Audley End

We went to a garden show at Audley End.  The show was okay, but we would have liked more "show gardens".  The street food vans were better: I had a very meaty tasty duck wrap.  We didn't go in the house, but we did walk round the gardens.  There was a large kitchen garden with vegetables, and more espalier apple trees than you could shake a stick at.  But for me, the best bit was the woodland walk, with some great trees.

book review: The Rook

Daniel O'Malley.
The Rook.
Head of Zeus. 2012

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Myfanwy Thomas wakes up in a London park surrounded by bodies, with no memory of who she is, or how she got there. She needs to find out in a hurry, as unknown people are trying to kill her. She has three advantages: letters from her previous hyper-efficient self explaining the situation, a senior position in a sinister secret organisation, and superpowers no-one believes she can use.

It is difficult to categorise this, but I enjoyed this immensely. The puzzle of what is going on, explained in turns by the letters and Myfanwy’s own investigations, is interesting. The sarcastic tone of the protagonist as she encounters her colleagues’ attitude to her previous timid self, and the increasingly bizarre situations and revelations, make this in turns intriguing, a little scary, very funny, and occasionally a bit gross (in a good way).

The single off note for me is that this is written in the third person, but from the style I kept feeling it should be first person. But I assume the author knows best.

Just as I was finishing this, I was delighted to discover a sequel had just been published. Reader, I bought it. On the one hand, I don’t have to wait the five years that readers who discovered The Rook in 2012 have had to wait. On the other hand, can O’Malley keep up the clever and bizarre content? I do hope so.

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For all my book reviews, see my main website.

attacked by eagles

You couldn’t make it up.

from BBC World News

The 18 metre (50 foot) inflatable duck suddenly collapsed on Tuesday, only 11 days after it had been put on display in the port at Keelung

Organisers are unsure as to the cause of its demise, but one theory is that it was attacked by eagles.

The duck was designed by the Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman to be a giant version of a popular bath toy.

Last month a similar duck was damaged elsewhere in Taiwan, when an earthquake triggered a power outage that caused it to deflate.

A third Taiwanese duck was brought ashore in September because of an approaching typhoon.

If nature is deploying eagles, earthquakes, and typhoons in its defence, maybe this is a signal that we should rethink 18 metre yellow rubber ducks?

sun pillars and ducks

Another glorious sunset tonight, with super colours and delicate cloud patterns.

Just how good it was wasn't clear until we moved so that the tree was no longer in the way, though.  Then we could see a glorious sun pillar -- much clearer than the previous one we saw. (And again, it was much brighter in reality than it appears in the photo.)

sun pillar, Sat 25 May 2013, 21:14 BST

After a day of relatively warm sunlight on the patio stones, the ducklings, now down to 10 in number, have decided to roost immediately outside our French windows.  They are oblivious to us inside, standing a foot away from them, taking photographs.

the one on the left is some sort of rugged individualist

farewell, Jedi Day

All eleven ducklings returned to roost tonight.

10 in a flock, plus an outlier

The photo was taken at about 8:40pm BST, as it was getting dark.  So the shot has been brightened, to make it light enough to see the ducklings, which is why it is a bit grainy.

There's a slight pinkish tinge to the water.

That's because the sky above looked like this:

click to give that full screen effect

This shot has not been shopped at all (apart from being cropped).  The sky really did look like that!

still eleven

Eleven ducklings came home to roost tonight.  They are getting bigger, and don't clump together so closely, which makes them a lot easier to count, if not to photograph.

(click to embiggen)

eleven

It seems that this year's ducks are not maintaining the 100% survival record of last year's.

oh no, not again

So much for chasing off the ducks to stop them breeding in our pond...

two ducks a-perching

It's spring (in time of year, if not in temperature), and the local ducks are starting their attempts to make more ducks.  We try to discourage them doing so in our garden, as we don't want to watch the effects of nature red in tooth and claw on the resultant ducklings. (Although last year's autumn crop did all survive to adulthood, amazingly enough.)

So, when ducks land on the pond, we chase them off.  The last pair I chased did their usual amazing almost vertical take-off, quacking loudly and indignantly.  Then, instead of disappearing into the distance, they landed again, on the neighbour's rooftop.

I didn't realise ducks were perching birds.

all gone

A faithful cohort of four ducks stayed with us over the New Year.  But yesterday evening none returned.  So we are, again, a duck free zone.  No more early morning quacking to wake us!

four

The flight continues, and we currently are down to only four ducks in our pond.

seven

Only seven ducks returned this evening.

They spent some time splashing around, zooming up and down our pond, practising flying (above and below water).

flying underwater

They are still very much behaving as a flock, all splashing, swimming, or preening together.

a more contemplative moment

And we're now convinced the missing members have merely flown off on their own.  The zooming across the pond resulted in some definite flight-like moments, and one of the ducks actually did fly, albeit awkwardly, up out of the pond.

getting ready for bed

and then there were nine...

Last week I discovered why the ducks may have survived so long. As I was coming home one day I saw a neighbour sitting on his front doorstep, surrounded by ducks, feeding them.

Despite that, this evening there were only nine ducks in the pond (it was too dark to photograph them, but we counted carefully).

Maybe two have learned to fly, and gone elsewhere?  Maybe a cat, or a car?  Maybe an early Christmas lunch being prepared?  Who knows?

11 ducks a-swimming

Although the ducks look full-grown, they can't yet fly.  They are practising, by zooming back-and-forth across our pond, wings flapping wildly, but not quite effectively.

a tranquil moment

They roost beside our pond each night.  The "dawn chorus" of loud quacking, right under our bedroom window, is not so much fun...

put the cat among the ducklings

The eleven ducks returned to our pond this evening.

The neighbours' cat was fascinated.

"How do I get dinner without getting my paws wet?"

But once it realised it was out of luck, it pretended indifference in a very cat-like way.

"I'm just sitting here."

The ducks, meanwhile, enjoyed their splashing about, practising for when they can fly.

wheeee!

Then they settled down to preen, and then roost for the evening.  Here you can clearly see there are still eleven.  (Mother has now forsaken them completely, it seems.)

time for bed

all the ducks on a row

Well, not all of them: here's just four of the nearly fully grown ducks, preening on our patio after an energetic swim.

Don't worry that there are only four shown; all eleven are still going strong:

This was the view after a lot of energetic swimming, splashing, and diving.  First, however, they needed a bit of an ice-breaker, as the pond was still frozen in places.

Mother arrived afterwards, paying a flying visit.

come on in: the water's lovely!

Eleven ducks, fledged, wing feathers now nearly fully grown, plus their mother, were mobbing our pond today, bobbing, ducking and diving, swimming under water, and having what generally looked like a great time.  Then most decided to get out and preen.  One lonely guy still wanted to play. (Okay, I admit it, I anthropomorphise somewhat. I also provide commentary.  I blame Johnny Morris.)

ten watch one: the colours are a little off, having had to compensate for the 4pm twilight gloom

nearly full grown

The eleven ducklings are now nearly full grown, if not yet with their adult fledge (they still have stubby fluffy wings). I continue to be amazed by their survival.

11 ducklings a-swimming

11 ducklings, plus mum

my, how they've grown

Another week, and bigger ducklings.  Still eleven of them (although a little harder to count in this picture), which is amazing, given the number of cats who prowl our garden.

21 days later

The eleven ducklings born in October are all still all alive, amazingly enough.  They've progressed from "toddlers" to "teens", and are still enjoying our pond in the autumnal sunshine.