From baby pool to swimming pool

We had a mysterious and somewhat scary happening last night:

Yes, I know, you can't see much in this picture.....  It was just before 10 when there was a thunderous noise overhead, we thought a plane was about to crash.  But no, it was a police helicopter which hovered above our field for ages and ages.  Then it changed position and hovered over the farmer's field next door, then above the road, it went on for a good 20 minutes.  Then it finally went off with a great deal of noise.  I took 3 pictures which unfortunately show no more than a couple of lights.  We have no idea what it was about, whether there was an escaped convict they were looking for or whether travellers were trying to move to an illegal site, we know not.  And even though all of Coleorton was talking about it today, nobody is any the wiser.

So it was an exciting evening yesterday, but today was at least as exciting.  I know that all of you who look into this blog like to see photos - so I'll give you a treat, 20 of them!

It starts with those taken during the coffee break this morning.  I'd just thrown a handful of chick weed into their baby pond when dog Alfie [not Carl's!] and owner came down the drive.  PANIC, and they raced to their shed:

After they'd had a little sleep we thought we could introduce them to the little pond, and lured them there with their food saucepan containing cucumber chunks:

 

I think it's brilliant the way the black one top left is hanging on to its piece of cucumber!

This is my favourite photo out of this lot, the splashing and diving had just started.  I did a little video of this scene as well, but it stopped after a couple of seconds as the batteries wanted changing.

I can report that they returned all by themselves:

Later this afternoon we got a couple of hefty showers.  I drove them into their shed for protection but they wouldn't stop in:

While sitting at the computer I usually stand up every few minutes to check if the little ones are ok.  Half an hour ago, I was nearly finished with this blog, I could see no ducklings.  Where were they, in their shed?  No, in the pond!