St Georges Day and Early Arrivals

A very patriotic pottery event on St George's Day

Saturday in the courtyard was really busy with potential knights making their own shields!  The Potters ran pottery workshops for children all day showing children how to roll, shape and decorate the raw clay.  They have now an array of shields in the kiln ready for firing which will be ready for pick up very soon.  As well as making shields they also made a dragon "scale" will be used as part of a large sculpture which will be fired outside in the garden on 24th August with a process called "Raku" - quite appropriate in making a dragon as it is a very fiery process!  Once the scales have been fired the final sculpture will be exhibited as part of the annual sculpture trail at the Craft Centre.

The Guide Dogs for the Blind charity also came along and help out and we had a couple of very well behaved Labrador dogs here for the day.

All of this was going on right next to where "Drainpipe Duck" is sitting on her eggs - she sat quietly with most people not even aware she was there, throughout the whole day, she only left the nest for a very short time - what a good mum!

A baby runner duck - first out!

Talking of ducks - we hear that there have been some very early arrivals in the incubator - this little one arrived out of the blue (it was a blue egg too!) at least a 10 days before he was expected.  The mum must have started sitting on the eggs before they were collected.  A couple of days latter there were another couple.  These ducks have a much higher chance of survival bred like this, rather than in the open - we have already seen the Carrion Crow waiting around the ponds and the Moorhens are on the prowl!  I hear that the babies will be in the gardens sometime today - the electricity has been wired up so that they can keep warm at night in the new pen.

Heat, Horses and Deluxe Coop

We are very glad our new "swimming pool" is fixed, especially with the heat of the last week or so - some of the people in the garden looked as though they might want to join us in the water at times!  Can't complain though - after the freezing temperatures all winter, we much prefer this!

The gardens are getting better each day under the careful supervision of Dayel who is watering the new grass regularly and now gardeners Chris and Jean have put back some pond plants too.  Won't be long before we have all the fences down and are fully back to normal.  Good thing too as it is pretty busy here at the moment and lots of people in the gardens enjoying hot cross buns, and today fish and chips (Good Friday).  Tomorrow we have St Georges Day stuff going on with the potters holding drop in workshops making dragon scales and shields!

The chickens are in the shade of their new coop by the pond.

The Chickens are particularly pleased at the moment as they have some new "luxury accommodation" with a lovely view of the pond.  They are still being put away at night though as the fox could still get into the pen.

Roxy - looking well groomed!

In the field life is becoming more active too - Floss and Molly the two chestnut mares have a new friend, Roxy - she is only 6 and has quite a 'personality'. This week she let herself, and the others, into the falconry flying area by playing with the gate catch - we will watch her antics with interest, especially when the cows get here next week!  Georgia (Roxy's human slave) and her Mum have been working hard with Roxy's mane and tail in the photo, trying to thin it out as she is so hot - very fashionable we think it will catch on!

Floss and Molly enjoying the lush grass 

A Flying Visit!

Yesterday morning we had a flying visit from two lovely geese - we think they were Greylag Geese flying back up to Scotland.  They had a bit of a rest on our ponds and were off again pretty quickly.  Great to see them though.

Another regular visitor have also arrived this week - 'Floss', the chestnut Mare who spends summers in the fields next to the Jinney Ring is back and this year she has some company - another chestnut Mare called 'Molly' - she is a bit younger than Floss and has lots of energy!  Just need the cows back now and it will really feel like summer is coming!

Ponds have now been completely refilled and the grass is looking pretty good. 

Mother's day and Drainpipe Duck!

Last weekend was really really busy here - both Saturday and Sunday with lots of people buying presents for, and celebrating Mothering Sunday here.  There were so many cars on Sunday that they had to open the field up for parking - I think everyone got fed and watered well though, as the restaurant staff worked their socks off and even served desserts to tables to keep the queues down.  The weather was nice for most of the time so the garden was also pretty full.  (The new grass is now growing, so it will not be long before the back garden is back to normal and the whole garden accessible again.).  All Mums' who had lunch were given a bunch of little daffodils and discount voucher for the gift shop, so there was plenty of colour around.

The evening restaurant was busy last week too, so we did not get as much sleep as normal on the ponds - on Thurday night the "Pudding Night" was full with lots of sweet toothed folk enjoying a bit of "naughty but nice".  On Saturday night a private 60th birthday party turned into an "engagement party"  - everyone was very pleased about this, lots to celebate!.

Talking romance - most of my duck friends are "in love" at the moment and everyone is looking for their own bit of "space" to raise their families.  This duck has found a nice sheltered spot in the courtyard outside the restaurant - it may be nice and sheltered but is it not that safe as there are a lot of visitors and some dogs that will pass her nest ! She is currently sitting on 11 eggs.

While we are waiting for the fist batch of ducklings to arrive we have some chicks in the garden growing up - they are close to the gardeners area on the right as you go out of the restaurant.  One of the local schools incubated the eggs and now they are growing up here before they go off to a new home.