The Sight and Sound of Ambient Things.

Our bedroom window overlooks the raised decking of our garden. My wife and I sit here. She likes doing her Sudoku book puzzles and I like reading and messing about with multimedia. Sometimes we talk about minor little things but we do enjoy the garden in the summer.

My wife Carole is always doing things to enhance the garden and she is keen on various types of plants from perennials to fruit trees and shrubs.

We bought a nice water feature earlier in the year and now we have it on all of the time. We put pot plants about it at the edge of the decking while the water gently trickles down the tipped old pots effect of the fountain and waterfall. It's a joy waking up in the morning because the water feature is usually gently trickling away amid the terracotta pots and the array of plants.

Carole is usually up before me when I have rest days from work. She turns on the water feature from the bedroom and then goes straight out into the garden and lets out the ducks and the chickens. I gradually wake up to these nice little sounds of nature and know I have a fine day ahead.

Bob - the wild furry Rag Doll cat comes bounding in and meowing for his first feed of the day, He is a great old lump and is probably one of the laziest cats in the world. He seems incredibly laid back too. He never goes far and wanders about among the ducks and chickens, usually giving them a little room as he goes about his business. He is disinterested in them and the ducks take no notice of him either.

Also, Dotty our highly strung and excitable dog comes bounding in for a fuss too. She is always happy and loves to be around people. The dog and cat take no notice of each other and Dotty, like Bob, gives the ducks their space when she goes out into the garden to check the perimeter. Carole and I call this Dotty patrol. 

She will kill any rat or mouse she comes across. The mice are attracted to the chicken and duck feed and come in from the farm fields across the road. Sometimes she catches them, but the little field mice are very quick. We've had two rats try to set up home by the shed near the chicken coop, but Dotty got both. She also manages to catch the odd mouse now and then.

Bob, the cat, catches voles and brings them to the garden door sometimes. We are always surprised by this because Bob is such a fat old lump and can hardly move. He has none of the gracious ways that one usually associates with a cat. When he scales the garden fence, which is six foot high all the way around, he always looks as though he just made the jump. When he drops from the fence top upon the decking, he has the finesse of a hippo trying to be a ballerina. He hits the floor with a splat and then just gets up and waddles off.

Carole planted some sunflowers seeds as we were both keen on getting some big sunflowers going. However, our ducks ate them. They wander the garden freely. We had them in the chicken coup but the matriarch chicken started pecking the drake. Once this started all the other hens ganged up on the drake. We decided to move him and the three girl ducks into the garden and put their duck house here too. 

We also had a smaller redundant chicken coup here. Since the duck move, there is also a solitary chicken wandering the garden too. This new addition is because Carole suspected the other chickens began to gang up on this single chicken too. I don't know, but this is what Carole is convinced of. 

Then there is her rabbit called Willow. He likes to bound about in his little garden space. His raised hutch has a ramp leading down into the enclosed bit of garden and there is also four guinea pigs too.

Because we only had one sunflower seed left, Carole put chicken wire mesh about it for protection from the ducks. I laughed at such antics at first. Then she showed me the shoots sprouting up. This was only a few months ago. Now the sunflower is taller than me. We are delighted with it.

Now the sunflowers are taller than me.

Ducks doing their duck things.