Ross.. yeah, I love watching my goldfish lazily swim about - when the water is dark and they are near the surface they are so distinct, floating. Great to photograph. I've been off drawing in Xara for a while but now I feel a fish coming on..

No Koi here (theyre banned, hazard to NZ trout fishery) but goldfish grow to the size of the pond.. (proportionally speaking) and my fish are now pretty big. Your tale of a biological filter sent me searching, and I found a how-to page at http://www.fais.net/~blondie/filter/biofilter.htm

Interesting read about PEI. I know an itty bit about Newfoundland after reading E Annie Proulx's novel set there, I've read all her books. (love the line about sitting in the cafe watching the icebergs 'clink' out in the bay..)

When I was a kid I read and reread all Hammond Innes books which often were set in British Columbia etc, and had a childhood dream to visit those wide, treed, snowy places (only trouble is, I had the thought that what happened up there was innes-world ie: hydro dams were about to burst, secret agents were blowing themselves and bystanders up, egomaniacs plotting world domination etc..)

Well now as a wiser(?) adult and now a skiing addict, I'd love to go for le ski

Q.