I have this little widget that tells me if anyone is visiting my blog and it tells me that absolutely,positively,nobody but myself is reading. Now, that could be construed as being very sad and disappointing but in my case, it is not. Instead of using the "750 Words" site, I can now use my little sad blog as a safe place to exercise my brain and use the skills I am in the process of acquiring.
I can write about anything that I wish to. Secrets that are trapped in my brain, creative thoughts that never-wise come to fruition. I don't have to make any sense, need not create a powerful opening sentence or a dramatic, twist of fate wrap up. No audiences to wow. No teacher to criticize and correct. Only me, myself and spell check. How lucky can one aspiring amateur writer be?
Last year, a friend was kind enough to do us a favor that required lots of physical work and stamina. Each year, this friend orders four pallets of pellets for a stove which sits in the dining room of her home. When the season is over, and the pallets are empty, she takes them to the dump. Last spring, I had a brilliant idea. " Can we have the pallets?" I begged. "We can use them to make a dock down at the pond". Before one could say "that's a ducky idea", she and her very strong and able son in law had loaded them onto his truck, drove them over, and deposited them onto our then patio. Joe was not happy. He had not ordered the pallets and could not envision what I had, the little dock, all set for two beach chairs. Wine in hand, we would soon be sitting at the shore line, enjoying an afternoon watching the ducks and the gentle movement of the pond. I had "pretty" on my mind. He had "how do I get these out of here" on his.
Well, before long, Joe did get tired of the pallets on the patio and one by one, he dragged them down to the pond and randomly laid them down. No pattern. Not the vision I had. Just there.
The summer quickly passed. We moved to the top floor apartment. Packing, moving, unpacking, relaxing at the beach. Time slipped away and not once did I take the short walk down to the pond. The view from our new place is a spectacular one of the pond. No need to actually go down there, I can see it all from up here. I can see the pallets, strewn at the shoreline.
Spring is arriving early this year. We've moved, unpacked,spent a lovely winter in our new apartment. The entire pond is now as familiar to me as the back of my hand but the first real spring like day was too good to ignore. After a walk around the neighborhood on that glorious afternoon, I suggested that before going back indoors, we walk down to have a look at the pond.
A little burst of spring fever, a spurt of energy, and the four pallets soon were pulled together, in a lovely square, ends meeting, carefully lined up into what now appears to be a "dock". How fancy of us. A tiny fish pier steps away from our house. A few minutes of clearing dead brush and tree limbs and the area now became a "landing". Plenty of room for two chairs and maybe even a little outdoor table.....to hold a bottle of wine. We're ready now.
As we walked back up the stairs, we turned around to see our handiwork. Well done. Quack, quack.....coming to our dock, gracefully paddling in formation, our duck friends. They were coming to inspect, perhaps to approve of our work and let us know that good times were ahead.
We were pleased and amused at their gesture. Friendly birds. We came back upstairs and later that same afternoon, I looked down at the pond, admiring what we had recently created and to my complete surprise and utter delight, I watched no less than 24 ducks, all in a straight line, one behind the other, leap out of the water, onto the dock and up the stairs. The line, unbroken, took them to our back yard and across the lawn to another neighbor's bird feeder. Now, the line broke. No longer in formation, the ducks gathered around the base of the feeder and found their own feast. As they pecked around and stayed so long, it became apparent that there was a lot of feed on the ground, lots of refreshments.
So, spring has almost arrived and we're all set. We have our new place, they theirs. I doubt that ducks drink wine and I doubt, seriously, that you might find Joe and I pecking around the base of a feeder, but we're all getting happier every day. Bring it on Spring!!!
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