FRANCIS'S BLOG 04/22/2026
Super-duper pea-souper (it was foggy 🐴)
It was quite foggy this morning. You could barely see us from the farm house.
Oh, and here’s a video of Schroeder eating the ducks’ mealworms. Watch him bat a duck away at the 3 and 33 second marks:
Georgia visited us this past Saturday! ❤️
We are still glowing from our visit from Georgia last Saturday! ❤️
She first stopped by Luigi. Her visit cheered him right up! 😺
And of course she treated the ducks to more mealworms than they could eat (which is a lot of mealworms)! 🐴
Georgia and Noodle had so much fun with the tractor! 😺
Is that the face of a confident tractor operator, or what? ❤️
And before she went home to Chicago, she enjoyed some grapes from the backyard fence in Bettendorf. ❤️
More England pictures! 🐴
Here we are at Castle Rising.
This Castle belonged to the Howards; whose daughter, Catherine, was married to, and executed by, Henry VIII.
As you can see, it’s surrounded by big protective hills.
Why was Castle Rising my favorite place in England?
Because the food was great! 🐴
What’s Henry been up to? 🐎
Henry says he’s been feeling pretty good lately.
He likes the cooler weather! 🐎
Jewel spends the night 🐎
Jewel has another fun sleepover at the farm. Here she is having her breakfast hay:
Stormy wants his “breakfast nook” back:
Don’t worry Stormy, you’ll have your stall back tomorrow. 🐴
The swallows are getting ready to go 🐦
The last baby swallows are leaving the nest:
And all the accomplished flyers are flocking together:
This means they are getting ready to fly south! 🐦
First rainy morning in a long while 🙀
It’s a miserable, rainy morning, and Luigi looks the part:
Meanwhile, Paschal prepares to plunge into the pool:
What perfect form! 😺
Fowl news 🐦
The neighbor's 6 pekins cross the street, uninvited, to avail themselves of our facilities:
Hey! Our pools are not public! 🐴
What’s good for the duck, is good for the cat 😺
Schroeder figures, if the ducks can eat his cat food. . .
he can eat their duck food. 😺
Jewel spends a few days with us! 🐎
Here’s Mary and Mara giving Iris and Jewel a workout in the cool of the early morning:
And now they get a walk in the front yard:
That evening, here’s Jewel getting ready for her sleepover last night:
And this morning, she and RC are keeping each other company in the front pasture:
🐎
No matter where I am in the world, I can’t avoid buzzards! 🐴
Here I am at the Norfolk Lavender Company’s visitor park in Heacham, England:
It was very sweet smelling:
There were horses:
And cricket:
And happy bees:
There were also buzzards (I mean African geese, who, in spite of their name, originate from China). Here I am being surrounded:
Thank goodness I got away. Those things were scary-looking:
There were also peacocks, who were pretty, but noisy:
And last (and if you ask me, least), were the “call ducks.” Trust me, they were all over the place and you didn’t have to call them. 🐴
They are tiny little ducks, not much bigger than pigeons. They puttered all around the people's lunch tables, begging for food:
The people found them very cute (I found them freeloaders 🐴).
This last beggar, making puppy-duck eyes for sympathy, was the star of the show. 🐴
Cat in the pan 😺
Kanna says, “A pan isn’t always a ‘cat pan.’”
“Sometimes it’s a bed with a great vantage point.” 😺
Here are more pictures from England! 🐴
Here we are at the little but popular seaside resort of Lyme Regis:
Here I am standing perilously on the sea wall that protects the harbor:
You’ll notice the sea wall has no railings:
It was very picturesque (and a little dangerous). 🐴
Kanna keeps cool 😺
Kanna enjoys the shade from the tree that’s grown over our feed shed:
That tree keeps the inside of the shed cool, too.
Sidmouth Donkey Sanctuary 🐴
In Sidmouth, England there is a massive farm, just for donkeys!
It is acres and acres of green fields and shelter for donkeys of all colors and sizes.
Here I am resting among the residents.
Oh, and here’s an English farm kitty.
This “stamp” in the meadow makes sure everyone knows this farm is just for donkeys!
🐴
We are fans of this fan 🐴
We love the old furnace blower that DadDad made into a powerful fan.
We get in line to stand in front of it (although it has plenty of “blow” for three or four): It keeps us cool and blows off flies. 🐴
Ok, who left the gate open? 🐎
Last Monday night, someone left the gate open. So Tuesday morning, we were found way, way out in the far pasture:
The cat cops had to walk way out here with a riding crop to convince us to come in for breakfast:
We didn’t take much convincing:
Although we were a little full from grass. 🐎
I’m back! 🐴
I’m still unpacking and going through my pictures.
In the meantime, here is a picture and a video of some highly-educated Cambridge cows, as they cross a bridge by the River Cam. . .
. . .which is how Cambridge got its name.