#lead swans

The residents of Sunnyside, one of the very few mock Tudor "folly" houses built in the 1930s by the new English laird of the tiny Scottish hamlet of Achmothogair (renamed optimistically as Sunnyville by that same man), are very fond of their garden pond. Despite its diminutive size, the pond is surprisingly popular with the wildfowl of the area, to the extent that it is sometimes hard to see the water for all the ducks and swans afloat in it.

The ritual of "feeding the ducks", undertaken daily as a pleasant routine by the bird-loving owners of the pond, is of course also popular with the neighbours' children, but they are under a strict injunction to stay well away from the swans and geese, for fear that they might be bitten.

There was great excitement at Sunnyside, in the tiny and remote Scottish hamlet of Sunnyville (formerly known as Achmothogair), for although it was only the beginning of February, the first full-sized daffodils had started to flower, several weeks earlier than in previous years. The residents could hardly believe their eyes, for they had not thought the winter unusually mild, but the evidence was there before them, and even the ducks seemed to be surprised, although they were perhaps more interested in helping the gentleman of the house weed his snowdrop beds.