Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Buckyballs to you, ducks!

Poor old pond! Last year, you will remember (if you are keeping the Alzheimer's at bay) that my pond was trashed by Mallards, but I figured that was a small price to pay for the joy of having a famliy of ducklings on my lawn. At the end of last year, I cleaned up the pond a bit, refilled it with water from the rain butt, trimmed the verges and restocked it with various aquatic plants, kindly provided by my darling friend, Barbara.
The ducks are back, chomping happily on the various aquatic plants kindly provided, etc.
What to do? I have decided - perhaps foolishly - to keep them away. Until I can put some netting over the pond, my only weapon is a brightly-coloured football that I hurl towards the pond every time they appear. It startles them and they fly off, a reproachful look in their eye (I am not imagining this!).
Did you know that the molecular structure of the isotope of Carbon, C60, also known as buckminsterfullerine, is made up of interlocking pentagons and hexagons, forming a sphere just like a football? If only I could explain this to the ducks, they might see the educational value and not feel so bad about being bombarded by a buckyball molecule every time they land on the pond.

2 comments:

Nea said...

To be fair, you should shout "Duck!" at them before lobbing the ball.

Jake Allsop said...

Nice one!