Pekin through the rushes and the rain

Every year at Christmas I make a weekly photo calendar for Cathy - the first time I did it, it was a surprise gift. Nowadays the calendar is demanded.  Actually that is not strictly true.  Cathy is much too polite to demand, but she does very much look forward to it, and reminds me several times in November and December how much she is looking forward to it.  It is largely full of photos of family members at appropriate times of the year but there is always space for other memories and reminders of our lives together.  Each year I try to feature photos that have not been used in a previous year's calendar (with a few exceptions), so curating the thing takes a while. 

This week, "Cathy's 2019 Calendar" has featured the pair of mallard ducks that generally visit in the spring.  When we first moved into this house some 7 years ago we were delighted to discover that we had these visitors and even more delighted that they keep coming back year after year.  Generally Mr and Mrs Mallard arrive around about the first week in March, although last year they must have found another pond they preferred, as we didn't see them until June.  We did worry that something might have happened to them.  But fortunately they turned up eventually.

This year's first visit occurred today, and the two mallards brought a friend with them, a Pekin duck.  As you can see, it is actually raining - so good weather for ducks.  Before they investigated the pond the 3 of them spent some time wandering through the flower beds.  I am very much hoping that they might have been looking for (and eating) slugs...