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...

Duckling mayhem and bats

Last evening, my youngest and I were out in the garden. He was supposed to put the ducks and hens to bed and I was closing up the greenhouse. The nights are drawing in and so two bats were circling the house.
I am hopeful that this means that the bat box we put up a few years ago is in use.
The mother duck had gone into the middle duck house, the one without steps. Her attitude appears to be -- if you do not follow me, and run into difficulties, you are on your own. The 3 ducklings were running around the pen peeping and calling.
My youngest demanded help.
Eventually I caught all three ducklings and put them in the oldest duck house -- but not before falling into thick mud. Chasing duckings and wearing too large sandals do not mix, particularly after torrential rain.
Then as the mother duck refused to leave the middle duck house, I retrieved the fishing net from the basement and a torch. Holding the torch between my teeth, so I could see into the middle duck house, I managed to capture the mother duck. she was then deposited into the old house. Much happy peeping from the ducklings at having their mother restored. The mother duck merely opened her wings for the ducklings to shelter under.
The bats remained flying about the house, much to my youngest's delight. He has now named one Stellaluna after a picture book that he loved as a little boy. The other one is called Gabriel.

I have reached the last one hundred pages of my current wip. It will get there.