Despite the losses described in the last few weeks, there have been some positive developments as far as the fish are concerned. On the balcony, the two tanks under the seats now present a host of colours and shapes. The one on the south had lots of tiger barbs put there some months back, but for a long time they stayed at the back, and it is only now that they gather at the front of a morning. Unfortunately I have not been able to capture a host of them, three or four usually, together, and I can only show first one, and then two, with the orange shade they carry with them, largely unseen, quite prominent.

The tank under the seat on the east went through a lot of problems as I have explained, but when I finally decided to confine it to little fish, it did quite well. I would have said very well, but in the last few days four and then five of the zebras, red and yellow, that I put there have vanished. How I do not know, but I suspect a predator, for there are no bodies or skeletons, and on a couple of mornings I have seen the faeces of a polecat on the walls of the balcony and the tiles of the roof.

But for a few weeks that tank presented a lovely sight, the red and yellow flashing around, while in the background were the five green tiger barbs and the one green barb that I had put in there, before zebras were added. And now they appear more prominent, when there are just a few zebras to distract the eye.

The first picture here shows the tank when it was dominated by the zebras, in the middle of last week. The next picture was taken earlier this week, and shows several green tiger barb (all five of them still there plus the one green barb that came with them), and then just two, but this is included because it shows a very thin yellow zebra (the red one being the usual size), who seemed to me to be ill on the day I realized four had vanished. He was on the other side of the tank but moved when I put my hand in, and swam about, but when the same thing happened the next day I thought he was not likely to last. And then on the third day he was not there.

The next picture shows the tank under the flowerbed on the east, an unusual one because the red fish there are prominent, whereas they are usually shy and leave the scene to the black mollies. One of the biggest of these can be seen at the bottom.

And finally I show again the angels which never cease to enthral me. Now I have a new phone, the pictures are better so that you can see several of them quite clearly, clustered near the back wall which is their preferred feeding spot.