Spring Babies

One thing that I think is different between the US and England is that here in England there seems to be a closer connection between city life and farm life. I've mentioned before that I live in the central part of Cambridge, yet I can ride my bike for less than five minutes and see grazing cows. So we always seem to be encountering spring babies without even trying.

The path Anya and I take to her school borders a little stream where lives the cutest little family of ducks. There's eleven little babies. I wish my pictures were better so you could see how dang cute these little ducklings are. At the beginning of this week they swam in a tight little cluster right next to their mama, and already by today I see them individually off on their own adventures. Anya and I are loving checking out these ducks this week.

Last weekend we were out walking on an estate near London where we found these little babies. We've never seen anything like these birds. Cross breed of a duck and goose perhaps? The babies' bodies look like little goslings, but their beaks look like ducks.

I didn't mention before that a highlight of our northern trip was watching all the baby lambs everywhere. Watching them leaping around just doesn't get old. By the way, most of the farmers seem to mark their lambs with bright blue or red paint. Don't they realize how much better our pictures would look without the markings?

It's kind of hard getting a close-up photo of a lamb. They run away when you get close. Camille pointed out to me that that must be the reason behind the word "sheepish."

This isn't a baby, obviously, but another sign of spring is the return of the pheasants. It strikes me as such an only in England experience that Mike rides through a field of pheasants on his commute to work everyday. You know how in period English films the men are out proving how manly they are by going out and shooting pheasants? Ha! After spending time with pheasants I'm not the least bit impressed. They have to be one of the stupidest birds around. They're so slow to get out of the way of people, bikes or cars that I'm convinced I could catch one if I tried.

Oh, how I love spring in England!