Another day of spent on the water rounding up ducks for Marilyn before taking a grumpy Diana shopping and then working in the garden as my Sales Director shares his tale of marital woe with me
Another full day at home. I was not up by the time the decorator had arrived to paint the last room and had taken the opportunity again to lay in and read the papers etc. after letting the ducks out, and seeing that the weather had brightened with gentle sunshine, I mounted the outboard motor on the dinghy and took to the river. It was still a cold day with a chilly easterly breeze but I found great content in examining the margins of the Ouse for nesting activity. I had spotted a pair of Mallards checking out the old gnarled willow opposite for a nesting place and my books confirm that Mallards will nest in trees in regions subject to flood. As I cruised towards the lock I see my neighbour’s wife, Marilyn, trying forlornly to tempt her three white Aylesbury ducks from the lock island.
It seems that they let them out a weeks ago without clipping their wings or restraining them for a period on site, and had been trying to get them to return ever since! A merry time chasing them up and down the river before I manage to herd them onto Marilyn’s plot and back into their hutch. Diana was totally lacking in understanding as to my motives and I have noticed a rising selfishness in her of late, she was annoyed that our journey to town for shopping was delayed and rude in Marilyn’s presence. Then off for lunch and to buy a veranda door catch and set of chain-link fence, posts and wire for Marilyn to equip her garden. Home after to a good cup of tea and then to go out with the electric hedge cutter and trim all of our coniferous hedges before tea. This evening I received a call from David Fear and met him to hear of his personal problems. His wife is having an affair with her boss, his marriage looks like breaking up and there is now an eight week waiting list for marriage guidance counsel sessions in London! Home to a miserable wife preoccupied with the television and then to relax by bath and hair wash before retiring – an interesting day – this first day of spring.