I have to report that I have just come in from burying the chinese goose – who never even got her own name – after finding her dead in the goose pen having been pecked to death overnight. I can only lay the blame for the deed at the gander’s door; he is a spiteful and brutal bird. She died beneath a sod and is buried beneath another. Still, she has a nice spot down not-too-far from the river and within the sound of the water. Perhaps that will soothe her sleep.