Sunday 4th April 2010 - Smarden

A little while ago, we were sitting around the table at the farm and I was browsing through the parish magazine. An Easter Sunday Duck Race caught my eye. We all thought it sounded like it might be a good idea and we had nothing else planned. So rallying the troops, friends from as far as Peacehaven and Beckenham joined us. We met at the farm and booted up for a muddy walk. We decided cross country was quicker. The village was as busy as we expected. More ducks and duck squawkers were available in the Flying Horse pub garden. We then wandered along to the bridge over the river where most people seemed to be gathering. Most of us went further up the road to cross the field to get closer to the river. We found a lower platform to stand on below the bank. The 800+ ducks were in two plastic dustbins and were chucked in further up the river. We cheered them down. They looked like clumps of daffodils coming down the river. It was difficult to spot the numbers on the ducks but we noticed a few, in particular Dave's duck, no. 172. We suspected it was going to be last but it got ahead of a few. Two guys were in the water up to their chests at the end of race to collect the ducks in. The stragglers were chased up by a couple of guys in a boat. A couple of ducks escaped past the finish line and when we left they were being followed up stream by the boating guys.


We wandered back through the church yard. Kat and I had a look in the art shop in the village and then we found that the boys had slipped into the Chequers for a crafty one while they were waiting. Kat had a quick drink with them while we waited and then we walked back to the farm. While the BBQ was being warmed up, we took the troops up to the barns to meet the beasts. Kat and Charlotte enjoyed feeding the straw to the cows. I got “cow licked”. They have very prickly tongues, great ex foliation!! The back of my hand was very smooth afterwards. In the nursery, there were two sheep and 3 lambs. None to bottle feed today. Soon it was time to go back to the house, and help with the cooking. As usual, we had far more food than we could finish off, and everyone ate plenty.

To walk off the lovely food, we had a wander around the ponds. The second one we visited is where the ducks are. I thought the ducks would have been scared into the water by our visit but one particular male was so not scared of us, he carried on doing what birds do the best!! Most of us tried not to look! Someone made a comment like “that's where the chicken twizzler comes from”!! It was soon time to say our goodbyes. We had decided it had been such a good day that it might get added to the calendar as an annual event.

In the evening, as I didn't go bowling, we caught up on Flash Forward. We had 3 episodes to watch now. It was good. I will watch it again sometime soon and put it on to disk. Later I watched Calendar Girls. A lovely film that I like to enjoy on my own as I cry every time. If you've not seen it, it's a British comedy about 12 members from the Women's Institute who make a calendar to raise money for a worthy cause. Good girly flick, that you could even watch with your mother.