Scarlett woke in the night and came into bed with me. Ady got up and tried to sleep in her bed but didn’t get much sleep, I lay beside her and tried to sleep but didn’t get much sleep either. Scarlett isn’t a great bed partner at the best of times; wriggly, noisy and prone to flinging herself across you in the middle of the night. When she has a cold she is even noisier, wrigglier and tougher to get any sleep lying next to.
This morning Scarlett was desperate to make arrangements to visit Tom’s parents to see Sploosh and Lucky. Ady hadn’t managed to arrange anything and she had been holding out all week to see them so was starting to get upset. I really felt for her actually as she has been so brave about it all week but had been counting down the days so to have that suddenly snatched away was really hard. Fortunately Ady managed to get hold of Tom and we arranged to meet him at his parents at 2pm.
I wanted to get some stuff listed on ebay this afternoon so we had lunch and then headed off with plans to come back and get stuff done. As we got in the car I realised I was feeling a bit scratchy of throat and started sneezing though 🙁
We had a nice hour at Tom’s – the ducks have been fine, stayed safe and gotten increasingly wary of people and the dogs and been swimming away from everyone. Sploosh has only laid one egg they have found all week but as they are now being fed corn rather than duck layers pellets and the weather is colder it is feasible she only has laid one egg rather than they have simply not found them. They have certainly lost some weight and I suspect they may even lose enough to be capable of flight. They were very heavy here from an excellent diet and lack of proper duck exercise – perfect for the table but not so much for a life in the wild.
Once Scarlett called out to them they swam towards her though and after a fair bit of cooing and talking to them they both came out of the water and scrambled onto her lap. They were definitely more cautious and wary and I suspect they will get less and less likely to come to her as time goes by but it was lovely that they did. And they look really happy and right there on the pond. Scarlett got a little upset when it was time to leave but pulled herself together and recovered quickly enough. We won’t be able to visit again for a couple of weeks, which I don’t think is a bad thing. I suspect coming too regularly will just keep it too fresh for her that she has said goodbye to them.
Back home again where I was feeling increasingly crappy and Lovely Ady took over cooking dinner while I made hot chocolates for the kids and a hot toddy for me and we sat and watched Tooth Fairy on dvd. Dinner was really nice, we ate watching Countryfile then Davies and I watched X Factor while Scarlett helped Ady wash up and made me a cup of tea all by herself :). She is already feeling better so I am hoping it is a day one feeling rough only cold.