Romeo and Juliet

When Joe and I first came to look at this house, while house hunting, the owner told us that every Spring and Summer a pair of swans came to live in the pond behind the house. Sometimes they even raised a family of cygnets. The idea of having swans living in "our" pond was so entrancing. The first few years we did have a pair of swans that lived here, but then one year, they didn't come. I didn't see swans on our pond again until just a couple years ago. Those that did come didn't stay long. I think the family of geese that had moved in were too territorial and loud, and the swans moved on after a week or so. Not so this year. A pair moved in mid Spring and has made the pond and bog their home. I love to watch them glide around the pond, gracefully dipping their heads into the water in search of food as I sit sipping my tea in the morning. It adds yet another soothing dimension to an already mellow part of my day. I have tried and tried, in vain, to get a really good photo of our resident swans, whom by the way have been dubbed Romeo and Juliet (or Swany and Mrs. Swany, depending on which member of the household you're talking to). I hope I manage to capture their beauty and grace in a photo before they leave us this fall.