Ducklings

Several ducks have found secret places to nest in the bog irises and one now has eight babies. They are two weeks old now and so far no losses. O have been carefully surveying the netting over their safe bog and mended all the possible crow entries I could find. The photo above is their first day. Mother made them wait till she was sure all were out of their eggs. Now if this works right the next photo should appear under the texts.
It's no good. It just won't upload the other duckling picture.

Duck update

The ducks have truly forgiven me for their winter incarceration and are inhabiting the garden like living garden ornaments.
The Muscovies have taken to exploring beyond my boundaries. I don't really approve as if she decides to nest secretly out there somewhere, she might get eaten and also I prefer to swap the eggs for normal duck eggs so that I don't have to find homes for about a dozen baby muscovies. My neighbour likes them going out on his land as ducks eat the snails that give sheep fluke. He calls them the fluke patrol.
One of the others is being a good girl and sitting in the prescribed place ie. in a box shelter down in their night time bog. There should be babies soon and then I'll post photos.

Spring has sprung

At last spring has come to Snowdonia. We have ewes popping lambs all over the place and the sun has been shining for a week. The field where of late I have been exercising the dogs has returned to its proper use as a maternity unit.

I'm teaching this week so don't have a lot of time but have managed to flatten the worst of Silver's ravages. Obviously it will require much deviousness to prevent her from reducing the lawn to a battlefield again. I have placed the dog jumps strategically across her original circle and will put some tubs of flowers at various points and move them as a new track starts appearing. At least she'll have pause and manoeuvre as she goes.
The ducks are enjoying life. One is sitting anf one Muscovy lady has vanished. I don't know if she has been eaten or found a nice secret place to nest. I hope the latter but wish she'd decided to do it inside the night time run.

Fixing paw damage at Bodyfuddau.

As the ground has actually thawed and a few daffodils are sprouting, my thoughts turn to the garden. The most urgent is to reclame the lawn I made last year and was so pleased with. Since Silver arrived she has, quite unconsciously, been turning my lawn into two circular race tracks as she zooms around in response to any excitement. The photo shows Silver looking innocent and wondering what all the fuss is about.

I bought some square grids that one can put just under the surface of the lawn in the worst mus spots. I have placed a few in the smaller race track round one of the raided flower beds with a large weldmesh on top till the ground settles a bit. Then I strategically placed a narrower section of weldmesh in a badly damaged bit of the large ciruit and filled below and above with earth and turf [retrieved fron Silver's attempt to build the great wall of China there. Now fingers crossed.

Ducks have relented

At last the remnants of the snow have gone from all the hills in the immediate vicinity and the sun has shone for several days.
One very welcome extra benefit of this is that the ducks have stopped sulking about the weather [they hate snow and will spend hours in the freezing stream rather than sit on it] and have started to lay. There is rejoicing all round as there are enough for friends who like them and also for me to sell at the market.
Also recently someone gave me another white drake who will hopefully turn out to be more effective than Sir Francis, who has not produced a single offspring in two years.
The gentleman in the picture above is long gone, not Sir Francis. This is Llewelyn and here follows a poem about him and his family,

Feathered Paternity

Llewelyn Fawr is very grand

And knows exactly how to stand

To look imposing,

Which is most important to a drake

Who needs the ladies to impress

And to have a harem

Of enthusiastic mother ducks

For future generations’ sake.

His feathers are a gleaming white

And his beak canary yellow.

His wings, though not in use for flight,

He cleans with infinite care,

Feather by flawless feather.

His feet are golden triangles

That plod majestic through the mud

Like shoes of magic leather.

His wives are speckly coloured

With sapphire in their wings.

Much of their day they spend

Hunting for interesting things,

Snails and slugs and such delights,

Until, in need of change, they wend

Their way to pond or stream, upend

Themselves and dabble there

For frog spawn, fish eggs, dainty bites

To be found in mud below, while

Feet wave freely in the air.

At night the ladies to their nests repair

And lay their eggs all white or green

And hide them under leaves and grass

From beady eyes of crows who pass,

Searching like spy planes from the air.

Then comes the day, one gets the urge

And snuggles down upon the eggs,

With beak on breast, deep in feathers,

And sits for weeks midst yellow flags

Oblivious of inclement weather,

Just waiting till she hears a peep,

And one by one small beaks emerge.

When all are free of broken shells and dry,

She leads them forth in one long line

To float upon the stream, chasing flies

Invisible to human eyes,

Flashing, dashing everywhere,

Propelled by tiny feet

Under mother’s watchful eye,

Turned skywards lest hawk or crow

Descend upon her little fleet.

Llewelyn past them softly glides,

Bursting with parental pride.

Wheels at last

For over a week I have had no car as mine decided to burn out all its electric wiring. The garage said it was so bad that it was not worth trying to repair it and that I was lucky the whole thing didn't go up in flames, me and the dogs included.
So all this time Emma has been coming up every day with her dog, Rocky, and running them all in the field. She can run and can throw a lot further than me. So they've had a great time, but I have been thoroughly frustrated.
Yesterday my friends took me to see a nice little white van and now I have wheels. As I am supposed to get down to Carmarthenshire for my book launch on Friday, this is a weight off my mind. Also the dogs will be able to go to the forest again. The back of the can is all metal so Silver will not be able to chew it.

Creature Comforts

Locally we have one email swapshop and one freecycle. Someone on the latter gave me an enormous carpet with underlay and
everything. They are going to have a wooden floor so the carpet was unwanted, practically new and very thick. The first peoblem
was that the people who were giving it to me needed it out of the way quickly and simultaneously with being offered the carpet I
got snowed in during our last serious wether problems. Clearly even if I could get out I couldn’t lift it into my trailer so I sent out
an SOS to Julian and co. Although they live practically at sea level, this time they were snowed in too. Fortunately the people
were understanding and as soon as the snow there permitted the ganf set out with a trailer and Twm’s beloved landrover. Thus
equipped they got up my lane and piled it all into the dining room.
When the weather finally let up the whole family came and laid the carpet in the sitting room, which is now luxurious. My feet
hardly know themselves. The dogs like it too, especially as I spent a good part of Christmas making nice soft covers for their
beds. The carpet is a plain light salmon colour, not suited to 12 muddy paws, but fortunately the dogs usually head for the other
end of the house where they expect to find me, so they mostly don’t go in there with muddy paws.
There was a lot left over and at first I thought of the dining room but then I thought that, since the layout of this house is such
that the dining room is the main thoroughfare for humans and dogs, that seems asking a bit much of such a nice clean carpet. So
Emma and Phil came up the other day and laid it in my study and I now have warm feet while I work.
In the picture above, Dyfi has been awoken from his post-field nap and is wondering why I suddenly need to take a photo. It is to
show a bit of the carpet but doesn’t really do it justice.

Some days later Emma and Phil came and laid the rest of the carpet in my study. Now that is cosy too. What's more, because the combination of underlay and carpet is so thick my office chair does not slide back when I heave myself out of it. Things are really getting better around this house,