jmgoyder

wings and things

Torn between two lovers

Remember this song? If you aren’t old enough to remember it (hehe!) it’s worth a listen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1F5BLLFAeM

Here is our male Indian Runner duck following his girlfriend. When these ducks run, they look exactly like Basil from Fawlty Towers! I have never named these two because originally we had several until we realised we had a fox problem, so I just call our remaining couple “Duckies”. The male is the one I rescued from the fox that awful morning after the massacre of several poultry. I ran outside, in response to terrible squawking, to find the fox with its jaws around this duck’s neck. Ever since then, he hasn’t been able to quack normally. On the upside, he is very good at sex and never leaves his girlfriend alone; not only that, he tries it on with all the geese and, just recently, with little Tapper.

And here is Zaruma who, as of yesterday, proved his manhood by getting it together with Tapper.

I didn’t even realise Tapper was a girl until I witnessed both the Indian runner and Zaruma eyeing her off (I reckon that this is a gentler way of describing what really happens – hell! Unlike chooks, ducks kind of take awhile.)

So Tapper is now in great demand and has become a terrible flirt! She can’t seem to decide between the Indian Runner and Zaruma.

The funniest thing is that, while I always look away tactfully, whenever ‘it’ happens, the geese go crazy-loud like some sort of cheering squad. I do not approve!

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In a different way, I feel torn between the two people I love most in the world, Husband and Son. With Husband 20 kms south of the farm in the nursing lodge and Son 200 kms north in the hospital, Son is taking priority at the moment and I’m heading back up to Perth to see him soon. Yesterday I spent the afternoon with Husband and he and Son had their first phone conversation since Son’s surgery. I had to enable this because, although Husband can answer his phone, he’s not so good at ringing, and Son is too incapacitated at the moment to answer his phone – argh. Anyway when I finally got them phone-connected, one of the things Son said to Husband was “Now I really know how you feel, Dad.”

Here is a picture of them shaking hands a few days before Son’s surgery. We were at my brother’s place just down the road from the nursing lodge. It seems like a hundred years ago now!

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Hearing

My ears seem to be more attuned to sounds lately. I keep hearing birds calling and sometimes I rush out of the house thinking I’ve heard a bird in distress when it’s only the Butcher birds squabbling in the fig trees just outside the back veranda.

Last night, Son was at his friend’s place and, as Husband is still in hospital, I was all alone (well, except for the birds!) and the bliss of this almost overwhelmed me because I love being alone – always have.

But I kept hearing Husband calling me – ‘Jules, Jules?’ and I kept hearing his walking stick tap-tap-tapping on the wall because that’s what he does when he wants us to come and help him get out of bed.

The night before I said to Son, “Do you keep hearing Dad calling you?” He said he did and we laughed about our imaginations being a little overwrought.

But now I can’t hear anything – nothing at all.

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