This is a Utrecht canal, where I happened to be boating with friends and where the ducks were kind enough to line up in a row. “Having one’s ducks in a row” expressing ‘being well prepared”, and ‘well prepared’ being my middle name, I looked into the origin of the expression. Found a world of explanation on ‘the word detective’ [here], suggesting a number of  explanations:

a. a mother duck with ducklings in single file;
b. a pool-hall term for having one’s balls lined up in front of pockets;
c. shipbuilders bending wood using ‘ducks’ i.e. weights to hold splines in place;
d. carnival shooting galleries having a row of ‘duck’ targets;
e. shot ducks lined up for inspection;
f. weights holding a spline in place prior to drawing a countour on a design drawing;
g. duck pins in a bowling game

I love trivia! Also I am on holiday and have time to follow my fancies. Nice!