Some of the koi ponds of Niigata, Japan
{{!gwi}}

Northern Pintail.

I love your red heart bush. Very creative.

Moni

Cool bush! And beautiful duck. I've never seen anything like the koi ponds.....love the mist.

I don't think I've posted this before: me with my first baby, Suzanne. Probably in 1974.

6 to 8 inches of snow predicted here for the next 24 hours.
This from a couple years ago.

Ron

A completely not happy, feeling humiliated, Bud the Grinch.

taigen! Great idea. All good photos this morning. jasdip, I almost bought a similar outfit for my cat yesterday at CVS for $4 but decided not to. Now wish I would have. Cute.

Susan, those ponds belong to the koi breeders of Northern Japan. I used to do travel for many small groups of koi buyers every spring and fall, hubby and I collected and raised Japanese koi. Sadly, many of those ponds were broken and many of the fish killed during the earthquakes of 2004 and 2007. At least in 2007 most of the fish were in their winter quarters, tho many perished there as the fish houses collapsed.

Colorado Springs, Palmer Park

At the Salvation Army bike build today. The local bike club comes out in force, to put ~650 bikes together today. I was there from 9 till it was over... at 3:05 PM. More will follow the next few days. Here, Dannie, one of the project co-coordinators tells people to bring any spare parts they find in the boxes to his bucket!

{{!gwi}}

Moni, what a wonderful project for the Salvation Army and all the volunteers to do! I believe that every child is born with the right to have a bike of their own.

How sad, Lynn.

Moni, how does that work? Are these new bikes that need to be assembled? Or is some other process going on? I'll mention it to my daughter for her bike club.

The local Salvation Army has been giving bikes to kids, that requested them on their lists. Well, families that are on their giving list. Our club has put the bikes together for several years now. This is the fifth year I am a part of this. Thankfully we now have a heated facility to do this in. We unloaded the trucks about a month ago. Now, the bikes came out of the boxes and needed to be put together. Yes, new bikes that need to be assembled, and aired up. Unfortunately we also have several totally unskilled volunteers, and all bikes need to be double checked for being sound and safe. Some of us, including me do that chore.

It was a busy day.

Our club also raises funds to put a helmet with each bike!

Moni

Thanks, Moni--a worthy activity!

John (our website and membership person) told me, the camera would take a picture every two minutes.. and it is made in to a movie.

You can see, how more people to help arrive, and then later, they clear out. Very fast moving pictures.

Here is a link that might be useful: putting bikes together