All your ducks in a row

There's an English expression about getting all your ducks in a row - it means getting everything in order. It's a good expression both for presenting a paper at a Conference and for moving. It's a great ideal to strive for - and in both situations I've been doing my best.

But sometimes, no matter how hard you try, there's no guarantee that your ducks will stay in a row - as illustrated by this great picture opportunity Matthijs and I ran across in Kensington Park in London.

By the time I got my camera out, the birds had started to hop off the posts nearest to us. I'm hoping that with moving, 'my' ducks will stay a bit more in place (they did, at least, in the presentation of my paper in London).