Nearly January

It's a little warmer today, 40s in the late AM. The ducks are slow, as sedate as ducks can be--a relative condition, naturally.

We haven't had much precipitation this winter, and I'm getting worried, but then...I always worry this time of year...about moisture for the garden. It'll come, I remind myself. It always comes.

But what if it doesn't? I mean, droughts are not unheard of!

I can water from the hose once the real thaws come, but it's not the same, not at all. Soft water from the sky is not the same as hard water pumped up from the ground. The plants respond differently--true fact.

A Note on Winter by Emily

LXXX

The sky is low, the clouds are mean,
A travelling flake of snow
Across a barn or through a rut
Debates if it will go.

A narrow wind complains all day
How some one treated him;
Nature, like us, is sometimes caught
Without her diadem.

Duck Talk

The behavior and chatter of chickens is well studied. Although not all the mysteries of a hen's cackle have been revealed, there's a pretty good understanding of chicken talk. They're extremely simple creatures, after all.

I don't know how well duck talk has been studied, ducks like the mallards on my river, but I suppose, considering that a chicken can be understood, that I can speculate the ducks are having a fine time this morning as the gale howls down the stream in freezing temperatures.

While we cringe and huddle inside, the ducks are dipping and paddling almost joyously. Some fly in, some fly out of the throng, the ladies quacking greetings and departures (boys don't quack). One could probably resent them for their giddiness in such miserable weather OR...we can be glad someone, at least, is having a good time.

How's the weather? Just ducky!