Monday 16th, after our lovely visits and Andy's birthday

The house seemed very empty after Michael and Pine left, but we had to wait just one day before Annie and Charlotte arrived.  They were able to break their journey to Newcastle and also on their way back from there, so we had them with us Friday and Saturday night.  It was so good to see them after such a long time.

Charlie took some great photos on Sunday morning:

Georgie is posing for the camera here.  It looks as if he's started moulting.

Michael and Pine really started something when they arrived with a large glass full of meal worms, in no time at all ducks and drakes got hooked on them.  Our 10 [Captain and his 4 are indifferent to them by comparison] seem to associate this new-found delight with visitors  -  it was so funny to see them running up to Annie and Charlotte in hope for goodies when they arrived on Friday afternoon, they'd never done that before.  

I had ordered a fresh load of meal worms from "wigglywigglers" which had arrived the very next day.  So, in order to get this lot posing for Charlie with the camera I threw them some handfuls ... SUCCESS!

Note how Jay-Z and Joseph, standing up in the background in the last two photos, try and appear nonchalant about the frantic searching for worms.

Captain and his gang were not neglected, either, but the girls stayed in the water with Captain proudly looking on:

Returning from the big pond Charlotte took several photos of the blossom everywhere and we stopped at the bottom of the orchard to look at the snakeshead fritillaries [they've been blooming since the end of March!].  The mob heard us and came rushing up in expectation of more meal worms:

Charlie took several photos of our house and the 10 ducks and drakes in front of it.  I found it hard to choose which one to put in here, and finally opted for these two:

                              

Sadly I had to wave bye bye to Annie and Charlotte shortly after these pictures were taken, but the pill was sweetened when - just as their car was pulling out - I saw Bless having a bath in that tub our big white one had made such good use of.  I just had to laugh then!

In the picture on the right you can see Joseph top left having a lie-down with Beyoncé/Praline.  Since he's hurt  his leg I've often seen one or other of the girls keeping him company, and wondered if he's just a popular chap with the ladies or if they know he can't bother them much while he's limping?         We had seen a great improvement in his walking from day to day, Michael and Pine noticed it too, but yesterday he must have hurt it again [overnight in the hut, perhaps?] and his limp was worse once more.  He gets medication every morning, I'm sure he'll be as fit as a fiddle again before long.

Also in the same photo top right you can see our big white one in the frog pond  -  during the last few days we've seen several of the group splashing about in there, the frog spawn has disappeared [sunk to the bottom, tadpoles?].

I LOVE this photo, Billie-Jean flapping her wings, you can even see the water droplets!