The duck that didn't like water leaves float for England!

A little story to tell you..... Are you sitting comfortably?...then I'll begin...

About a month ago we had two mallard ducks coming to our pond everyday. They were quite handsome but never seemed to go in the water. One of them would sit on the bank under the weeping willow tree while the other one would sit on either the fountain in the mornings (they knew the fountain switched on in the afternoon - I'm sure one exposure of that was a big learning experience!!) or on our duck float.

The duck float is something that I encouraged John to build last year. It is not glamorous but the idea is that duck can use it for nesting so their nest is in the middle the pond and so safe from raccoons etc etc. I think John spent about $8 getting the parts to build this float and it was a proud moment when he launched it and secured it in the pond. No ducks went on it last year however which was quite disappointing, but this year Mr Mallard seemed to have it as his favorite lounging spot.

We were enjoying watching the mallards that didn't like water and so one day, I was emailing my friend Marion in Germany and told her about them and how happy they looked on the float. I sent her this photo:


Yes, not an elegant float but functional. And the perfect spot for a duck that doesn't like water.

Fast forward to the end of May this year, and Marion sends me an email entitled "you could have helped". It was all about the scandal of the MP's spending tax payers money. The issue that caught Marion's eye was that David Cameron asked Sir Peter Viggers what on earth a "nesting float for ducks" was. Apparently Sir Peter had bought one for 1645 pounds!

Here's the link Marion found to the story in the telegraph complete with photo:

Now OK. Their Swedish duck house is a little more elaborate than ours (but did cost a little more than $8) - and theirs actually includes a "house"..... but can you say that that duck looks any happier than ours? And maybe it is a little bigger than ours too - but you can still fit two ducks on ours as we often saw:


So the sad part is that I think our ducks saw the photo of the Swedish duck float online and we haven't seen them since at the pond! Call it coincidence if you like or float envy but since Marion sent me that photo, they've disappeared. I think they are on their way to England now.... Look out for them!!

Anyhow - in memory of our little duck that didn't like water, I've just finished a little keepsake. Maybe this will get the whole sad story out of my system - and bring a smile to Marion's face too!

Yes, a solid silver duck float and still costs less than Sir Peter's!!! For all those MP wannabies - your very own duck float ring!