The mallard boy is still hanging around, I saw him along with a cock pheasant and his three ladies in the vegetable beds first thing this morning. When I'd finished replenishing all the water buckets there was suddenly a huge commotion at the duck pond, the noise went on for ages. At first I thought it was cat alarm, but a thorough search produced no cat. One of our workmen, however, had seen the mallard flying in and I'm sure that must have been it.
A little later the mallard was taking his place in the "queue" for the food container, and although he was being hassled initially they soon just let him be:
I'd been digging a shrub out at the top of the long border in order to make room for re-planting last year's Christmas tree before it dies. The Welsh girls spotted me and my spade immediately and soon brought the rest of the troupe to join with their delighted worm noises. There were there a long time after I'd gone back into the house:
The builders encouraged John to get on with some of the painting while the scaffold is still up and they are occupied with laying the upstairs floor boards [the roof tiling will be done on Monday]:
The ducks are quite at home with the workmen, they come very close to them and have also re-conquered the frog pond.
In this photo their heads suddenly popped up because of a sudden loud noise on the site, otherwise they follow their normal routine undisturbed.
Yesterday we had Spaghetti Bolognese for lunch, and of course I cooked extra spaghetti [without salt, as ever, because that can damage their kidneys] for our little gang of flat-footed friends.
.... and then I managed to get a brilliant snapshot of three of them kicking their paddles wildly to reach the bottom of the frog pond:
Finishing yesterday I managed to get a shot of 2 of the workmen up on the roof:
What a great blog today. The mallard is obviously one of those pushy types with no manners completely unfazed by the fact that this is a private dining facility. Love all the pictures and am astonished by how much progress has been made.
ReplyDeleteYes, that handsome little lad does not seem at all bothered by attempts to push him out of the way ...
ReplyDeleteWaiting for duck-bedtime [around 5.15 - 5.30 at present] yesterday I used the tall steps to clamber into the upstairs 'studio' of the extension, the floor underlay is down now waiting for the floor boards. And I was THRILLED at that new room, I could picture the few bits of furniture in it and debated what lighting to have in it. And the view ....... is just as I had hoped! Will take photos this afternoon when it has stopped raining, hopefully -
Nice pic of the tri-bottom-up mutts!
ReplyDeleteYes Carl, I was really chuffed with that picture - those little paddles were going like bees' wings!
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