Blackberry blossoms

The blackberries are starting to bloom. It seems early to me, but I'm probably just lagging behind the calendar. Black locust is in full bloom too, and the catalpas should be coming along in another week or two. Though the honeysuckle and lilacs are past now, the air is still heavily scented, and especially so on a warm, still, and humid day like today.

We have baby swordtails (Xiphophorus helleri x) in the aquarium we've been struggling to get regulated. The water chemistry is still not right, but somebody popped out a brood anyway and at least five have survived. We did partial water changes today and Gary thinks the lift tube may not have been working. He believes he got it going, but we'll need to check again. If it's clogged at the base, that would perhaps explain the unexpected water conditions.

Need to get the guild newsletter done this weekend, today if possible, but other things keep popping up. This in spite of the fact that outdoor conditions are not at all hospitable to doing much needed work there. We even shut the windows and turned on the air conditioning for the first time this year.

Back to work...