Guess What Time It Is!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: You know what time of year this is! And I am so excited. 🦆

If you are new, let me explain. This is so fabulous.

Every year, for the past oh, 25 years, wild ducks come to our backyard pool.  The pool is covered with its winter tarp, and it fills with rain and melted snow, and I guess it looks like a pond on the duck maps. The main two ducks, the very first ones, were Flo and Eddy.

Flo is the male, don’t ask me why, that’s just how they got named. Eddy is the female, and she is hilarious. She waddles to our back door and demands food if we don't feed them fast enough. (We give them wild bird food, of course, not bread.)

So far, the mallards have arrived every year, right around this time of year. It is quite amazing, and I will tell you much more about them as the time goes by. We adore them, and often they bring their friends, and it’s such a rite of spring. 🦆

Now is the time that I am worrying that this is the year they will not arrive. This is such a fear. But I am trying to trust in nature.

There is still ice on the pool,as you can see, but you can also see how the ripples are looking spring-like now, and that is a sign that they are potentially on the way.

Shall we have a duck pool? Like we always do?

Just guess what day the ducks will arrive, and you will entered to win a very nice prize.

You don’t even have to guess the right date to win! (But you get an extra prize if your name is selected at random, and you have chosen the right date! I will choose the winner on the arrival date. )

And send good vibes for the arrival of Flo and Eddy! I'll post pictures of them in Insta and Facebook when they arrive. I am continuing to be optimistic about this.

Anyone remember what date they arrived last year? Often it has been March 14, but last year I think they were a little late.

Also this spring, as the snow melted, I noticed that the rabbits, although completely cute and adorable to see hopping around, have ravaged our rose of Sharon bushes. Look at that!  (Those bushes were as tall as the fence last summer.)

The garden people came, and put up fencing, but the rabbits did not care one bit, and still got inside. I asked the garden person whether the rabbits were hungry, and said maybe I should put out carrots to deter them from the bushes, but she said no, it would just bring more rabbits.

And look! Snowdrops!

So Reds and Readers, what are your guesses for the duck pool? And are there signs of spring where you live?