8/19/2008

Spring is early this year!

It's not the weather I'm talking about when I say that spring is early this year because, although it's not rained during daylight hours for the last two days, it's suppose to be below zero tonight [C, not F, thank the Lord].

The early spring is the arrival of our first ducklings for this year!

It was quite a surprise to see them on the pond this morning, so it was a quick snap of a pic before they were off again. Since they're early, we figure there will be at least one more brood, if not more, over the next few months for us to giggle over and feed.


Last year, we were pleased to have 8 of 12 that made it past infancy in one of our broods, but there are only six ducklings in this family. One of them is distinctively lighter in color than the other 5, so it will be interesting to see if he/she keeps those colors when the mature feathers come in.



Their arrival spurred us to 'furnish' the duck house with round stones for the family. The house is a pumphouse that Kevin converted specifically for the ducklings last year. [Ducky info: Mom warms up the rocks with her body heat so she can go for food without the babies getting cold].


BTW, that's my birthday bridge in the picture. The house owners built this...shall we say, inconvenient water feature at the edge of the pond. It takes up the walking space on the side of the house, so I mentioned that a bridge would be nice, and VOILE!! Kev worked out to have it built for me! Is that cool or what?!!


Hopefully, this will be the last cold snap of the season for me to complain about and we can get on with gardening and such. With the renegade daffodils and some crocuses [that we didn't plant] blooming, and the freesias, glads, rhodos, camellias and azaleas trying to bloom, it can't be to long before spring arrives. As always, we have unknown plants shooting up, so we will, once again, have some surpise arrivals.
I want spring!!

8/04/2008

Rainy day ramblings

It's still winter here and I'm so tired of rain. To keep from total boredom, I've been thinking about the garden  and trolling throught photos. Here are some thoughts on yet another rainy day...

If you got my email updates that preceeded the blog, you might remember that I fell in love with purple carrots. After some research by the googlemeister hubby, it seem that all carrots were originally purple. According to the fine folk at the carrot museum, http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/history.html , they are making a comeback all over the world! So, if you see some in the grocery store, try them!



I don't recall ever seeing a sink like this in the States. They make perfect sense for those small places. Mostly, I find them in public toilets, but also in houses with a tiny guest bathroom (ok, it's not actually a place to take a bath, as hubby points out, but it sounds so much better than 'toilet'). They can have a tap at each end and serve their purpose well.



I miss having a decent fried egg with sausage patties or links. Breakfast eggs are more like poached than anything else I can describe. When it comes to pizza, a decent substitute for Italian sausage is fried ground pork with Italian seasoning. I have looked up recipes and the main ingredients seem to be fennel and anise, but I can only find fennel. How sucky is that!

It seems that the dominant male duck for this year's pond rights is a polygamist. He has shown up with two females for a couple of months now. Since ducks mate for life, I'm guessing that the 'other' female has lost her companion somehow and this pair have allowed her to be a part of the family. Kinda nice to think about it that way, I think. If he is, indeed, this year's winner, I wonder if there will be two sets of ducklings.

All in all, in the last few months--since hunting season, anyway-- there haven't been nearly as many ducks as in the past. It makes for a quieter day, but the females are still bold enough to peck on the window when hungry. For some reason, that makes me giggle each time they do it.  Can't beat it for a cheap laugh!

WOW!! The sun is out!! I'll take advantage of the weather and look around the garden. I have lots of plans, muahaha.