A Ducky Day

I've been cleaning my bathroom and need a break! That's not such a big job you're thinking but you'd have to see my bathroom. I have more than a hundred ducks and they're on every surface. They're on the walls, the window, the floor, several shelves, the old fashioned bathtub, the ceiling, the radiator, the towel racks and the back of the toilet. Once a year I do a thorough housecleaning and today is the day. The bathroom was all apart as I had a plumber in this morning finishing the tap installation. My friend had some problems so I had to call a plumber. It seemed like the right day for the big job.

I'm going out for dinner with my son, nephew and sister-in-law. I'm sure it will be a fun evening and the best part - I don't have to cook supper. My sister-in-law works on the north shore and experienced a snow storm/blizzard today. We have none on the south shore. Weird, eh? The last few posts on An Island Walk were from the area where she works and now those photo spots are all covered in snow.

Songs for today: Sweet Little Duck by Kathleen Edwards and Diving Duck Blues by Harry Manx and Kevin Breit. Those are already on the pages. To be replaced is the other song that I'd consider my favorite song on the pages along with Renee Olstead's version of Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby that I talked about a couple of days ago. This is Phoebe Snow's version of There's a Boat That's Leaving Soon For New York. This has been one of my favorite songs since Never Letting Go, the album it's on, came out. I think it's from that album anyway. I have all of her albums and am a big fan. The job she does on this Gershwin song is remarkable. It stills stops me in my tracks every time I play it and that is quite often. Also today is Shirley Horne's version. If you choose only one, let Phoebe's be it. Spectacular, I say.

A Change Has Got To Come

When describing my recent bad luck in an e-mail to a New York friend the other day, this is what she said - It's been Mercury retrograde, which ends on Monday. Hopefully, they'll be able to figure it out then. This is what I predicted a former friend would have said. Anyway, someone should tell Mercury that Monday has passed and it's ok to give up the retrograde.

Last night I put my mower blades right through the mower deck and bent the deck all to heck. It is fixed but not without a great deal of anxiety on my part, thinking that I may have another expensive repair bill. The guy didn't charge me but a beer - he's a good guy.

We had a hot humid day yesterday then rain for the morning today. Now it's sunny and cloudy, windy and we're expecting thunderstorms. Rain till noon tomorrow then sun and clouds....a repeat of today. I'm taking the day off so I'll do all the chores in the morning and go to the beach for the afternoon.

I just got this song today but it's title is certainly appropriate for this post. Mercury by Kathleen Edwards is to be a prayer to Mercury to change things around for me. I have many, many versions of A Change is Gonna Come up on the music pages but I have many more not up. Here's one more by Terence Trent D'Arby. I need some cheering up.

Music For Ducks, Music by Duhks

In for a little break from outside. It's quite nice though it's windy. The temperature is fourteen and it's sunny. I've been puttering outside all day and have had two walks already. I still didn't walk to the beach which was planned but may get there yet.

The ducks in the photo are from a park in Halifax. I got only a few photos as the park has stopped selling food to feed the ducks and have signs asking people to stop the practice. The ducks can't read, sadly, but some people are ignoring the requests, and the ducks are happy for it. I seem to be missing the ten ducklings that had hatched on Sunday. I haven't seen them in the pond since. They're probably still there, just hiding.

My children are all gathering again as there has been a death in my ex-husband's family. Just last week I was saying how nice it was to have everyone together when it wasn't for a funeral. This week, in comparison, will be very sad for everyone.

Music today is for the ducks and it's all Canadian. I've got Harry Manx and Kevin Breit with Diving Duck Blues and Kathleen Edwards with Sweet Little Duck. Here's a couple of links to the Duhks that I already have up there on Page One. The Duhks are pronounced The Ducks. I've heard they separated and hope that's not true. I like them a lot after seeing them a few years back. Here's one, two, three.