Last day of summer?

I wanted to make the most of the weather today and be outside, and I'm pleased I did as it's now drizzling. The ducks were up and Jean and Joanna set each other off with their loud quacking...oops, sorry neighbours! The hadn't had their wings clipped so Amber helped me as they are rather wriggly:

That's Llywelyn; you can just see his curly tail feathers.

And there's Joanna, who had started quacking loudly as I was holding her - the noise that emanates from such a little duck is pretty impressive. Wings duly clipped, they were put back in the broody coop.

My car needed a service today so I nobly decided to take my bike to cycle back down the Cuckoo Trail, as it was the environmentally-friendlier and cheaper option. It is also downhill all the way and they said they'd run the car back for me later which suddenly made the whole idea more appealing even though I cancelled out the environmentally-friendly bit to a certain extent. It was gorgeous cycling through the wooded trail with sunbeams streaming across in front of me.

The children were all floppy and tired and ended up playing card games as I was feeling rather floppy and tired after my arduous bike ride home. Oh I said it was downhill didn't I...erm...but it was really hot and I had woken up at some unearthly hour.

It's sort of maths isn't it? I had also spent a fair amount of time with Tristan discussing whether one got more wet walking through a rain shower or running through it. He thought it was the latter as the rain hit you harder but I explained that the volume of rain falling is at the same rate but you get exposed to less of it if you run. But you might feel wetter because it hits you harder. So what with that and going through why bruises change colour as they develop, I'm kept on my toes with subject matter. They played a card game called Bang for ages and Tristan was being uncharacteristically generous towards his sisters so I let sleeping dogs lie. Talking of which:

Scruff found a sunny spot. Hallelujah, his new flea treatment seems to be working so he is no longer scratching incessantly and chewing himself to pieces all night. He must be exhausted poor thing.

I let John and Jean out and they hot-webbed-footed it up to see the new ones:

There was quite a lot of macho quacking from the boys and bubbling quacks from the girls but John and Llywelyn would fight if I put them together so they will have to be kept apart. They pair bond too so I couldn't really mix up the girls either but that's fine as I would only breed the same types. I wanted to give the two new ducks a bit more of a run so I rigged up a wind-break I found in the carport. It looks a bit like I'm about to perform surgery or dispatch a Grand National horse but it did work:

And hopefully tomorrow I will have another tin bath courtesy of Laura which will just be perfect. The temptation to put them in the bath upstairs is irresistible, though they need to settle in a bit more first I think; they are quite jumpy still and haven't really eaten anything as the food is different to the sort they were eating so I'm hoping tomorrow they will get the hang of pellets and corn.

Soooo pretty.

I've been sort of revising and also doing some crocheting and knitting but it's getting to that time of year and they are presents so I can't say! All will be revealed.....