Tag: Bach

Luna has become a mama’s girl.

~ Crystal Sands ~ 2 Comments

After a solid month of Luna being grumpy at me because she had to stay in the house to heal, she gradually started to turn in a more positive direction toward me. Now, she is a complete mama’s girl, and I am honestly going to have a very hard time when we have to try to move her back outside with the flock in the spring.

Luna and I have learned to communicate well with each other. She lets me know when she has to go potty, and she also lets me know when she’s hungry for peas, is bored, or just wants to be pet. She has also taught me that she loves to fly.

Indian Runner ducks cannot really fly. I have seen them get a little lift-off when they are running and flapping their wings, but they never really fly-fly. Apparently, Luna wants to fly though because we do this thing when I hold her up and she flaps her wings like she’s flying. I carry her throughout the house, and I can tell by the movement in her little muscles which way she wants to go. She stretches her little legs behind her and just goes all in with her flying. It seems to make her very happy, which makes me really happy too. I did have to learn how to keep my hands in a certain spot because those wings flap hard–and they can hurt. I think we have it down to a science though, and my favorite part is when I am lowering her to come in for a landing and she puts her little legs down like she’s lowering the landing gear.

She talks to me quite a bit now and loves me the most. This is a surprise to me after she was so grumpy at me for so long. It’s like she realized I am here to help, and I guess I must be doing a pretty good job. We spend time together almost every evening when I grade papers. I sit and binge watch something on television, and Luna watches it with me. She watched all of Ted Lasso with me, and we just finished Lessons in Chemistry.

She still gets grumpy sometimes though, and we have found that the best babysitter is Bach, specifically the Bach cello suites.

Over the six years we have had these ducks, we have had four ducks in the house for an extended period of time. With each duck, we found that they really loved cello music. Anna Sophia loved it so much that she would come running from different parts of the house to listen to it. For Anna Maria, it was the only thing that could calm her down.

I did tests with each duck to see what they like. I tried different types of classical music. It turns out ducks hate the horns. I also tried country music, rock music, folk music, etc. Bach always wins. Bach and the cello.

In this little video, I captured Luna in her most totally relaxed state listening to the Bach cello suites this week. It’s the best.

A duck, a cello, and a very proud dad…

~ Crystal Sands ~ 2 Comments

Day 341 of 365

Two days ago, we started putting Anna Maria into a separate fenced area, so she didn’t have to stay in the bathroom all day while she recovers from her injury.. She’s doing pretty well, though I know she wants to be back with her people. She is healing well, but is still separated from the flock.

I miss hanging out with her and listening to music with her. I loved seeing which music she liked. I could tell by her body language. In our time together, I have learned that Anna Maria makes a nervous back and forth movement when she is feeling anxious, but certain music makes her relax and listen.

Tonight, Ron was bringing Anna Maria into the house to sleep in the bathroom since she can’t sleep in the duck house. He said she was so scared being held that she was just trembling, but when Ron walked by the music room where our son was practicing his cello, he said Anna Maria stopped trembling and noticeably relaxed in his arms.

When my son was finished with the piece he was practicing, we asked him to play it again for Anna Maria. He said he was going to play something better for her. He played Bach’s Prelude to Cello Suite No. 1. This piece has a special place in all of our hearts because our son wanted to learn it so badly when he was little. When his teacher taught him how to play the whole thing, it was such a joy for all of us. And it’s a piece that remains a favorite for our son. He revisits old music fairly often, but the one piece he revisits most of all is this Prelude.

In fact, I have a series of videos of him playing it at different stages over the last few years. I think the first one was when he was 11. I said I was going to keep recording this piece his whole life to show his progress as a cellist, so every now and then, I get one on video. I haven’t recorded one in awhile, so tonight was perfect.

Anyway, I am so glad to share this video. It’s like my whole heart is in it–my son playing his cello, that beautiful duck, and Ron, holding that duck so she can listen to the music, and then that proud nod to our son at the end. Also, about mid-way through the video, you hear this scratching and sliding down the wall, that’s our cat, Betty, just being Betty. She was attacking the walls in the music room. She’s our wild child. Somehow, hearing Betty’s rowdiness just makes me love this video even more.