Did you read about this???? It appears that there was a major altercation at one of my favorite English gardens the other day. It's hard to imagine, given its posh atmosphere, but there was a free for all that turned quite ugly from what I hear.
It seems there was this gentleman, let's call him... Just William, and his lady love, having a beautiful afternoon tea at Pashley Manor. If you'll recall, I've mentioned Pashley Manor in a recent post and highlighted it as one of my favorite gardens of 2008. And that's why the events that unfolded there just a scant week or so ago, are simply beyond shocking.
Anyway, this Just William fellow and his wife were having a lovely afternoon tea at Pashley Manor when suddenly this big ball of feathers decided to pick a fight with him; poking at JW's leg in a very mean-spirited manner. Mind you, JW was minding his own business, in fact, I believe he was staring longingly into the eyes of his lady-love wife, whilst eating some kind of a scone or other, when this big... huge... fat duck decided to become quite obnoxious in a very un-English-like manner.
It was a horrendous affair with bits of scone and feathers flying all over the veranda and the help shouting at Just William to stop feeding the duck (which it might have appeared, whilst in the midst of this altercation, that the scone crumbs that were flying were actually being tossed at the duck)... deep breath.
It ended up with Just William giving everyone a tongue lashing, including the duck who does not understand English, and marching off to the local Little Chef, which has no ducks, to finish his afternoon tea.
Sigh... it's such a sad state of affairs to see yet another lovely English garden fall prey to roving bands of malicious ducks who don't even pay an admission fee to get in.
I'm happy to report that Just William has fully recovered from this horrifying event and is now having his afternoon teas at the local garden center. I do advise him, though, to be sure to sit under an umbrella whilst having his tea. Birds won't peck at people's legs in a mean-spirited manner but they have been known to leave their calling cards while flying overhead.
