Ady was working at the hostel again this morning. The sun was shining and I needed to collect some midges and bags from the shed so I decided to make a start on removing the netting from the fruit cage until the sun stopped shining and then come back inside. I found a duck in the ditch, barely alive, so hoiked it out and thought it might be ok, another one was looking iffy but moving around quite well. I went into the fruit cage and made a start unstitching the netting from three sides of the cage and then rolling it all back to one side and tying it on. In the end I managed to do the whole thing, which was good as it’s one of those jobs you don’t really want to leave half done anyway. It took a couple of hours and it briefly rained once and hailed twice but nothing too dire. It was mostly sunny and very still. I thought about putting music on but actually the peace and the sound of the river was lovelier than any music so I didn’t. Sadly I discovered one dead duck just outside the cage in the corner. Then I saw a duck madly flapping which I know from experience birds sometimes do just before they die so I thought that was probably the case – it was not the one I expected to find dead though, it was the other one, lying next to the one I had expected to be dead, also dead. So three dead ducks, two of them dying while I was actually there. They simply cannot cope with Rum I think. It’s our second try with Muscovy ducks and I think the cold, wet and mud just is too much for them. They have a river along the bottom of the croft, various houses they can go into and plenty of places they could shelter around the place but they seem to just sit there and die. It’s very sad 🙁
I finished that off and Bonnie had gone down to the fork after Ady so I decided to walk along and get her, not realising it was time for Ady to get back anyway so I met him and we walked back together with me collecting the bags and midges on the way.
We all had lunch and watched some Junior Bake Off and then Ady went to move firewood around while I created a mini set of crochet bagpipes to add to a spangly gold midge for someone who had been in touch to order one with a santa hat and a Scottish twist. I’ve also listed all my bags on etsy as I’ve not sold any through the shed but have managed to sell two online from putting them on facebook so there is clearly a market. I know I’m not selling the online stuff for enough really but it’s good to be getting some custom, particularly on things I actually really like making. Several friends have made blankets for their kids and I have a plan to do similar for Davies and Scarlett – real work in progress labour of love type things. I tried to create a Welcome to Nightvale square tonight but it didn’t really work, I can see how it would though and have this idea of one for Davies with loads of squares and motifs of all the things he’s been into over the years – so TV and film stuff I guess. And then one for Scarlett with loads of animals, a sort of blanket of their childhood type thing… Need to work on that a bit more but I want them to be very much my design rather then something I find patterns for I think. Sadly no chance of them being a surprise living like we do! I love the idea of having a next big project like that though.
Ady cooked dinner, venison steak – yum. We watched Sherlock.