I thought it was a bit early in the year for ducklings to arrive but this mother duck had 7 of them. Here they are trying to all have a bath in the same tiny puddle, perhaps they should have gone to the cemetary in my last post - no shortage of water there. However these ducks were out waddling by the river Avon which runs through our city. It has astrong current round this particular part however.
If you click on this photo to make it bigger (ah if only everything was that easy!!) you will see Ms Duck and her family waddling up to the River Punters. For a mere $20 per adult and $10 per child they could have had an hour of fun on the river, saving their wee waddley legs. The mother duck actually let us get quite close to her and the family, my daughter was thrilled.Further along we found this statue, photo of which blogger has kindly put in the wrong place and is steadfastly refusing to shift. So, you get his story first, this young man had the misfortune to die 19 days before the Armistace, but somewhere in France he lyes in a grave yard.
The statue is quite good, and there was hardly any bird poo on him at all which I think is rather a nice touch of respect. Has anyone ever seen his Other resting Place? Does anyone know anything more about him? He looks rather handsome in his statued state. Those leggings must have taken ages to put on, not to mention keep up!
The statue is quite good, and there was hardly any bird poo on him at all which I think is rather a nice touch of respect. Has anyone ever seen his Other resting Place? Does anyone know anything more about him? He looks rather handsome in his statued state. Those leggings must have taken ages to put on, not to mention keep up!
For some reason, blogger is also refusing to upload music clips from YouTube. If youo have any advice on that I'd be pleased to hear it. In the meantime, click on here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUsUigWw19A
13 comments:
It looks like fine weather for ducks, but punting? Although it is encouraging to see the cushions and blankets at the ready. Some hot toddies might sweeten the deal.
Hi Louciao, I agree! And I would probably need more than one hot toddy as well! Any excuse really. Actually, there is a rugby player here (now a coach) who we used to say was a hot Toddy...follwo the link and see what you think!)http://static.stuff.co.nz/1233108507/279/545279.jpg
I always feel slighly disoriented when you mention the River Avon as Stratford upon Avon is just down the road from me and the River Leam that runs through my home town is actually a tributary of the Avon... we're practically neighbours!
Bunnies are my favourite creatures but ducks probably come next. I'll sit and watch ducklings for ages - well it is an excuse to lurk in pub gardens for beer too!
I am not using Blogger anymore but when I did I found that photos were easier to move around if you switch to html mode and just copy the code. Dunno about the youtube though - just sounds like blogger has it in for you!!!
Re: the hot Toddy--Yeah, I'd let him keep me warm as we were punted down the Avon, swilling our hot Toddies, watching out for baby ducks and stirring war memorials, humming old tunes to ourselves. Sounds like it would be a great day, in spite of grey weather....Unless he had something else in mind.
Blogger has a mind of his own, doesn't he?! To trick him, I purposely enter pix in the wrong order for them to come out correctly. Even the captions have to re-worded craftily. Those babies are too cute! Great photo! I like the "Welcome Aboard" sign for them! The monument looks brand new--this is a sign of respect. Friko from Shropshire, England, asked me again for your blog address, so she's definitely on her way! Best, Margaret
Hi Sagittarian, Margaret Pangert pointed me in your direction, apparently you come up with drinks ideas worth copying? I found one already, a yellowish drink in a tall glass, which sounds heavenly but is possibly a bit too labour-intensive to prepare for a large party.
Love the ducklings, it's not too early here for a new brood, we had ours a while ago and they're almost grown.
Cheers!
P.S. Blogger messes my pictures around too, I've got to post them in the wrong order for them to make sense. Anything to be done?
Steve - you'd be the right kind of neighbour for us mate!
RB - funnily enough there are quite a few bars along this stretch of River! I'll get them in, hurry up and get here!
Louciao - I'm fairly certain that once you got his mind of rugby he would probably be able to think of something else!
Maragret - blogger and I may well come to blows soon! Thanks for the referral! I see Friko has arrived at the party.
Friko - welcome. If it's a quick "hit" you're after, you can't go wrong with a glass of bubbly, with a spot of lime and brandy....works everytime!
I remember how tame some of those ducks are. When we lived in the city across from the river, there was an old woman who used sit very still on the bank. She had an umbrella, & she used to lash out with the handle, quick as a flash, & bag a duck, & hurry off with home! We supposed she ate them!
Ducks, and ducklings, are just the cutest things to watch!
That statue is rather nice - how heartbreaking to have gone through all that hell to not make it home with so little time left to endure.
Hi Sagit ! I'm late, I'm late... read this yesterday, but had to run to work, wanted to check the map for where Sgt Nicholas is buried...
Anyhow, this is a post that has a very high level of BDAF (that's Baby Duck Appeal Factor for the un-initiated)... :-D
So I checked the map for the village where the sign says he's buried, funny, I was up there not too long ago tracking down the grave site of another person who died one week before the Armistice, a gentleman named Wilfred Owen, who is buried in the town of Ors, very close to where Nicholas is buried... may just have to run back up there and take a gander... wanna come ??? Any plans to travel to France anytime ?
Don't drink too many of those tall glass drinks now, ok, even if it is the weekend...
You were lucky to get so close to the ducklings, Sag.
There seem to be quite a few glitches with Blogger right now.
Meggie - I love hearing stories like that and I bet you're right, she probably did eat 'em!
Violet - Mother Duck seemed wuite happy for us to take the photos and get quite close in doing so. Mind you, she didn't move very far off while we were about!
Owen - oh, if you find the grave you must put a photo of it on your blog! I'd love to nip over to france but am just enjoying work and winter here far too much!
Villager - I was amazed that my daughter was able to keep still near the ducklings, even the mother duck didn't seem to mind us being there.
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