Ducks!

We woke this morning to dull, drizzly weather which thwarted our plans to take Kantara out of the marina to touch up her paint. There are a number of patches of undercoat on both sides of the boat which have been awaiting the top coat since last autumn, but today was clearly not going to be the day we did that.

We were awoken, in fact, by the sound of ducks on the roof. They can make a considerable noise as they land heavily above us, then patter off down the length of the roof. Today's kerfuffle was fairly extreme, and it occurred to us to be concerned that they may be eating the flowers from the troughs up there. I got up and went out, and sure enough two of the flipping creatures were standing on the middle one of the three troughs, apparently devouring the newly-planted marigolds, pelargonia and lobelia. I chased them off, hoping to catch one of them and wring its neck to warn off others. I failed.

In actual fact, they ate little or none of the plants. Instead, it would seem, they were clearing a space in the middle of the middle trough in order to build a nest. In the process, they had pulled out the plants and dug down to the bottom of the trough, throwing compost and plants over the roof as they did so, and trampling over the plants in the other two troughs.

I'm told that the offending potential dinners have been working their way around the pots and troughs on boats moored here, wreaking havoc as they go. I'm looking for a duck and orange sauce recipe.