Autumn View

At the beginning of March it was lovely to be able to chat to strangers as we enjoyed our walks before the world shifted into unfamiliar and surreal.

This is the tale of an encounter that happened on one of my local walks:

In the morning I waited in for a delivery that didn’t show up leading me to a window of opportunity after lunch for a local walk. I chose my direction and and one of my favourite benches was unusually vacant so I took my opportunity to sit and rest a while overlooking a pool watching the antics of the ducks and geese.

Just after I sat down I heard the exclamation ‘Oh! the bench is taken now’. A fisherman was walking along the path and settled his kit to the side of where I was perched on the bench.
I said I would move up so he could sit on the end of the bench. He protested but I moved anyway and he sat on the opposite end of the bench.

We got chatting and I asked if there were a lot of fish to be caught. He confirmed the were and some surprisingly big ones for a small pool. He showed me a picture (on his mobile phone) of him holding a large fish that he had caught recently.

As we were chatting the solitary white duck that frequents the pool was hovering around knowing that fishermen always have food. The fisherman fed the duck calling him Billy, My new found friend proceeded to tell me the story of how the duck arrived at the pool.

Apparently about 10 years ago a lady approached the pool with a shopping trolley from which she deposited three white ducks in the pool. Over the years two of the ducks met with unfortunate accidents (I will spare you the details) so now Billy was alone.

I was too busy chatting that I forgot to take photographs. The accompanying photographs are from walks that I took around the pool in 2019.

Billy

Billy

Spring View

Peace & Tranquility

(written for a Country Walking #walk1000miles Challenge).

10 Comments CherryPie on Mar 27th 2020

10 Responses to “Making New Friends on a Walk”

  1. lisl says:

    An unusual story, Cherie. I am pleased that at least one duck has survived

  2. Such a lovely encounter… one we can only dream of now.

    • CherryPie says:

      We are experiencing difficult times.

      I have not been for a walk since our lockdown I had stopped walking in the previous week. too many people walking in places that they previously didn’t.

      But I have an idea :-)

  3. shabana says:

    this is engaging story from your walk dear Cheri

    i felt for duck who is lonely just like us these days :( hope she or he find companion soon by some other kind person like that lady many years ago :)
    it is always nice to walk within nature
    stay well and blessed as always!

    • CherryPie says:

      We are all lonely these days but a least we can reach out to each other over social media and other electronic means :-)

      I think the duck is happy. Another gentleman I spoke to on a walk last year said that he had seen a yellow duckling on another local pond. This suggests that Billy may have had a mallard duck lady friend.

      I hope you and your family are OK and that you all stay safe and well in these challenging times.

  4. Poor duckies, who else is going to feed them now?