Ducks and stuff

This guy, Mr Wood Duck, has been spotted on the river by our bridge the last few days. Not native, they tell me -- likely an escaper from a farm, they tell me. Anyways, he's beautiful, isn't he? And lucky me, I had my camera today!

The usual ducks have been behaving oddly. Today I saw some ducks just hanging around, when suddenly Boy Duck #1 starts flappin' and quackin' and chasin' Girl Duck all around the water, then the other boy ducks get in on the action and they're all just flappin' and quackin' all over the place! And then they just settle down again. I also saw two ducks swimming around in circles, flapping at each other with one wing, around and around for quite a while. Ridiculous... Mr Wood Duck is always dignified, plus there are no lady wood ducks around, to my knowledge....
Here, for spring, are some snowdrops. Yes, it's a flash picture, because they are under a bush on the shady side of the garden. Apparently, I am destined to have shady yards. Other people have daffodils, we're still working on the snowdrops... There are other green things poking up, and I'll get my daffs in good time, I think. It's funny having a garden you know nothing about! I know what it looked like last July, but the spring things are all pleasant surprises.

Should we go into the lessons learned from the Knitting Olympics? Just a few: Things go really fast on 6.5 mm needles. Children's clothes are lots smaller than adult clothes. One should really think a bit carefully before just jumping in to knit something. If you pay attention to one project for 2 weeks, it's amazing how much you can get done. And best of all, it's fun to be part of a great big gang, even if the gang never actually meets up!

And now I just have to graft the few stitches on Arthur's sock, and I have to finish the circular Maya thingy, which means making an edging all around it. I know Elizabeth Zimmermann said you should have neither a cast-on nor cast-off edge on a shawl, because they are too unyeilding, so I am doing the sideways-garter-connect-around edge -- I'll get some pictures tomorrow to show you what I mean....

Oh, hey! It's my big brother John's birthday today! John used to live far away from me, and then last summer moved to not-that-far-away, and then we left town for a year. So in a few months, we shall see more of each other, I hope! John once won a prize for taking this picture, and I hope to knit these icicles one day (I like that the scientists in my family study things like icicles and pretty swirls and heaps of sand and stuff). Happy birthday to youououo.