Sheldon

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January

Happy New Year!

Caroline assures me that there will be more photos of us DUCKS in the ducky diary this year, but, for now, we have allowed her to use this cute one of Miss Jess and her latest ducky present.

On the 18th, Caroline and Jess spent some rare quality time with us. Caroline let us down into the main garden and we went down to see Jess on the patio. We aren't allowed down by the house very much at this time of year because we are so noisy (the neighbours one side aren't keen!)

Titchy and I did some little "head on the side" looks at Caroline as if to say "Don't we know you from somewhere?". LOL she falls for it every time and goes away thinking we are really cute!

Once Miss Jess has learnt to walk and isn't trying to eat every leaf in sight, I think we'll see more of them. I suppose crawling and duck muck covered patios don't really mix!

February

Valentine ducks

It is a happy time for us ducks with egg laying beginning and the odd warm day. Mind you, February had some very bitter weather, too. The kind of weather where we are standing waiting beside the run gate for bedtime and our cosy houses.

We may not see as much of Caroline as we did before her ME, but ducks are never far from her mind. Even the Valentine's card she gave David had a duck on it! They enjoyed a nice Valentine meal at home - as did we ducks (above).

Indoors, little Jess is officially a toddler! Yes, she's walking. It won't be long before she is chasing ducks. On her visits to see us, she always gets her Gramps to fly her round above us and laughs at our quacking!

March

Snow fun being a duck sometimes!

March began with a thin covering of snow, but not enough to last. We ducks don't like it so cold, really, as the ground is too hard for us to get at the little creatures we like to eat.

The very last day of the month was special, too, as we got to meet Derek (Grandad's half brother) and his wife Jenny who came on a garden tour with Caroline, Jess and Gramps.

April

Handsome trio!

At last, a Sheldon diary that begins with a picture of yours truly! This one was taken on Caroline's birthday. I am at the back, with Diddy and Titch in the foreground. We had a nice visit with Caroline, David, Aunty Liz and Jess, who got up close to us for the first time.

Caroline's Easter cards had a ducky theme again this year as you can see below:

May

Escapee

One day this month, all of Jess' toddler friends and their mum's came for lunch and someone left the gate open for a little while. Caroline noticed and closed it but she didn't realise that someone had escaped!

That evening, Bruiser was missing at bedtime, and he couldn't be found anywhere in the garden. Luckily, Freda , a friend from over the road, came round soon after to say that they had found a very tame duck in the Avenue opposite. Caroline went over with the cat basket and soon caught him and brought him home. It was a great relief to us all to have him safely back.

June

Early this month, Caroline decided that enough was enough and separated me, Titchy and Diddy (our drake) from the other ducks. We already slept separately but, during the day, we were being attacked by the other males whose hormones were running high as usual at this time of year.

Instead of staying in Duck Garden, David let us through the gate each morning and we had the run of the rest of the garden. Caroline and Jess enjoyed seeing more of us and, as you can see above, we settled right in on the patio by the house with Jess' toys!

And finally, for this month, I thought you might like to see who else we are sharing the garden with. Jess has a habit of telling everyone that there are monkeys in trees so now there are! Four cuddly charity shop monkeys have taken up residence in the trees near the house. Read about how this came about in Jess' new Baby Signing section of the website.

July

At the end of June, Caroline's mum, Chen, celebrated her birthday and one of her presents was .....two of our ducky friends. As you know, we struggle here each year during the mating season with too many drakes. Well, Marge Man and Bruiser have gone to live with Chen and Martin and are having a wonderful time.

No, they don't live in the house, but Chen couldn't resist taking a picture of the cheeky pair before shooing them out. Below, you can see them in their temporary pond but, by the end of the month, they had AMAZING accommodation consisting of a slate roofed house and long swimming rill!

August

We are Nine!

Since Marge Man and Bruiser left, myself, Titch and Diddy have gone back to live in Duck Garden. At first, we still had to have separate sleeping quarters but, now that the moult is well underway and the drakes hormones have quietened down, we are all sharing one house at night and hanging round as a "nine" during the day. Hopefully, with two drakes gone, we can all stay friends next spring too!

We have had lots of visitors this summer including Freda's grandchildren, Megan and Julian, who came to see us the other day. Jess likes to visit us, too. She calls us the "quacks" although she is quite capable of saying "ducks".

September

We hear that our friends Bruiser and Marge Man are happy in their new home. They now have a tiled rill for swimming and a slate roofed house!r

The picture this month shows Jess harvesting carrots with Granny and Gramps. We see and hear a lot of activity through in the allotment over our hedge. Our pond water is used to irrigate the crops!

The weather is still nice enough for Caroline and Jess to get out in the garden at times. We see Jess playing with her sand table and, one day, they were up near us collecting leaves to make an Autumn picture.

October

Caroline has baby news! She is 12 weeks pregnant and has been feeling very sick so we've seen even less of her than usual. Mind you, on the 19th, she and Jess did venture up to Duck Garden to pick tomatoes from the greenhouse behind our rill.

We've been busy looking gorgeous with our new feathers!

November

Winter is here and we are making a muddy mess with our beaks in the wet grass. Caroline still has correspondence from the ducky part of the website even at this time of year. A recent one was from an Australian family asking for advice on how to feed their feathered friends.

On the 22nd, little Jess brought up a friend, Elise, with her mum and baby brother. They were all very impressed with how small and cute we Call ducks are.

December

Little Jess is two years old already! She and Caroline have had a busy month with birthday and Christmas parties. At this chilly time of year, we are often waiting by the door of the run for our beds in the evening!

Jess is learning French for fun with her mum and one of her first words was "le canard" -or duck if you don't speak the lingo!

Happy Christmas!

That's it from me for this month. Remember, you can e-mail Caroline for my latest news anytime and I will be back next month to keep you informed!

Bye for now,

Sheldon

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