Here are some pond pictures. The first is a tadpole along with a closeup.

Here are the goldfish, after just being fed. They're not usually at the surface, as they like to hide.

A shot of our first water lily. It is not quite open all the way.

Miscellaneous pond. I don't see anything terribly interesting to point out here.

This is the water lily opened up all the way. I'm glad I took this picture that day because the next day it did not open at all. We have another two flowers coming up; probably sometime this weekend. One is from the red plant and another is from the yellow, same as the one below.

We have tadpoles! I guess it's inevitable when you have a bunch of frogs hanging around your pond that you'd wind up with baby frogs, but it was still a nice surprise to see them for the first time this morning. We put in 6 goldfish (29 cents each) last week and yesterday was the first time we saw them. I think it's because of two things: the pond was very dark, almost coffee colored, and now it's clearing up; and I think that the fish hid down near the bottom for a while. It's very fun to sit and watch them. This afternoon I sat in my hammock next to the pond and fell asleep.

Today is Cheeseburger Day for Joe Stains, a Boston Terrier who went to the Rainbow Bridge this week. We had followed his blog for many years and always loved to read of his adventures, even if he was the world's biggest Yankees fan. We will miss him, and we didn't even know him in real life. So in honor of Joe, the dogs got to split a cheeseburger. The humans had salads.

Just plain, please.

The first two bites are gone.

Sitting pretty and waiting patiently for more.

A split second later, it was gone.

Watch those teeth, those are my fingers, Bobby!

Java loves cheeseburgers!

It reminds me of when Barney was having his eye problems. He had to have a keratotomy to make his eye ulcer heal, so afterwards I brought him to Burger King for the healing power of a cheeseburger. He loved it.

We planted the pond the other day. All the plants are in the water without pots, except for the water lilies. They need to be too deep, so we'll wait until next spring when we change the water in the pond to plant them. I'd need a scuba mask to plant them now. Ick. There was a little garter snake hanging out in the rocks watching us, or maybe it was after the frogs in the pond. We saw three different kinds of frogs in the pond that day. We're putting some goldfish in soon.

 

At some point on my trip, my camera started taking square pictures instead of rectangular ones. These are the last pictures of Venice and Murano that I took, from the plane as we were leaving. The picture above is Venice. You can see the Grand Canal as it snakes its way through the island. Also you can just make out San Marco square. I've highlighted them in the next picture:

Below is the island of Murano, on the right hand side of the picture, kind of cut off. The plane was flying too fast! You can just make out the lighthouse at the Faro vaporetto stop toward the middle of the bottom of the island.

This is what the lighthouse looks like close-up:

Last night I searched and searched for my ATM card. I had taken it out of my wallet when I was in Italy and left it in the apartment and it was still in the case where we kept it when we got home on Sunday. I saw it on Monday because I looked for it after I realized it wasn't in my wallet when I was in the grocery store earlier that day. So yesterday I went to use it thinking it was back in my wallet where I put it on Monday and it wasn't there. I searched and searched the suitcases and the places where I thought it was and couldn't find it. Finally we called the bank and reported it missing. They offered me a replacement either by mail or by walking into any branch. I chose to get a new card in person, as it would be faster. So as I'm sitting in the bank, waiting for the branch manager to make my new card, I take out my checkbook and what falls out? My missing ATM card! I was very embarrassed and I hope no one watches the security tape to see my shame.

Here are some of the horses I sculpted in the Lucio Bubacco class. My favorites are the blue one and the one we attached to the bead.

So we're home. The yard looks beautiful and there's a loud frog in or near the pond. The sad news is that Junior, our almost 12-year-old goldfish died while we were gone. If he's the only pet that meets his demise as a result of his trip I guess I'll be happy. (Barney was PTS right after a vacation and Pixel was PTS right before). Another semi-sad thing is that the robin's nest is down off the lamp near the front door. I'll miss them. It's good to be home but I'm exhausted. I just want to hit the sack.

 

Last night we took the vaporetto to the Accadamia stop and went to a fabulous restaurant for dinner. Robert had cuttlefish spaghetti. He loves squid ink! After dinner we went to a concert in a church. They played Vivaldi, Albinoni and Bach. It was beautiful. I couldn't help but think how much my father would have enjoyed it.

This morning, we ate breakfast and went to the San Toma stop on the vaporetto and walked around. We found a gondolier and he gave us a small tour. It was probably a very touristy thing to do but it was fun and we enjoyed it.

Getting in and out of the gondola was a little scary, as we had to cross over another parked gondola to get to the one we were taking. I thought for sure I'd end up in the drink.

After the gondola ride, we went to the Museum of something or other and saw an exhibit of Lino Tagliapietra's work. He's a very important Italian glass master who was one of the first to share his knowledge with American glass artists. He taught at Pilchuck for many years. His work is really pretty. I don't know if I was allowed to take photos so I snuck some:

After that we had lunch at Londra Palace, which was a place highly recommended by Martha. It was good. Robert had cuttlefish risotto this time. So he's had it three different ways now.

Now we're back at the hotel, gathering steam for this evening when we pack things up and get ready to leave for home tomorrow. It's very pleasant out and we're going to work on tomorrow's crossword puzzle while sitting on our roof terrace. It's sad to say good bye to Venice and especially to Murano. We've had such a good time. I can't wait to come back.

This is our hotel from the outside. This morning we had breakfast and walked to Piazza San Marcos to visit the basilica. It is decorated completely in mosaics, and most of it is gold.

Here you can see our room; the round window up top and the metal frame of the roof deck to the right.

This is the view from the round window. I can't get over it. It's so beautiful.

Between our hotel and the Piazza is the bridge of sighs. Look what they have done. It's abominable. The sides of the building are covered in advertising, so there is no way to take a picture of the bridge without taking a picture of the ads. Ick.  Bad idea, Venice.

So we got to the basilica, and there were no photos allowed. Everyone else was taking them, so I snuck a few, as well. I got caught once but they didn't throw me out.

This is the body of Saint Mark, "rescued" from a monastery in Alexandria.

Below are some pictures of the mosaics that line the ceiling. This is in natural light.

These  horses are from the second century, B.C. and were originally from the Hippodrome in Constantinople. They were outside the basilica for many years but were brought inside and replicas were placed outside.

Here is the inside of the basilica all lit up. They turn on the lights at 11:30 every day and we just happened to be there at that time. It makes a huge difference to see it all aglow. The gold is just beautiful. Plus after our visit to Orsoni yesterday, we know how they make the gold mosaic tiles.

This was our apartment building in Murano. Our apartment was the second floor, right hand side. It was very cute and comfortable. I loved that we had a washing machine. We were able to pack just half of the clothes we would need that way. Here are a couple of interior pictures.

The decor was blue and in each room, there was a beautiful chandelier.

The only thing the place lacked was internet. I think when we come back we would stay here again, only we would do something about getting a modem so I could  blog every day. It would have been much more convenient.

We had to move our suitcases in two turns. We each have one large suitcase, a smaller suitcase plus a carry-on and our handbag/daypacks. There was no way we would be able to maneuver all that luggage on and off the vaporetto and up and down the bridges we needed to cross. So we took our time and the afternoon to ride the vaporetto back and forth into Venice to check into our hotel.

When we got to the hotel, the clerk said we have the best room in the place. It's pretty cool. It is in what must have been the attic, and we have a roof terrace where we can sit and look down on the city. Here are some views of Venice and St. Mark's square in different lights from our roof: