Taking advantage of unexpected opportunities

And what fun that is!  It's starting to get cold at night and we'd had several hard frosts.  Our outside "water feature" is just a big plastic planter filled with water and a fountain...and one lone goldfish, the last survivor of the 15 or so we put in in the first place.  (We named him Norman Bates...)

After one particularly nippy night, I noticed Norman was sort of floating diagonally near the bottom of the pool, and whereas I know fish hibernate over the winter and have a kind of natural antifreeze, I wasn't sure our planter wouldn't freeze solid.  He's hardy, but not THAT hardy.

So be bought an aquarium and a pump and moved him indoors...

The unexpected by-product was that I can SEE him now --much bigger than I thought--and he's fun to draw.  Lots of quick ink and watercolor sketches the first day...

More careful studies with pencil and watercolor on the second...he's fascinating!  (My cats think so too...but we have the lid taped down, so he's safe.)

This required reorganizing the whole living room, moving things around to accommodate a sturdy flat surface for the aquarium, but you know what?  It was worth it!  A whole new world to sketch...

It's great for a summer home, but going to be pretty chilly, SOON.