Mission accomplished.

 Well I never did get to the garden center, to busy writing out a Tenancy agreement. Our so called agent (Walkers) did nothing, in our opinion, to earn their money so instead we are taking it on ourselves hence my typing out the contract. Tomorrow is booked up because I'm off to look after our Grandson Josh while Christine has her final pregnancy scan at Burton Hospital. She only has another 4 weeks to go so its all quite exciting. On Wednesday we take Jade to the Leicester Vets4Pets for her MOT and more medication. Enough I hope to last for several months. Then Thursday the boat is due at Kingfishers dry dock so I cant see me getting any plants in the near future.

I was very sad to see that all our 12 ducklings have disappeared from below Sandiacre lock. Walking Jade last night towards Dockholme lock I heard a duck continually quacking as if in distress. Not a duckling in sight but she happened to be right by the bywash so it wouldn't surprise me if they all went over the edge and ended up below lock. I did hear a faint cheep cheep coming from the lock and sure enough one of the ducklings had somehow got in. Although the water level appeared to be correct, the gate wouldn't budge so leaving the duckling be I rushed back to get the windlass. Thankfully I met a boat heading for the lock and managed to convey the ducklings predicament. They leveled the water and the duckling swam out. First thing I did this morning was to search for the mum and her duckling. Nothing....... Not a sign of them anywhere.

This afternoon I was busy typing away when I heard quacking near to the boat. Coming along the bank was a duck and her ducklings. Not sure if it was the same mum of yesterday (they all look alike) but she headed for the waters edge and leapt in, closely followed by all the ducklings.

 After the initial ahhh moment I carried on with my work. Roughly 15 minutes later I heard a continues cheep cheep cheep. There on the bank was another duckling! I grabbed my fishing net, rushed outside only to see it disappearing between the bank and the boat. Thankfully our fenders stopped the duckling from being crushed and after a bit of a struggle managed to scoop it out.
Now all I had to do was find the mum! Heading off in the direction of Sandiacre I came across her by the A52 road bridge and after releasing the duckling from my net, it headed of towards a now loudly quacking mum. The chances of this little one surviving is quite remote but at least I have given it a head start. So mission accomplished!

And finally:- A definite duck theme going on!

This was one of the 12 ducklings below lock (photo taken a couple of days ago) and this was not the ducklings mum!