A sad time at the Manor! Fortunately some happy events too!

June this year and we are back at the Manor House in France. Having spent a couple of days with Suzanne and Jacques prior to their departure. The last afternoon at home was for last minute packing, printing boarding passes etc. However, one of the dogs, Nelson, collapsed outside in the driveway. It became evident that all was not well as he was unable to stand. Tom carried him inside and Suzanne rang the vet. He asked her to bring Nelson straight to the surgery. As everyone was very upset, it was decided Tom would drive us over. We went along not only for support but as, we too, had come to love this lovely old boy . The vet informed them that a cancerous cyst had burst in his foreleg and unfortunately there's was nothing more he could do. They would need to put him to sleep. We stayed in the surgery and we all said our teary goodbyes. Such a sad, sad time. RIP Nelson! Will miss you funny wake up calls and "Ou est la balle" will not be the same without you!

Not long after Suzanne and Jacques had left for their much needed holiday, we found our numbers had increased with the birth of 6 baby ducklings! After a lot of aarh and cooing (mostly by me), we spoke with the Jacques. He told us we would need to build them a shelter to protect them from the geese that also live on the pond. Apparently, they will attack them given the chance. The afternoon saw us build a fortress (which we have to say we were both rather proud of as we had not done this before) and then all we had to do was pop the babies and the mum inside out of harms way. Hmmm easier said than done! What a pantomime ensued.

Armed with pool nets we positioned ourselves on opposite banks of the pond. The idea being we would try to drive mum and chicks onshore where they would be easier to net and put into their enclosure. Round and round we went, I lost my footing and ended up knee high in mud and water and still they eluded us. After much laughter and a few more soakings we eventually managed to get the baby ducklings on terrafirma and in the net and into the relative safety of their new abode. As for mum, there was just no way we could catch her given she had the added bonus of flight. We decided we had done as much as we could and noticed as we returned to the house, she had taken up guard duty outside the fortress!

(By the way two did escape one night and sadly we did lose them but the other 4 survived and are now adult ducks enjoying their pond life at the Manor)