November09
Tuesday, 3rd Rosi Ostkamp's birthday
The beautiful October autumn weather broke on Sunday with a thick blanket of wet all over the country, and with storms! I felt very sorry for the people who got flooded out.
We didn't suffer in that way, we just got wet and blown about. The ducks don't mind the wet at all, they're back to making lovely mud puddles and to nibbling the vegetables near the pond like the beetroot here:
Strong winds, however, do seem to frighten them. While I was filling the water buckets some really strong gusts swept across the pond, and all 11 huddled in the least windy 'corner'.
Nearly all leaves are off the trees by now, but the nasturtiums are still giving a decent show - until the first frosts, I suppose, when they'll turn to mush. I notice that the ducks HAVE nibbled them now; it took them quite a while to acquire the taste. And the oregano I planted around the pond has also been chomped, it's all to the good, but I wish they'd eat the nettles, they're also good for them!
There's not too much colour left in the garden now, but my cotoneaster "chair" near the house is looking pretty ...
Wednesday, 18th November 2009
Most of this year I seem to have spent apologizing for very few entries, and November is no different. It has been a very busy time in the house, though, with alterations and new furniture; it's even stopped me from going into the garden which is looking very neglected. But never mind, it'll all sort itself out in the end!
The weather has been pretty atrocious with heavy rain and storms and dark mornings and evenings - what can you say, typical November. The ducks are still spending all their time on and around the big duck pond, but something has changed since last year when they used to separate into their bedtime groups down there. Around 4 o' clock now they ALL troop up to the little pond behind the garage to spend their last half hour of daylight there and we sometimes have to urge them to split. Anabelle with her brown colouring kind of disappears in the dark. NOBODY has been to the frog pond since I cleaned it, but I'll bet that will change as soon as there's frog spawn in it next year.
The "fortified" pond edge is now looking the worse for wear; not only the nasturtiums, mint and oregano have been nibbled but also the big turves of grass. The plastic mesh and the pegs I fastened the turves down with are showing up rather badly - I'll have to think again what to do.
Since it has got a little colder I've had to double the food rations for the ducks because there never seemed anything left at night and I've sometimes had to bring extra. I can see from the house though that all the cold season helpers have returned - pheasants, mallards, waterhens, pigeons, crows, squirrels .......... I could go on!
With being so busy in the house I've not taken many photographs, either, but I did get one of the visiting mallards in a couple of photos last weekend:
Sunday, 29th November 2009
November is nearly finished, so I have to hurry to get another entry in. I'll do a summing up.
All 11 continue to spend their short days on and around the big duck pond but they separate into their two groups more easily at bed time.
The 3 boys are still showing off to each other, rising as high in the water as they can to show how big they are, and they make sure their girls are always with them. The girls have quite lengthy fights still. I noticed that Rellchen comes in for a lot of stick, both Anabelle and Fanny have been really nasty to her.
Big Hedda has discovered she can fly, on 25th November [Hildegard's birthday] she took off from a standing position and flew right into the pond when I got too close to her while filling the water buckets. She had another go today when I was trying to direct everybody to go to the top pond because all the food at the bottom had gone.
Yes, I still have to double their rations - it's all those "helpers"!
Practically every morning I see 'our' mallard lady by the duck pond, either on her own or in company with 1, 2 or 3 drakes. One morning, before I'd let the ducks out, I heard exceptionally loud quacking coming from the bottom hut, and I thought "surely Anabelle can't make that much noise from inside the hut." No, it was the mallard duck, and I'm sure she woke all the neighbourhood up!