Through the window

Among the many mundane oddities that I find my day sprinkled through with there is one that stands out as a more entertaining pastime, which I find myself sometimes thoroughly absorbed in, that is gazing through my living room window.

There isn't much in the form of vista I suppose, what with a couple parked cars and more villaesque buildings in this rather zen area I live called 'Vernal Gardens', but there is life. 

Life in the form of a hundred cats prowling around, people out with their dogs, solitary smokers, housekeepers making house calls, children coming from schools, joggers, elders exchanging wisdom, construction workers, garbage trucks, courier companies delivering packages, so on and so forth.. — though there is nothing particularly Hitchcockian  about this hobby, I do feel a shiver of Rear Window's James Stewart come about me.

I'm no witness to murders yet but there's a considerably large number of things I've begun to notice and know. 

For example the walk timings of lady Labrador (I don't know her name but that's the breed of her dog), miscellaneous cat owners and residents who know little about parking cars. 

What I've also noticed are the neighbors from the building opposite who are madly in love with gardening and have taken to growing, composting and creating a sort of amazon in their backyard. 

Their backyard which is little more than a junkyard is quite a wonder to me, because just a few weeks earlier it looked like a vineyard, and for whatever reason they took it all off to reveal shambles underneath.

Well, it's aright, it's their yard after all and did I mention about their pets? 

They have three pets. All in the way of natural enemies, but there it is. A dog, a cat and a mynah that speaks greetings, says hello and does a good bit of whistling throughout the day. 

Their orange cat is also friends with my darling Gogi, and it was while I was looking out the window watching the cats scamper about in playful feline frenzy that I noticed a large white shape in their backyard. 

It was large, probably as large as a small dog, and suddenly it began to flutter about. It had wings and a flat beak.

It opened its wings to reveal the span of it and I realized with no less astonishment that it was a duck.

Knowing Chinese fondness for ducks I figured it'll be slaughtered in a day or two and be fed to a large gathering or party. It's pretty common here to gift ducks, chickens and sometimes even piglets for meals and I figured they probably have some relatives in the country, or maybe they just went and bought a large duck to cook. 

I Kept my eyes peeled and it's been almost two weeks and the duck still lives. 

Which means they are either fattening to cook it for some festival (but which one. New Year's gone) or they're keeping it for fresh eggs. 

I hope the latter to be true, because the duck is magnificent. It's beautiful, whiter than white and rather big.

I had to zoom rather hard through my window and the wire mesh protecting.

(Excuse the fonts on this post)