We’ve been traveling for a substantial amount of time, as is evident by my absence from my blog site. My husband and I spent nearly a month in our home state of Washington working on a rental property and visiting with family. While that is both needful and enjoyable, that also means that we were gone from home for an extended amount of time. We are at the place in life where we have no children to worry about, no pets to be concerned for and all recurring bills are on autopay. Unfortunately the grass was left to its own devices—and it had a field day, so to speak. Our dependable neighbors picked up our mail for us daily, and our daughter and grandchildren made sure that the pool did not go unused. Serious duty, that. So we returned home to a relatively peaceful, well tended home.
We did, however, quickly discover that we had an infestation of sorts. My daughter had left a note on our kitchen bar welcoming us home. In the lower corner was a tiny little duck who she noted was there to welcome us home as well. Cute little bugger. As I was putting things away, I retrieved my butter dish from the refrigerator to place it on the counter (I like my butter room temperature). I lifted the lid to see if I needed to replenish the dish, and there, sitting on my butter dish was another wee tiny duck. I laughed and pointed it out to John.
Within a couple of minutes John called out to me that he had found another of our little friends on a shelf in the family room. Aaahh. I began to search in earnest. Within a matter of minutes we had uncovered a number of them stashed about the house. It was late, or early since our plane had arrived at 1:30 in the morning, so we put it and ourselves to bed.
Our daughter’s youngest child was with us the next day and was surprisingly very closed mouth about it. They must have all agreed to not reveal anything at all about the hiding places. He did give away some revealing hints. Primarily because he’s ten years old and was not as subtle as he may have imagined he was being. Two of his siblings were over later and decided they wanted to all play Scrabble with me. The real reason was revealed when I drew the very last tile and discovered yet another tiny fellow. Clever little kids my grandchildren.
Over the course of the last couple of weeks now, we have found miniature ducks numbering in the 90’s. From kitchen drawers, jewelry boxes, towels, soap dishes, cabinets and drawers, old plastic Easter eggs, cookie and candy cartons, hiding behind pictures and in coffee cups. One of my favorites was inside an oven mitt. Much to my chagrin, one was in the bottom of my mother’s cookie jar, which is supposed to be off limits. One was even waiting in the bottom of a water bottle in the garage refrigerator. To keep track of the random, silly, inventive hiding spots we began to keep a list of where we have located our captured fowl. I think the most amusing, to date, was one bold fellow who was sitting on top of the poultry seasoning in my spice rack. Random or intentional? I’m not sure, but memorable nonetheless.
Because I know that my daughter purchased these on Amazon, I am going on the assumption that they came in a pack of 100. Based upon that, I believe that we are most likely nearing the end of duck hunting season. In a conversation with her, I mentioned that one of her sons made the comment that some of them quite possibly may be discovered by the next owners of our house. She laughed and said that they hid them in places where we may come upon them while in the course of just doing our normal things.
That may be…but given the places some of them have been found, I just have to wonder what they think we do all day?
I am holding on to these adorable little creatures. Some day, at some point in the future, my children will be leaving their house unattended for a period of time. And I have a key.
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