wearing the sock were kindly taken by Neil as I unfortunately am not a contortionist... would be a very useful skill for an avid sock knitter...


SOOC Sunday... Snowy Cavehill

19 December 2010

These snowy images were taken last Winter when we also had snow.  I took them using my mobile phone.

I thought it would be fun to join SOOC Sunday  and decided to use these two images.

Neither has been tweaked in any way but the lower photo was cropped and they were both resized for putting onto the blog. 

Both photos are of views along the lane on Cavehill leading down from the car park at the Hightown Road.

Magpies breakfast...

19 December 2010

I liked this photo... Neil asked what is it?  It is a magpie leaving the birdtable... those are its feet in the centre of the photo...

We have about 8 magpies who visit us on a regular basis... we used to feed them bits of bread but when we reached the stage of actually buying a loaf of bread for them... I switched to buying big bags of pasta twirls...

They also like cat food... bread and sunflower kernels...

It snowed all day today and it was surprisingly difficult to get the magpie in focus... the camera wanted to focus on snow flakes...

Usually we don't have a problem with gulls in the garden, but today... probably because of the snow... they kept diving at the magpies to get them to drop their pieces of pasta...

Magpie sitting on the garage roof...

Looking hopefully at the peanut feeder... the magpie sits on the branch next to the feeder and eats the peanuts...

Pasta had all been eaten...

Waiting patiently for more pasta... they have even been known to hop along the kitchen roof ridge tiles onto the windowsill and tap the glass if I am on the computer instead of giving them their breakfast...

Magpie arriving for breakfast...

Hungry little birds...

18 December 2010

The little birds were waiting on branches in the shrubs near the bird table and feeding area...

(Sparrow, chaffinch and robin)

All hungry and cold...

(Chaffinch in foreground and Redpoll behind)

We cater to a wide range of bird tastes and eating habits...

We have a flock of little redpolls who visit the niger seed feeder on and off all day...

Lots of coming and going and waiting patiently...

Some of this year's babies still expect to be fed by mum...

Peace at last to enjoy my food...