Letters from America

If you have a question you'd like to ask Mike about his experiences in the USA or want to share your own experience then please mail him at

Wintering Koi in New York State (December 2002)

The snow has driven me indoors for the day. There was about 4" overnight. Enough to paralyse British Rail for a week but here everybody went off to work as normal. But, there will be no gardening, no mall visiting and no cycling the back streets of Western New York for me today. So here I sit at the keyboard. I have several projects to get on with but its time I wrote to friends.

My part of the big Hosta book is finished. We selected about 1,000 slides before I left the UK and the editors and the co-author Diana Grenfell now have to decide which ones to use. Sadly I will say good-bye to the slides for the best part of next year.

Life here is really good. I travel quite a bit. I have been to Colorado. The Rockies were amazing - even though we were really only in the 'foothills'. We walked where there were signs telling us what to do if attacked by Grizzly Bears and if that were not enough later on and higher up there were beware mountain lion signs. A bit different to Epping Forest!

Last Saturday we drove to Hamilton, Ontario to a committee meeting of an Iris Convention (to be held in June) and I got put on the committee. Last night there was a Hosta club committee meeting and, yes; I got put on that committee too!

I have worked a little in the Garden. The frost is so deep here that heave and freezing pots are a big problem. In fact, if we want to keep half the garden alive we have to prepare it properly for the winter. I have therefore been shown how to mulch all the pots and I have been mulching the more vulnerable plants. We use Canadian Spruce mulch. Lighter and much cheaper than anything we buy in the UK.

Also most ponds under about three feet deep are likely to freeze solid so most people bring their pond fish inside for the winter. Ours are in a plastic tub in the basement. A bit of a rough diamond thing, but at the local garden centre come water garden centre they have a purpose built rubberised 150-gallon container that has airlines, a pump and filter system combined. I didn't ask the price but I took some pics to show you guys. Oh yes and they sell a contraption for floating in a pond to keep a space ice-free. That’s a good idea I thought. I need to tell the folks back home about this. While I was setting it up for a photograph I noticed "Made in the UK" stamped all over it!

Back to fish care in the winter. The big Koi keepers have ponds in their garages or basements to winter their fish. The one I saw last year was a huge plastic and glass thing about eight feet by six feet by four feet reinforced around the outside by railway sleepers but with a viewing gap about 2 by 2 in the front. This also had heaters, filtration, light and air. They take their Koi seriously here.

My talk to the Koi club is not until January so I will tell you about that then.

Hey, remember my H9STA registration? Well I have the use of a Ford Explorer four-wheel drive, four litre, tank-sized thing - and the registration!! Why 'HOSTAMAN' of course! Who’s a lucky boy then?

I am trying to think of a way of turning this American experience into notes for the Ilford newsletter and perhaps a talk but I can't find a hook at the moment.

Well that’s my news for now. Please keep in touch and tell me what’s going on. Love everyone. What has happened to the Hammers? I cry every weekend.

Take care my friends

Mike

A Visit to Denver Aquarium (January 2003)

I have however been able to visit a wonderful public aquarium. Whilst the Artistes Aquarium in Amsterdam might well be the best for the kinds of fishes than we keep and that Oceanarium in Rotterdam may have had some of the most amazing aquarium architecture, the Aquarium in Denver, Colorado would take a lot of beating as an all round aquatic showpiece.

It’s an almost brand new building and the public entrance is very large, light and impressive. Visitors are quickly faced with two choices: to take the right-hand entrance tunnel first, or choose the left. Denver has been very clever in that it does not try to exhibit all kinds of fishes from all parts of the world but concentrates on doing just two geographical locations and doing them well.

Walking through the right hand entrance, visitors are taken on a “River Journey” down the Colorado River from its source in the Rocky Mountains to its mouth at the Sea of Cortez in the Gulf of California. There is therefore ample opportunity to exhibit all the fishes from the various river types; from the cool fast running headwaters through the shallow valleys and deep canyons to the wide desert meanders. Many kinds of trout, bass, catfishes are displayed in bright aquaria as well as the amazing Desert Pupfish (Cyrinodon macularius), that apparently survives extremely harsh environments such as small isolated and often temporary ponds and desert springs. Here water temperatures fluctuate widely and salinity levels can be three times greater than that of the sea.

And not just fishes, ducks, birds and reptiles were also featured in a series of large landscaped aquaria, many with terrarium surroundings. There were even diving ducks in one of the aquariums. A very popular exhibit was a large river system, dammed by beavers and home to four or five rivers otters that gambled and play-fought with each other as we watched. Photography is not only permitted but Aquarium ‘journey guides’ were constantly telling me how to do it properly.

Once the Colorado reaches the sea there is an opportunity to display a huge variety of Pacific Ocean fish from colourful Wrasse to Angelfish and Puffers. There was a very good exhibit of seahorses with a great deal of useful information.

The second “River Journey” takes visitors down the Kampar River. This river quickly drops into an emerald tropical rainforest from which scores of species of fishes familiar to aquarium keepers can be found. Most of them were exhibited in aquariums and terrariums, some quite small and some very large. There were shoals of colourful Rasbora species and the gouramies and barbs were well represented. There was a large well-planted aquarium full of mature Rainbow fish species. Colourful parrots and myna birds flew above some of the large enclosures. The largest terrarium housed dozens of Tinfoil Barbs, Arowanas and Bala Sharks and a trio of beautiful Sumatran Tigers. Yes fully grown Tigers!

The Kampar River system reaches the sea via a mangrove forest, where many brackish water fishes were exhibited, and then flows into a peaceful Coral Lagoon. As you can by now imagine here were to be found huge marine aquariums full to bursting with every kind of colourful coral fish including various Butterflyfish, Angelfish and Triggerfish. There were also many invertebrates clearly displayed and the occasional scuba diver hand feeding the anemones.

No large public aquarium can survive these days without a ‘walk through’ aquarium containing sharks and rays. Denver is no exception. An exhibit that depicted life beyond the coral reef consisted of a very large aquarium with two walk throughs and several observation bubbles containing four species of shark and many of the larger less attractive Pacific dwellers. Nearby aquariums contained Stonefish and lionfish. Just before we left this River Journey there was a small, beautifully lit aquarium containing hundreds of small jellyfish that shimmered and changed colours in the current and the light. As we left this second exhibition there was just one more treat. A large open tank surrounded by cleverly designed cliff and rockwork contained two charming sea otters. They were resting after a long day entertaining visitors but still looked very cute as the floated on their backs and eyed us dreamily through half-closed eyes. Was it them or us who were on show I wondered?

Denver is an excellent modern aquarium that was a delight to visit. I appreciated both the friendliness and helpfulness of the large number of ‘journey guides’ who really knew what they were talking about and the clever merging of fishes, mammals, reptiles and birds within concise habitats. It’s a great pity to hear therefore that the facility may have to close due to poor receipts.