Anyone know what duck this is ..? How cute are these!

At this time of year I become totally preoccupied with ducks, coots, grebes, geese, herons, kingfishers, cuckoos, penny wagtails, pigeons and finches. I'm really not that interested the remainder of the year but love to watch and listen to the courting and nesting rituals and the produce of this.

Coincidence or what?

In today's local paper .... it would appear to be a countrywide phenomena :-)) unless of course she decided to come south where the police often turn a blind eye to speeding! Looks like I was right and she is a 'boy racer' - she obviously had the scooter ' sooped up' ;-}

Dangerous times

I was nearly knocked down three times today whilst shopping! Not, as you may think, by a car but first by a mobility scooter being driven at a manic rate of knots by a very large lady. She came round the corner at the top of the street, which has a hill (Norfolk standards!) so to give her the benefit of the doubt, she may have been freewheeling but she must have been doing nearly 10 miles an hour ;-). I jumped out of the way just in time but turned round to see people flying off to left and right to get out of her way so I think she was just a boy racer at heart!

The second incident was as I carried on up the incline to be faced by a wheelchair being pushed very fast by an elderly man. The occupant was clinging on to the armrests for dear life so I think he might have been taken by surprise by the incline, which I am sure has got steeper over the years – I am certainly more out of puff when I reach the top than I used to be 10 years ago. I do hope he and his cargo reached the shops ok as I didn’t stop to look. I was quite traumatised by this time.

Carrying on a bit further up the road towards the bus station I came up behind a lady with a walking frame on wheels. She was travelling very slowing (probably exhausted after the hill) so I felt I was safe to overtake but as I did so she suddenly, without warning or signals, veered to the right – into my path. I just managed to stop in time but she continued to the crossing, oblivious to my plight.

I drove home very carefully!

There are two suggestions locally for ‘traffic calming’ measures which appealed to my imagination and I felt I must share with the world (or at least a couple of people).

One of them is potholes. The local radio station has had a Pothole Phone-In with people trying to outdo each other with the size of their pothole and I read that an Essex Parish Council is not repairing potholes for a year to see if this results in slowing down traffic and maybe to see how many cyclists they can dispose of! Or perhaps they are trying to find out ‘how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall’

I have to admit that my favourite idea for reducing traffic speed is chickens. We, in Norfolk, are famous for this idea – it has been monitored and statistics produced, so it must be feasible. The idea was first started many years ago on a south Norfolk roundabout and because of the favourable results, it is now to be introduced on other A road roundabouts in Norfolk and Suffolk. Some roundabouts are already perfect roosting areas but others may have to be landscaped into suitable chicken environments. A spokesman for the scheme said that “the chickens require very little maintenance and are practically self sufficient”.

It does beg the question, though, of whether someone would have to be appointed to collect the eggs each day (which would obviously be free range), and could be a good source of income for local Councils and possibly lead to reductions in Council Tax. However, the income would probably have to be offset against the cost of the egg collector.

There might be a worry that the chickens would breed too prolifically but there would probably be some ‘accidental’ culling by the very nature of their location.

It has been suggested that foxes may show a great interest in the chickens and measures would have to be taken to keep the fox population under control. Perhaps local fox hunting groups could be formed to control the roundabouts – the possibilities need some discussion (preferably in complete secrecy).

If it all works out well, chickens could be introduced on all roundabouts throughout the country and it is possible that the traffic calming effects could offset the number of collisions caused by drivers rubbernecking at the chickens.

http://www.chickenroundabout.co.uk

Talking of ducks - and someone was somewhere, I snapped this duck showing complete indifference at the interesting spectacle of a swan floating on to the Broad on a large clump of land which had been dislodged by a hire boat. This island was inhabited at various times by coots and grebes before floating into someone's boat shed!

Talking about bees - and I was somewhere - I saw two in the garden today, one bumble bee and one which looked like a honey bee, although I could be wrong on that one, not being an apiarist. The bumble bee spent ages negotiating blades of grass until it found the perfect place to bask in the sun. You will have to look closely amongst the crocuses to see the other bee.

Remembering Mitty

It is exactly a year ago that our black cat, Mitty, died. We used to take her on our Broads cruiser with us when she was younger. She settled down very well on the boat and soon had her favourite places. During the day she slept on one of the front cabin bunks, well wrapped up in a sleeping bag but at night, she prowled the boat, peering out through the windows and constantly waking us, demanding to be let out. One evening when we were moored on quiet moorings at Barton Turf, we took her out with a cat harness and lead. She walked first one way and then the other, hating the harness and wanting to be off into the undergrowth. Going along one of the walkways, she suddenly jumped, twisted and slipped the harness, immediately scampering away from us. We were distraught, chasing her, calling her, looking for her for about an hour or so. We could see her eyes shining in the undergrowth occasionally but she wouldn’t come to us. Exhausted and very stressed we eventually went back slowly to the boat, convinced that we had lost her for ever, only to find her sitting on the stern of the boat as if to say ‘I’m here, where have you been’! Unbelievable, she got an extra helping of chicken that night.

We moored up near Beccles one night and took her out on the lead again as we were worried that she might wander too far, with a lot of farmland nearby. R was frustrated and I was amused as she climbed up a tree with him standing at the bottom holding the expanding lead, trying to persuade her to come down!

We used to moor at the back of a small ‘island’ at Womack Water and felt secure in letting her out at night as we knew she couldn’t wander too far. She would go off, come back to see us and go off again all night but one night she excelled herself by bringing us back a live mouse and depositing it in the front cabin!

She developed kidney disease in 2006 and blindness was part of the illness. She adapted fairly well but if she lost her bearings would stand in the middle of a room and shout for us to re-orientate her. On the whole she found her way around very well, using her whiskers and obviously remembered knowledge of the house to find her way around. We never moved anything in the rooms and had to be careful not to leave anything lying around to confuse her. Her sense of hearing increased tremendously, as did her sense of smell – she always showed huge interest in what we were having for supper! Initially, she still wanted to fiercely maintain her territory and used to go out under the garden gate, followed by one of us as she headed off up the road determinedly, getting very cross if we brought her back. As the illness progressed, she wasn’t so bothered but would still patrol the garden and see off any other cats which dared to come in. Her sense of smell could identify them immediately and she would hiss and spit in their direction.

Her final deterioration came on 25th February last year and we had to make the awful decision not to prolong her life any further. People had told us that we would know when the time came and we did. We still miss her and I occasionally find myself addressing my black handbag if I leave it on the floor!