A Garden Surprise

 This morning I went out to do a couple of quick jobs in the garden and four hours later I was still pottering - that happens often to me as I get caught up in the moment and keep finding myself in my happy place getting my garden jobs done. 

I decided to make a start on my very overgrown herb garden that will be a big job to clear out as it is full of quite a few things that have got away on me - like mint that escaped the pot of planted it in and horseradish. What was I thinking? I really was never going to make much of a dent in this job as I had not actually planned for a day in the garden and 4 hours of my day had already slipped by. Nevertheless I did tell myself that a start today might get me motivated to do more over the coming days.

I decided to start by digging out a hawthorn sapling that has been deposited there by a bird that has quietly grown to quite a size and which I often walk past and think "I must dig that out". As I was pushing in the spade deep into the ground beside it I was startled by the sudden flapping of wings as a female Mallard duck flew off the nest of eggs she was sitting on amongst the weeds. It gave me such a fright but then delight as I got to see this beautiful clutch of pale blue eggs in this cleverly constructed nest of twigs. 

Despite all of the ducks we see fly over or trailing their duckling across the paddocks in spring or hear down on our pond in autumn I've never seen this before in our garden. I was surprised by how well hidden she was yet very close to the path we walk up and down a lot. I have never noticed her building the nest and wonder how she managed to do this without us seeing. I wonder how long she has been there? 

I also wonder if she'll come back now that I've startled her. I am hoping she comes back. I did take the opportunity to dig the hawthorn out while I was there but then I covered things back over with the surrounded plants and resigned myself to the fact that I won't be weeding this patch of garden for a while. I will need to surreptitiously watch to see if she comes back. I hope so...