First comment of the day - wow, what a weekend! The other half and I needed a break - overworked and underpaid doesn't come close. When we were invited to north Wales by my good friend Robin Pierce, we jumped at the chance! We rented a beautifully converted longhouse just outside Pwllheli for the weekend. It took us nearly 4 hours to get there, battling with holiday traffic, tractors and those who think the speed limit on any road, anywhere in the country is 30mph (grrr)

Anyway, long story short, we had a fantastic time, despite sharing the longhouse with an army of spiders varying in size from little money spiders to great big godzilla ones, with hairy legs. Friday we spent at Pierce towers; we enjoyed a lovely BBQ in the garden overlooking beautiful fields, then we chilled inside drinking good wine, having lots of laughs. Saturday the other half and I went for a walk on Criccieth beach, skimming pebbles, rock jumping (don't ask), lobbing seaweed at each other - yep, we are childish, but it was serious fun. In the night, we celebrated Stevey baby's 17th birthday by going bowling (at which I sucked - no sarky comments, guys!) and then finishing it off at our longhouse with a nice meal and more wine and laughs.

Sunday was a bit of a whirlwind - we had to be out of the longhouse by 10 so we were up early packing and cooking our remaining bits and pieces before leaving an amusing message in the guestbook and heading back down south (stopping at the Pierce's on the way to say our final farewells of the weekend)

This is where the 'sitting duck' comes in: we were about halfway home, around the Caersws/Carno area, when I notice out of the corner of my eye a duck sat at the side of the road. It had primarily white feathers with black patches and what looked like blood around its bill. Long story short, I didn't recognise the breed characteristics and my first reaction was "it must've been hit by a car, maybe concussed, but it needs help". Whilst looking for a layby I scanned the surrounding area - nature reserve on one side, farm shop on the other - it could've come from either. 1/2 mile later I came across a layby so swung back around and parked up near the duck. It was quite big, as far as ducks go - when it stood up, it stood upright, like a runner duck. Soon, when it caught on that we were not going anywhere without it, it started waddling around. That's a good sign - at least it had no spinal injury. My other half tried to grab it as I got an animal carrier out of the boot - cue the Benny Hill music!! I was laughing so much (unprofessional, I know), but I'd never seen anything like it! My boyfriend bent over running after a duck at the side of the main road through Wales!! Ok, so perhaps it wasn't injured - perhaps the red was colouring on the bill and the feathers naturally black rather than as a result of a collision. Either way, it wasn't safe on the side of the A470!! I soon had to get back in the car and drive up the road as the pair ran further and further in the wrong direction but alas, just as he was finally close enough to grab it, it started flying, narrowly missing a 4x4!

Ok, not the way i envisaged the rescue going, but it was a success - whereas I would've worried if I'd left it there, I now know that, if it was injured, it wasn't bad enough to stop it flying or walking. Plus, by forcing it to fly away, we got it away from the side of a busy road, thus lowering its chances of being hit.

Bad points? I realised I need a net badly - trying to catch an animal that's still mobile is nay on impossible!!!