Beer Festival (2)

The Beer Festival continued .....A busy night in the restaurant Saturday - lots of pies and pints sold on Saturday night and plenty to do and see...

Deborah Rose and Friends Saturday Night in the Restaurant - Beautiful  voice !

Belle D'Vain - Morris/Clog Dancers - they hopped in and out with the showers

Great Fun!

A Posh Git (Mickey with his dog) and the Scouser (Griff) - Brilliant!

Emily - had her face painted for the day by Cynthia for the Cinnamon Trust
Lots more done later in the day with the England Flag.... wonder why??

Apart from the Beer festival on Sunday - the ducklings came back to the garden and are now safely in the pen and enjoying the fresh air... all looking healthy and well, do come an see them in their new improved pen, complete with built in swimming pool!

New area segregated for the ducklings and recovering ducks - Built by Mick.

Time for a rest now --- it has been a really busy couple of months, now need to recoup and get the garden a bit dryer -- for the summer, if it ever comes!!

Beer Festival (1)

Another wild week in the gardens.  Bit of excitement yesterday as one of our duck friends suddenly appeared from the island with 15 baby ducklings - 8 yellow and the rest a mixture of mallard and brown/cross.  We think she must have been sitting in another ducks eggs as well as her own.  As often happens now, the humans took most of them away as soon as they could -- there are still lots of crows about and the moor hens are being very aggressive because they have chicks of their own out and about, so it is just as well to protect them as she has too many to watch them all!  We expect to see the rescued ducklings in the pen on Sunday once they have grown a bit under a hot lamp.

Stormy night but no watered down beer!

In the meanwhile - the front of the site has been transformed for the beer festival and we have had lots of visitors despite the weather.

Friday night we had our old friends the Ragtime Jug Orchestra here again - they are great fun and as usual they got people involved in the music. On the menu plenty of fish and chip suppers went down well with the ales.

First around all of the Ales and Ciders were the family team above - from right, local man (Dad) Nobby, Kev (aka Nobby jr) and Andi.  Andi and Kev were on their way back from a wet walking holiday in Wales - seemed quite warm in Hanbury to them, especially after a few pints, they were great sports!

Saturday the day started off brighter and the place was buzzing by the time accordion player Helen O'Donnell started up. Also here are Cinnamon Trust (one of the Jinney Ring charities of the year) who have a face painter with them.  Here are a couple of her 'models' posing for the camera, really pretty!

Samba dancing next ..... can't wait, see the next diary note for details of the rest of the festival.  For details of the food and entertainment please click here

Treading the Boards

The big marquee in the gardens stayed with us all last week and got a "make over" on Friday by Bride Tammie and her Bridesmaid/ best friend Hayley -- they brought in all sorts of bottles, jars and cages (we were worried at first!) and set about changing the inside of the marquee to a "vintage theme".  Lots of bunting later it looked quite different to last weekend.

Fortunately the cages were for candles not us!

The marquee was filled with flowers and home made bunting!

Tammie married Ian in Bromsgrove on Saturday and their two little boys were pages for them.   The weather was not as kind as the prior weekend but fortunately they had their pictures taken and were well into their party when the rain really came down.  This did not dampen spirits at all, even if they did stay inside the marquee, which stayed quite dry inside. They all danced until midnight!

Tammie and Ian with their vintage cars - all part of their theme.

The following day was a bit more of a damp squib....

In the gardens we were expecting to see a few hats for the advertised "High Tea" to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee weekend.  Sadly, as there had been so much rain and it was so cold and windy this was cancelled and we spent the day pretty much on our own, with not too many visitors venturing outside to feed us. This all changed on Monday though -- the garden was swarming with people, mostly our neighbours.  This was for the village Diamond Jubilee Party. There was a barn dance with Herbal Remedy followed by a band Retrovibe (also know as The Old Relics - the marquee company owner Neale plays bass guitar!) and a pig roast.  The weather was much better and when the beacon was lit next to the church everyone left the tent to see - we could also see others on the hillsides around.  Everyone was in excellent humour and seemed to have a good time.  By this time we were quite exhausted with our people watching and were more than happy to go to sleep just after midnight!.

The big marquee is going down now, but we could not resist have our turn at a dance before the boards finally go - it is a bit wet though so it is a little like skating!

Treading the boards!