ducklings, bees and the wip

First of all, we still have three ducklings. They are at the weep, weep weep stage.Their mother keeps going off and they lose sight of her. Then the weep, weep, weep cry goes out, pentrating everywhere until the mother is found. Proper quacking happens about the time the pin feathers come in.
It is a different sort of parenting -- more the it is the duckling's responsibility to stay with the mother, rather the parental responsibility to look for them if they go wandering off and get in trouble. If trouble happens when she is near by, she will defend the ducklings. I have seen her charge other ducks and hens, for example.
I am currently in my last one hundred pages of the wip. It is getting better and I do know the ending. Once the first draft is done, then the fun bit begins -- namely the editing and revising. My editor has said that her thoughts about my other one -- the third Viking -- will be back sometime after the August Bank Holiday.
Tomorrow is the August Bank Holiday. This means summer is coming to an end. The plums on ripening nicely on the Victoria plum tree, but we do not have many pears or damsons. Apparently there are not many sloes this year either. I suspect a bad frost at blossom time. The bees appear to be busy. A beekeeper up the road lost three out of his five hives earlier this year. This is worrying. But for the moment, our hives are fine and producing honey.
I think I will be harvesting in mid September...