Right, where was I? Oh yes...
I forgot to mention on Saturday that we tried to get to Maes Knoll (on the top of Dundry) for Kai to have a run before heading back: he insisted there was somewhere to park, but we couldn't find anywhere (typical SW country lanes, one car width with passing places every few hundred yards or so). Disappointing for him but nowt we could do about it. He's only ever walked there with Ken, so is perhaps mis-remembering the surrounding area... Scary moment on the way up there though, an exact repeat of what happened last time Carol drove up to Dundry. There's a steep T-junction at the church, and as we reached it a landrover, pulling a large white trailer, came around the corner rather fast... Carol swears it's the same landrover as last time - and indeed it may very well be. We pondered for a while if they post someone at the church with binoculars, watching for grockles driving up the hill, and at the given signal drive around the corner to give 'em a fright...
Yesterday we walked down to the Sunday market - very successful trip, got new trainers for me and Kai, new socks for Kai and Ken, and a small aquarium net (the old one had perished: I had to catch the Tetra of Immortality in a tea-strainer when I cleaned the tank. How undignified!). Pleasant walk there too, along the river path - until we got to the general vicinity of the geese...
Not that they were a problem, this time, though it's no fun if they're on the path side of the river, they're rather aggressive. But there were ducks a little further on... To start with we thought they were mating: there was a drake on another duck's back, his beak around the other's neck. Unfortunately neither of us thought to take a camera: the river is quite broad at that point, the water was low - ebb tide - and the banks are both high and quite steep, so the ducks were at a fair distance from us, so making out what was happening required a bit of squinting against the sun and peering down the bank.
After a few moments of watching it occurred to us that the activity seemed a little more vicious than normal, and Kai - I think it was Kai - piped up saying the duck on top was killing the one underneath. As it happened, that was
exactly what he was doing, forcing the other's head under water and trampling over its body. He got off after a while and although it looked to us that the other was pretty obviously dead, he got back on and trampled and pecked a bit more - to make sure, I suppose.
I never knew ducks were that aggressive! Carol thought perhaps it was a territorial dispute. Kai (who can be very gruesomely-minded, though I suppose it's his job, he's a boy) suggested they were black widow ducks - until I pointed out it was a male doing the killing, at which point Carol came out with black
widower duck (adding that that was actually a bit pointless...) [shakes head] It was certainly an interesting and unusual incident, for us, almost as much so as that time in Nightingale Valley when we watched a sparrowhawk catch a magpie in flight, drop down and drown it in the stream.
We had a cheese and biscuit picnic-lunch in the garden when we got back, and all caught the sun: glorious day yesterday! Dinner went down well, but I'd forgotten Carol sometimes gets bad headaches if she has cheese and chocolate on the same day, so we skipped the chocolate fondue (next time!) and had Galia melon and strawberries instead. Went down very nicely.
Think I'm going to stop using the Beconase for a while - I've had a persistent dry throat and irritating cough since I started, my sinuses are still blocked half the time, and really don't feel right. I'll stick with the honey for the time being (it's not too bad if I drown it in lemon juice in hot water) and see if that helps. [growl] Don't have time for this...
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Joules *Dances with Haddock* Taylor
pontificated this at 12:36 am
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