62 - The mystery of the floating log.

 Mr Waddles is elusive, but now I have a new resident who is not!

Jemima Puddle-Duck

 Meet Jemima.

 Being a Beatrix Potter fan, I   could not give her any other     name.

 I told you some weeks ago   something large had pushed   one of my logs into the frog pond, and I could not figure out what. Well, on a morning a week ago I disturbed a sleepy wild duck, who was floating in the middle of my tiny pond, head tucked away beneath a wing,  looking very much at home. She is properly wild though, so when I tried to sneak up on her she was awake in a flash and having none of it. She walked out, literally, as the water level is so low it only comes up to her belly, and hid behind my neighbour's kale.

Naturally she is welcome to stay, bring her lover to dinner, have her ducklings take their first dip in my frog pond. 

My son raised a duckling when he was twelve, he used to take her swimming in the large pond behind our house (he in his rowboat, she paddling madly behind), and she came back to our garden in spring for years, proudly showing off her ducklings. We recognised her by her slightly wonky right wing.

See, Jemima, I have duck history!

We rescued ducks, pheasants, crows, jackdaws, hedgehogs, a hawk, two swans (do you have any idea how large a male mute swan is?!) and the most amazing angora rabbit. Perhaps I'll tell you about him someday. In hindsight I realise we had wonderfully tolerant dogs! I often tell Puck about those dogs, but she only gives me the stink-eye. In her opinion a good dog makes certain nothing on 4, or 2 legs with feathers, is able to get within 10 metres of me.

It being Easter last weekend  I had the allotment mostly to myself, and risked planting out my many Digitalis alba plants. They had outgrown their pots, and were crowding the greenhouse, so I said right, outside with you. They immediately greened up my flowerbeds, hurray. They will not flower this year yet, I expect, but never mind, as long as they are green. And  my clematis had grown 3", so I had something to tie up, yay. Mind you, the seeds I had sown in between the verbena on my mound seem to be sprouting...fingers crossed. I have forgotten the name (what else is new), but it is perennial, and the same colours as the wallflowers beneath the mound. Who seem happy, by the way, good!

Whilst planting my Digitalis I noticed some potatoes showing their heads above ground, but not where I had planted my first earlies! Oh dear, some stowaways from last summer I think. I'll leave them be, green is green, and bar some weeds everything green is most welcome. And I ended by sowing my beetroot now that there was some space in the greenhouse again. Let's hope it fares better than the salad leaves, which have so far been nibbled by either the dreaded slugs or mice. Or do you think Mr Waddles could be a vegetarian?

Jemima in the meantime makes a right mess of the frog pond, the silly duck. She seems to like dunking the plants. I've tried to secure them with the lava rocks now, let's hope it suffices.

More about my gardens on Instagram@songsmith2962  Have a great week!