I have been trying to decide on an apt title for this photo. There’s the All in Together Boys that reminds me of jump-rope (very fine weather, girls); What Does a Duck Most; When Does Ascend Up…; and then there’s simply Duck. I’ve been watching the ducks today for some time from my window and then from the balcony. The tide on the river is low and a large group–I count ten just now–have gathered in this spot to dive for food. It must be a combination of the recent rains, the choppier waters and the low tide that appears to have made the pickings here particularly fruitful because the diving is constant, revealing the wonderful white underbellies of these emerald-throated/headed Mallards.

Earlier I was topping, lopping? the past-their-prime lilacs that live on the balcony on the South side of the building where they get the early morning sunshine. The watering is my chore while BW cavorts around Europe. Just below that balcony, and on the rocks bordering a more protected kind of cove, the Canadian Geese are nesting. They are mostly invisible save for their loud honking, this morning precipitated by a group of three innocent Mallards who had the bad fortune of gliding by (far out of reach of the geese and on the completely opposite side of the boat slip), who were nevertheless peremptorily attacked and chased by the protective parent.

The boats seem to multiply daily and all the green is greened, the sky is blue, the sun is shining. Ah, Spring!