Fluffy

Yesterday (Saturday) we had an invitation to take J to see the ducklings at the farm where we normally buy our eggs. Three eggs hatched about three weeks ago, and the babies are growing fast. They were brought out in a big plastic bucket, then lifted in turn for J to see close up (extra) and feel their very soft down on her wrists. They cheeped loudly but were very calm and very sweet, with their still tiny wings and fluffy, tufty tails - J, unsurprisingly, loved seeing them. We also had close up views of the goats, chickens and ducks, with sheep a little further away. There are lots more photos, but I've not had time to sort and edit them yet - there will probably be a collage in due course. I'm somewhat pleased, though, that after a long time groping in the dark with Affinity, I managed to modify the colour of the fluorescent green bucket, which completely overwhelmed the ducklings in the original photo, into something more aesthetically acceptable. 

Very late in the evening I went out on the balcony to look for shooting stars. P had reminded me that it was exactly thirty years since we stood outside our motel cabin at The Crossing, the hotel and petrol station on the Icefields Parkway in the Canadian Rockies which emits the only artificial light for many miles around. We had never seen such a dark sky, and it was a wonderful, cloudless night studded with glittering stars above the mountain peaks. It was the first time I remember seeing shooting stars, certainly the first time I went out looking for the Perseid meteor shower, and for a while the sky seemed alive with them. It's one of our most treasured memories. Ten years ago we watched from the deck outside our new home beneath the dark sky of the North Downs, this time with J fully awake and engaged, counting loudly and exclaiming at every sighting. It was an exceptional display that night, with coloured fireballs as well as many shooting stars brighter than any of the handful of faint, fleeting streaks I saw between the clouds last night. Perhaps tonight will be clearer.