Poached Eggs, Buzzards and Mad Ducks

My life seems slightly surreal at the moment.  I truly don’t know whether I’m coming or going, been or just got back!  Hell I don’t even know who I am at the moment.

Well, I know what my name is, but my role in life is a bit muddled at present.  One thing I do know for sure is that the children all seem to be happy at the moment, so I don’t care about anything else quite frankly.

My typical day revolves around school runs, twice daily dog walks, fetching, carrying, supporting and being very, very tired.

My hat goes off to full time carers.

But out of this madness that is my life at the moment comes some sweet and savoury moments that put a smile on my face.  Firstly, mad ducks!

I have inherited from my sister (who was walking the dog before she went home) duck feeding duty along a stretch of water that we sometimes walk the dog.

There must be over 30 birds along this stretch dotted out along the waterway, plus a few moorhens that scuttle out every now and then.

What is funny is that they obviously recognise the dog?  (Okay I’m not a wildlife expert and I truly don’t know whether ducks can remember things, but it’s what I like to think!) 

As soon as they see us they start swimming or flying towards us to get fed.  Tonight in particular I wish I’d had a camcorder with me. 

Tonight, we had acrobatic ducks flying down the waterway through branches, almost somersaulting to get through for scraps of bread.  But what really humours us is that we can actually take these ducks for a walk (okay swim) along the waterway just with the mere suggestion of bread.  Let me explain.

Once they get the notion that there is food about, it’s like jungle drums start up and we are literally besieged by ducks.  We feed them making sure that they have all individually managed to get some bread then carry on walking.

Behind us we then start hearing a whooshing sound as they begin to fly to catch up  and land near us in the hope that we will think they are different ducks wanting bread.  As I admire this tenacity I duly throw them some bread which then leads the rest of the them to fly and catch up.

This happens all along the waterway until we run out of bread.  Walking, whooshing, scuffles, walking, whooshing scuffles and so on. I watched three ducks fly right past and then swim back up the waterway towards us.  It was like they were trying to pretend they hadn’t already had any bread. 

I am intrigued and in awe of their behaviour as it really is a battle of who can outsmart who to get the most bread.  And please note I don’t egg them on in any way.  They just follow us until they know there really is no more bread available!

I was also priviliged to see a buzzard fly low overhead today too.  It was flying between two trees, back and forth in an elegant, unrushed way.  Truly poetry in motion watching it soaring above me.

And the poached eggs . . .   I really wanted poached eggs for tea but don’t have a proper poacher.  I’ve seen chefs cooking them in a pan of water so thought that’s what I’d do.  I cracked two eggs into cups and duly tipped them into the boiling water. As you can imagine it just went everywhere.

A little tip I was given (after the event) was to put a bit of salt in the water and stir the water fast before you tip the egg in as it binds it together better.

Never mind, I’ll remember for next time.  But what I did manage to salvage had poached perfectly and my taste buds were satisfied.  Result then.

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The Riches

I don’t get to watch much regular television these days. It’s usually a case of catching snippets here or there or late night channel hopping before I go to bed to wind down.  Apart from the X Factor of course which is a must on Saturday night!

However, on a couple of occasions now I’ve happened upon ‘The Riches’.  It’s an american series but it stars Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver.

Without going into detail about the series itself, which is basically that his family assume the identify of a wealthy family and take on their life, it’s Eddie and Minnie that I am really impressed with.

I’ve always liked Eddie Izzard for his comedy anyway, but he is seriously sexy in this role and very believable with his american accent.  So too is Minnie who I have always thought never quite made the grade in America in the same way as Catherine Zeta Jones did (although I think Minnie is the better actress). 

If this doesn’t make them big stars in America then I don’t know what will.

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