Japanese Garden Feeding the Koi

On Wednesday, Wren and I went to the Seattle Arboretum Japanese Garden to feed the koi. I have been meaning to go for a few weeks and am lucky I did because it was one of the last days they were selling fish food. Apparently, as the water temperature drops the fish go into a kind of hibernation (metabolism drops) and they eat little.



When we arrived sun was breaking through between huge purple mountains of cloud. Wren ran straight to the bridge and I game him small handfuls of food for the fish waiting under the bridge. He loves feeding them - there are also Koi at Swansons nursery and we get really close to them there and he tries to touch them. Here, he stood and chatted about the fish for about 20 minutes, carefully dropping pellets of fish into the water.





Eventually, I managed to persuade Wren to walk around the garden. It is a beautiful place, very tranquil and ordered. Unlike English country gardens or most of our gardens, the aesthetic is controlled and everything non-essential is removed, shaped or pruned in a way as to reveal the intrinsic form of a plant, moss, a rock or a puddle. This makes it very satisfying for a toddler - its a series of dioramas: little river, beautiful rock, hidable bush, bridge and fish. Wren did not respect the paths as much as he should and tried to hide in shrubs along the way. He hid in this one before finding it too small:



Inevitably, we returned to the bridge for more fish feeding (a second bag of food). This time, a hungry duck decided his odds were better OUT of the water. Wren did not like this. He said "Duck, go back IN. Duck IN. Duck DOWN." I waited to see how close the duck would come and the answer is VERY close. It ate from my hand for a while then I pushed it back into the water with my hand, causing wren much satisfaction. "Duck go down. Duck go down." he repeated.


We completed the circuit around the little lake (Wren calls it a "bath" - as in "fish in bath?" or "Duck go in bath!" by then, Wren was yawning and I pushed him back to the car at a jog as the rain started to fall heavily. We were lucky to catch a little sunny hour in the day.


No nap?
On they way home, Wren fell asleep in the car but woke during transfer to his bed. For the first time in his life he had no nap yesterday (well, only 10 minutes). He was quite distraught by 7pm and he went to bed early. Due to his head cold (yes Wren has a head cold) he has been waking during the night and getting up early but he did OK considering. He woke at midnight, 5am and up at 6.20am. I hope he naps today for Heather. I was a wreck by 5pm and even forgot Wren's soccer ball when we took Frost to soccer practice.

Remodel update
The flooring, Marmoleum, was delivered today. Installation will be next week.