ducklings galore

Busy first few days of May. 

I celebrated my birthday last weekend, it was a lovely day. I didn't have a birthday wish list but Richard found me something I love, a beautiful very light weight scarf made of very finely felted deep turquoise merino wool, with felted peacock feather eyes. It is light as a feather, so fine it is see through. Richard also made a delicious carrot cake and coffee, which (as per family tradition) was we had for breakfast. For lunch he made poached egg and steamed asparagus with very crispy streaky bacon. The teens missed half the morning... but went out flower shopping and I have not one but two nice bouquets to feast my eyes on. I spent some time sewing more t-shirts, listening to an audio book and planning what to buy with my birthday vouchers for two favourite shops. I went for a walk around Bingham's pond with my friend Karen There are so many ducklings! After more cake and coffee, I spent some more time on the sewing machine. Finally, Richard and I went for a five course tasting menu at our local restaurant, 111 by Modou. It was very, very delicious. Throughout the day,  I received several phone calls and many text messages, which was lovely, too. My birthday celebrations actually started the day before, with a phone call from Dorothy and Patrick, my blog friends over at The Frog & PenguiNN blog. They sang for me, I was very touched. All in all, I feel loved and cherished. A good feeling.  

I went duckling spotting pretty much every day last week (and this week). I can't get enough, the ducklings are ever so cute. As of Sunday, there were four mallard broods. I spotted a coot brood, too but no cygnets or tufted duck broods. There are many gulls and the mother ducks are very vigilant, mostly keeping the ducklings between the reeds, making it quite a challenge to spot them. 

In other news, Alistair informed me that he killed a spider because it stared directly into his soul. 

Thanks for visiting 😊