A Duck's Diary from the Jinney Ring Craft Centre

Just some of the stuff that I see here!



Tuesday 26 February 2013

Loss of a good friend

Today we received the sad news that Charles Lewis (Chas), long time friend of the Jinney Ring has died after a long fight with Cancer.

Chas - will be missed by everyone including especially family

We know Chas and his wife Barbara from many events they held here including their Silver Wedding Anniversary party in 2008.  Chas was a camera man in his working live and travelled the world. He had plenty of tales to tell, always well told with a wicked sense of humour and became a very good friend.  He also worked on behalf of Cancer Research raising money through concerts and other events.  He held a concert on the Jinney Ring gardens in 2007

Charity Concert at Jinney Ring

In the last few years he popped in to see us on and off and always enjoyed a cuppa (and sometimes some Bread and Butter pud) by the ponds when the weather was nice - we will miss him and we all send our love to Barbara and his lovely family.  We hope he is enjoying playing his Guitar in the clouds.... RIP.

Saturday 16 February 2013

A Week of 'Brides', Romance and Cameras!

Lovely day today with the sun out and a bit of spring in the air, let's hope it dries the ground out a little bit.
It is just right for a nice day of relaxing with plenty of corn available from our friends who come to feed us....in truth we are a bit exhausted after a very busy few days and we need a rest.......

First there was Valentines evening when the restaurant was open until late with romance in the air.  There were roses and candles on the tables and some sharing dishes on the menu plus hearts everywhere - everyone looked really happy and relaxed.  It was especially lovely to see some very familiar faces among the diners including Ron and Rebecca who celebrated their marriage with us two years ago (still just as cheeky as ever - both of them!) plus some new faces who were testing us out - we hope they enjoyed themselves and we see them again soon.

After this it was full steam ahead into some filming for TV.  The show is part of a new series that Channel 4 will be running in Autumn about people changing their work lives and lifestyles.  In this case a couple (Martin and Anne-Marie) from Nottinghamshire are interested in starting up a craft centre and needed some experience working in an operating one,  where better could they choose? On Friday morning the film crew arrived at 8am and set up in the kitchen to film Martin cooking with Head Chef Shirley. The Jinney Ring staff and TV crew arranged for lots of problems to be thrown at them while they were cooking – many based on real life occurrences except that they were compressed into a deliberately hectic day!

Our couple debriefing at the end of the day in the restaurant
Next Anne-Marie was tested in the gift shop with lots of different requests and problems to deal with, she coped very well with everything overall.

It was quite a disruptive day with lots of comings and goings and it was busy too, particularly with the weather being very pleasant - our customers and friends were great and some of them even joined in by playing a part for the filming.  We were lucky enough to have 3 of "our brides" visiting us, all who agreed to take part of the proceedings and "acted up" - Amy (who wed Simon in May 2012) had trouble with her credit card,  Joanne (who got married to Matthew in 2009) and brought her toddler Hannah May along to be "a pest" in the shop (not a normal situation as she is a very well behaved little girl!) and Louise (who is marrying Richard here in April this year) was shopping for wedding things (her Mum really came to talk to The Hattery about her wedding hat - she got more than she bargained for!).  They all acted their parts so well and were such good sports!  A few other customers joined in too and have potential for stage roles we feel (especially Les and Anne!).


Now to the best bit -- despite me thinking we would be left out this time (because of the type of show) the camera crew came out and filmed us too --- and they rewarded us with corn!!!


When the day was finished everyone was absolutely exhausted but the film crew were happy and we will now wait and see how it all turns out.

Talking of Brides - this morning we saw Laura and Mike who got married here in 2012 - they came for a Valentines breakfast.... what a week for brides and grooms - absolutely fab!



Tuesday 12 February 2013

Buzzard alert!

It has been a bit too miserable in the garden lately for me to get myself together to write my diary -- the weather has been the principal cause but a roving fox which is coming out in broad daylight is keeping us on our toes too (sadly he has managed to take a couple of my friends already).  To make matters worse still we had a huge buzzard sitting above our heads all day today!!

A buzzard watching us while we are on the pond!

However all this gloom is about to end and we are determined to cheer up ...

Today was Pancake Day and there were loads of them made in the kitchens and lots of customers visiting to eat them too - which meant that we saw more people in the gardens, despite the damp day.  Thursday is of
course Valentine's day and Carolyn and Mandy have been into the restaurant decorating with hearts and the roses are due in shortly - Thursday night there is a romantic dinner planned with a lovely menu.

On  Friday we hear that we are to have the TV cameras here again - this time it is Channel 4 who are making a show about 'lifestyle changes'.  (Amanda and Malcolm the owners of the business are experts in this as they changed their lives completely when they came here 7+ years ago, both of them had worked in manufacturing industry before this, so this could be very interesting for a topic!)  It does not sound like we are going to be in the limelight this time, filming will mostly be inside in the kitchens and in the gift shop.

Watch this space and we will tell all after the show has been filmed......