Peace in the Garden.

All is at peace in the world.  At least in my garden.  Just in from evening of watering, weeding and picking fresh stuff to eat.  After my gardening was done, as I headed into the house, I saw the old duck just hanging out by the door.  The chickens are contained in a wire pen, but the old duck has the freedom of the yard.  He is the last one of a batch of ducks I got over 10 years ago.  We decided to just let them be ornamental fowl, along with our turkeys, as we weren’t having much luck with them reproducing.  The ducks have died of old age one by one till just this old guy is left.  The turkeys are also gone now so only the one old duck.  He likes to hang out in back near the kitchen door and old dog Seal.  They seem quite the companions.  Anyway, he looked a little bored and sad, so I decided to liven up his life a bit with some old buggy cereal I had found in the cupboard.  I had to lock up the dogs first because naughty Acacia, the puppy, likes to eat old cereal too and doesn’t give the old duck a chance!  So often a simple idea quickly gets complicated, but if one sticks with it, little joys can appear.  After getting everything situated, including filling up a dish with water to help get the dry cereal down, I threw a bunch of cereal near the duck.  Boy did he enjoy that!  A couple bites of cereal and a few swallows of water.  A couple bites of cereal and a few swallows of water.  Repeat.  Mouse came out to see what the excitement was about as she had managed to not be locked up with the other dogs.  She came to sit on my lap as I sat on the rock wall, watching with me as the duck enjoyed himself with his special meal.  The funniest thing was that I noticed that as he took water in his beak to mix with the cereal, he did this funny little beak shake and vibrated his throat in a way which reminded me exactly of my Dad when he is getting a good taste of something.  My Dad likes to move his mouth and tongue in a certain way to get a good first taste of some new food on all his taste buds which makes his chin and neck vibrate just the way the old duck was doing with the cereal and water mixture.  What an observation.  Two food connoisseurs, one humankind, one birdkind, making sure they get the most out of their dining adventures, being mirror images of one another!  Imagine that!  It was so peaceful sitting in my garden with my fellow creatures around me, the sun setting and birds singing and twittering as they start to settle for the night.  Joy deep in the soul.