Watery Wednesday

There is still ice on our 400m wide, and not so deep lake. Ice has formed on the edge of the shore at night, following thawing during the day. Josephine and I went out to talk to the ducks. AKA /KA/ - her Papa speaks to her en francais and she chooses the French canard to refer to them! We went for our walk on Saturday.

Josephine's duck (from the Easter bunny) likes to play piano. She is quite gifted if a bit less quacky than Chatty Cathy duck!





It is with great excitement that I can show that we have more open water. It thawed about 6' every few hours yesterday with +10 temperatures. The winds blew gently over the open water, shushing the ice across the bay. You could hear it as it crushed up against the icy edge, little tinkles as it crashed along.

By the end of the day yesterday, the ice look very wet and likely to sink from view as it turned from crystals to water. Yet, here we woke to some ice.

Two days ago the shoreline refroze, but the middle ground between ice and shore remained liquid.

The land is warmer than ever.

For the last few days we woke to open water. We have one duck, Chatty Cathy, who never seems to stop quacking. She quacks when she arrives, when she lands, when another duck turns up! She is funny.
The mallards have been somewhat...errr amorous. Oscar has been quite insistent that Myrtle cooperates. There are a couple of groups that vie for territory.

The mergansers took a break this morning to preen on the rocks.

Josephine has gone home- we miss her cheerful laugh. Back to normal routines.
All is well with the world.