young ducks

[ellenkushner]

It's early autumn. My heroine has been sent to the country, to a place that sure sounds like Normandy to me (lots of apple trees & streams & fields). Here's what I wrote a long time ago:

So I followed the stream into the woods instead, and found a little waterfall and a blackberry thicket with plenty of berries left, and a nest of young ducks (? well something more seasonal anyway).

Are ducks still young in early autumn? I just liked the way the words sounded, and the image - but if I'm about to make a fool of myself to people who know about ducks, can you suggest something else?

(NO ONE in my very erudite writer's group has taken up the challenge - various copies of the page have remained suspiciously pristine, despite my piteous little note in the text. I mean, if they knew the ducks were all right they would have said so, right??)

Comments

Hello, Ellen

[intelligentrix.livejournal.com]

I found you by following the breadcrumb trail through various journals. I hope you don't mind if I add you to my reading list and pop in with a comment now and again. That introduction made, I am compelled to inform you that the following sentence: I certainly cannot change it to "...and found a little waterfall and a blackberry thicket with plenty of berries left, and a coupla ducks." actually made me burst into laughter. Thank you for it.

Re: Hello, Ellen

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Enchantée! Welcome.

No, no, I am quite used to making people burst into laughter . . . really! (smirks, but refuses to use emoticons, ever)