What a busy day!

I'm feeling very tired now and won't be long out of bed, but I did want to show you a pile of pictures I've taken just before and during Easter.

The beautiful and generous Easter parcel from Michael and Pine [I've sampled some nutty chocs and the first packet of Pfanni Knödel]:

 



It was lovely having Annie here for a few days and Ollie for the whole week while she was in France. As happy as he was here, he wasn't going to be left behind when Annie went back home!

                              [He looked so cute lying next to the car  -  and as soon as the camera was ready ...]

                                       The pair of wild mallards still visit every day, they look quite at home here. 

 

Today I got the mower out, you can see the tyre tracks in the photo above left where I turned many times and loaded the soiled duck bedding that was stacked behind the fence in plastic bags, and transported it to the top of the field, ready for burning. I moved 36, yes, count them, THIRTY SIX bags, most of them large ones. Gertie and Dotty had a great time picking up worms after I lifted yet another bag off the ground!

Driving up and down the field with the bedding and mowing as I went I was also able to have a couple of nice conversations with neighbours I hadn't seen in a while and who'd been very supportive of John and myself.

After emptying the last of the 36 bags I unhitched the little steel wagon from the mower near the old horse fence and mowed most of the field.  I also managed to break a couple more sections off the fence, the entrance to the field is much wider now:                                     

Twice I ran out of petrol - luckily I still had two cans stored in the garage.  When I'd parked the mower back in the garage and tidied everything away I noticed that the bolt connecting the little wagon to the mower was missing, but remembering where I had unhitched it I managed to find it lying in the grass after a short search.

You can see the tracks of the mower on the left, I flattened some of the mole hills with it as well!

The two new girls continue to do well, they are at the bucket in the little photo top right with Vera in front.

It's time the new girls had names I thought.  The little American fawn&white who is almost apricot coloured I decided to call April - that gets the month in as well as the colouration.  The trout runner is not so shy any more, I saw her leading the whole troup into the duck shed last night.  When I was weeding the diamond bed below she was quite close some of the time, and what I noticed most was the noise she was making when she didn't want to be bothered by the boys, not so much a quacking, more like the noise a crow would make.  So I've decided to call her Cheryl!




When I was walking by with a can of petrol after the first time I'd run out I saw the ducks lying almost in a circle, and thought what a pretty picture they made: