Middleton in March

After all the ice and snow, it was wonderful to land in England and see green grass and flowers.

Daffodils! Mother and Toni have been planting a few daffodils every autumn for the past forty years, and the result is that all at once you see a cloud, a host of golden daffodils.


Other plants were still in bloom -- crocii, primroses and a few flowering shrubs, but it was the daffodils that shone.






Wonderful!




Old Common as a Duck Sanctury


Oh look, the ducks are here!" "Well -- open the back door and feed them!"

I always enjoy the ducks and ducklings at Old Common, carefully watching where I step on the lawn -- good fertilizer I'm sure -- but I had not realized the rest of the village is not so enamoured of them. In fact they shoo them down towards Old Common! On my last visit a mother arrived with a freshly hatched brood of eight ducklings, and we watched them grow day by day -- with two of the less obedient and more adventurous ones disappearing to Duck Heaven. This time there were fewer around than normal and the main visitors were the Odd Couple -- an infertile female and a strangely marked male, who have been together for several years -- drawn together by their differences from the flock, but happy enough -- especially on three square meals a day.

Those Aggressive Moorhens

There are far more moorhens in the garden than a few years ago, and it is fun to see them rushing around, grabing some duck food and scurrying off to avoid the mallards going after them. But among themselves, they can be very aggressive -- I saw two males chasing a third one all over the front garden and pecking at him. This went on for a good half an hour, until one of the attackers got bored and wandered off. Mating season ahead? And trying to reduce the competition?

More to follow!