September beginning

You can tell that autumn is on its way, new friendships are being formed and some animosities are coming to the fore.  The two black drakes are fighting each other for supremacy, handicapped Honey gets pecked at and Gertie is nasty to Anke.  During the day they split themselves into small groups of friends or even lie all by themselves........................... except in the evenings when I fetch them in for bedtime.  Nearly always 13 of them [Dotty and Gertie always stay in the enclosure now] are in the field or in between the "wild" areas near the bottom of the garden, and I drive them back either along the garage or through the orchard towards their shed where they stop to feed and drink and then separate, nearly always 9 into the duck shed and 6 into the girls' hut.

On Thursday John did the first bit of gardening for ages with the help of his grandson Sam, he dug up the roots and Sam picked up the tubers and put them into the cart.