There hasn’t been much change in pond life since we built our second pond. We’ve added some fish and have watched them grow. At Carrie’s urging (and perhaps subsequent dismay at my choices) we named the fish. I picked a “Swedish Fish” naming convention for the big pond which has five fish, two Koi and three pond comets. The pond comets are the offspring of the original residents of the old murk-filled pond we inherited when we moved here. One of these original fish was named Lefty as he was missing a fin that left him swimming forever counterclockwise. Lefty got eaten by a raccoon, but his three offspring survive in their raccoon-resistant deepwater pond. One of the three has many of Lefty’s characteristics and is named Vanster, which is “left” in Swedish. The other two pond comets are identical at least to humans and are named Mats and Kjell interchangeably (an inside joke – apologies to Mats). The Koi are named Gunnell, after our Swedish landlady in Jonkoping, and Ola after a business associate in Stockholm.

The smaller pond had three fish, one of which is an albino Koi named Edgar after Edgar Winters for what will be obvious reasons for everyone over 50. The other two fish are named Leon and Russell as I saw Edgar Winter in concert with Leon Russell at a small club (Filthy McNasty’s FM Station) in North Hollywood many years ago.

I say the pond had three fish as it now has at least seven. Someone had babies. Edgar was a recent addition and it is probably no coincidence that after just a few weeks with Edgar in the swim we have new fish. The assumption is that Leon and Russell are either both male, or both female, which means Edgar could be father or mother. Leon and Russell are similar in color and markings so we may never know who is whose. Edgar stays “Edgar” regardless.