August 1 - Yesterday, john saw a beautiful dragon fly with two bars on each of his wings. john thinks he must have been a captain on a secret photo-recon mission ... maybe NOT! john has seen a dragon fly like this one before; only last time the dragon fly had white bars across his wings rather than black.

john is thinking of adding these bars to the dragon fly in a painiting he is currently doing. The duck will be looking at the dragon fly flying just about the stream. Here is a reference photo of what john is trying to paint, sans dragon fly.

There are four ducks that have been growing up at zenpond with their mother. They are now six weeks old, and have developed rather large wings. They are practicing "tippy-toeing" and "hydroplaning". These are two steps they go through while learning how to fly. "Tippy-toeing" is when they flap their new wings while standing in place. "Hydroplaning" is when they swim so fast, while flapping their wings, that they actually lift themselves above the water for brief periods.

Here is a photo of three of them grazing in the cascade waterfall a few minutes ago:

August 31 - It has been a long time since this page was written to. What have john and joyce been doing all month to keep this from happening? It has been very hot outside, so not much work has been done on zenpond this month. john has gotten out very early in the mornings and built a new gate. joyce has trimmed and weeded in the early mornings.

john mainly has been painting his fourth painting. It is about half way done, and is taking tons of time to paint! It is based on the first photo at the top of this page.

john and joyce cannot believe tomorrow is the first of September and Monday is Labor Day.