Excitement in the fish pond.

Laying eggs in the weed

I have been working away for the last few days. However I have been sidetracked today though, my Goldfish in the pond have been spawning all day. They have laid a large amount of eggs amongst the weed and blanket weed around the edges.The eggs are about 1.5 mm in diameter, and hopefully in a week or so a fair proportion of them should hatch out.

Fish eggs.

I will have to try and net them out of the pond though. Gold fish are not adverse to eating little fish. I will try to remove a lot of them into a smaller tank, upstream of the main pond, and leave them there until they get a bit bigger.

None of the fry survived last year, I had three left at the beginning of winter but they have not appeared this year, so I assume they died in the cold weather. Either eaten or from lack of microscopic food. The fish spawned very late last year because of the cold summer (about September) so the fry were very small to overwinter.

The painting has been a little slow..

I am working on two commissions and they are proving a little difficult, mainly because I want to get back to my fish paintings. However the two commissions are needed fairly soon, so needs must.

I am waiting to hear back from the venue for my Maltese show, but I suppose they are busy with other things, but I would like to know if they want some more larger works than I have suggested. I'd like to firm up the date also, so I can book flights etc. for the opening.

In the meantime I'm going back out to enjoy this weekends sunshine, this is proving to be a scorcher, 24-25 degrees C. A big change from 10 or 11 last week.!!

This is a video of the fish charging around, the cock fish chasing the hens to start them spawning. Those at the edge resting are all spawned out.

Pond paintings and my studio

I have finished the painting I posted earlier, this is it here. I have also completed another one, painted from outside the studio. You will notice the reflection of the studio in the bottom left corner of the work.

I was going to do some more work from the pond today, but it is overcast with rain forecasted later so I will leave it until the weather is more suitable. In the meantime I have other jobs to do anyway, so I can get stuck into them today and I have a meeting tomorrow I need to prepare for. I will try to update a little more regularly, but I tend to get sidetracked to easily... :)

My studio is now in place

I still have to do work around it though. The tree to the left will need pruning back a bit. I need to build a bit of a porch in front to allow access to the door. I also need to connect a reinforced electric cable from the hous into the cabin. I will probably paint it green too. I will start planting around the edges with creeping/climbing plants to soften the edges and I will build window boxes for the front in the spring.

I have done a small, adjusted photo in paint to give an idea of the size behind the tree. Another gives an idea of what I may do for access

Iam looking forward to moving in.

Preparing for my new studio

I have been clearing the shrubbery at the back of my garden, ready for my new studio to arrive.(Hopefully this weekend) I have still to build the footings for the Portacabin, which will sit against the wall and project over the pond by about 4 feet. I had an earthen bank behind the pond also which I am in the process of removing with a shovel. It's hard work!. My studio will be twenty by ten feet, or 6 X3.3 meters. Not particularly big, but it will suffice, and, as it is going to be a "vandal-proof" portacabin it will be totally secure. The Dog managed to get herself into the photo again, but at least she gives a little perspective to the photo. The pond is 18 feet by 15 feet incidently so I will still be left with with about 14X15 feet of water surface visible, and the over-hang will give the fish more cover too.