April 16 - Day after Tax Day!

"If it's well written and well directed and you've got good actors to work with, acting is easy. But making sure all the ducks are in a row is the hard part. It's very rare." ~John Lithgow

"Sometimes I'll go by and there are a couple of swans, the next day it's a few ducks. I'd like to stop there every day for a year and capture how it changes, then put it all together to create an incredible image of a traditional English scene."
~ Graeme Le Saux

“There is one order of beauty which seems made to turn heads. It is a beauty like that of kittens, or very small downy ducks making gentle rippling noises with their soft bills, or babies just beginning to toddle.”
~ T.S. Eliot quotes

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Friday My Town~ Shoot Outs has deemed today as the day after taxes day.. Dave and I filed ours a long time ago in January and had spent the small amount of cash returned to us long before it gathered any dust in our pockets.. Money seems to go faster than it comes to us.. But I do think that is the way it is with almost everyone we know.. we were lucky in that we got a small amount back.. Many people have to pay more money in to the IRS..

Now that the work and worry of figuring out what you can claim and how you will ever come up with the extra cash to pay Uncle Sam has passed... we are asked to look through out Town photo's and choose just one that makes you smile or chuckle.. maybe even laugh..

Dave and I were walking along the lake today searching for a cactus.. ( don't ask it's a whole different story!).. when we spotted this young family along the walkway across the damn.. we had been watching a mother duck with a nest and hurried to check and see if this was the brood we have been watching and waiting on to hatch... As we got close they took off into the water with Both Mom and Dad quacking loudly... our duck was right where we left her a few days ago still sitting on her nest of warm bluish green eggs.. She even moved a tiny bit away when I asked nicely with the swish of a small leafy limb that hides them.. Counting quickly I saw that she still had nine eggs and moved away so that she could return to her vigil..

We watched as the parents swam away and then back to the damn as we walked on.. every time we came close they swam out again and would lead the babies right back as soon as we stepped away.. finally as we had our backs turned they dashed across the damn and settled on the edge of a large submerged rock.. Mama and Papa swam in circles around and around the boulder keeping the babies on their safe if rocky perch.. every time the papa came around to the side where we were he quacked at us as loud as I imagine he could.. I had to laugh at him.. I quickly snapped this photo.. It's a good thing too since I am not sure I had another "make you smile" photo in my stash.. Finally we decided that we didn't see the cactus we were looking for and headed back along the path to the car and home.. The young ducks are fluffy and sweet but you really don't want to come to near to them.. Mallards are great protectors of their young and though it might have made a funny photo I am sure that neither of us wanted to be attacked by a Papa duck today.. We prefer instead to enjoy their silly antics from a distance where we are safe from being quacked to death..

I hope you had a wonderful day after taxes day! I hope you had reasons to smile. giggle or laugh today.. If you didn't then maybe you can imagine me running from a quacking.. wing flapping. fluttering.. angry Papa duck.. see.. I know you laughed at that! Have a wonderful night!

Patsy