Make up night

Esther of Esther Marie Make-up was here on Wednesday night for a real "Ladies Night".  She showed the ladies that attended how to make up their faces in a very natural way to bring out the best in themselves.  Also on show were the "Hattery" - the milliners (who are at the the Jinney Ring every Friday) came along with some of their hats.  After this the ladies all had supper and a good laugh.  What a lovely evening!

Esther demonstrating on her model Penny

Pancake Day

What a lovely day it is today - the sun is out and so are the visitors!
They are apparently all here for Pancakes - the Kitchen staff have not stopped making them today, sweet and savoury.

As the weather is so nice the garden has dried enough for some turf to be laid around the ponds - the edges look much better now, won't be long until the grass is growing again and they can take the temporary fencing down for us to get nearer to the bread supply!.

New Flowers!

It is all change on the gardening front - Rachel who has been looking after the gardens here for the last two years has left the Jinney Ring to go to work as a tutor/gardener in Stourbridge. While she was at the Jinney Ring she had some works experience assistance each week and showed natural talent for teaching and encouraging youngsters so we think she will do well at this and everyone here wishes her the best of luck.

We are about to enter a really busy time of year gardening here so Jean and Mike from Arkle Plants have agreed to help out getting things going and then Christine Evans (Mike's wife) will take over the gardening on a part time basis at the end of April. This week Primroses and little daffodils have been planted in the pots and spring colour is already starting to emerge. In the meanwhile Dayel Durney who is doing many gardening and maintenance jobs around site, is busy finishing off the pond edging with clay and new turf. Soon the ground will be dry enough to reseed some of the grass areas where we carried out the pond repair work earlier in the year.

Juiliet Doyle opens new Florists Shop at the Jinney Ring

As well as colour coming into the gardens we also now have a Florist on site who is already selling daffodils for spring. Juliet Doyle has a thriving internet business in synthetic wedding flowers and accessories but now what has taken the plunge and opened up next to the restaurant. It is great to have some colour on show!


On the ponds - my friends and I are starting to pair up with our soul mates and are thinking about having families....... It can be a bit traumatic at this time of year but the ducklings make it all worthwhile!!

More fun and games on the water

It is always a quiet time in Jan and Feb, as it is a bit cold and damp in the gardens, so it is no surprise to us that our bread quota is reduced at the moment, but it does help us get in shape ready for the new season!

We have had some more laughs with the maintenance manager in the last two weeks - there was a big problem with the drains (yuk!) so he had to dig up the flower beds a bit to reveal a manhole cover that we had never discovered before - the drains hole was so deep that he disappeared for quite some time and we did think that we would have to get help - until we heard him shout as the drain finally cleared - in a rush towards him - never seen him move so fast!  Similar fun was had fixing the frost damaged water system - suddenly there he was, wetter than we are with the back pressure! It is never dull here - we did quack!!

The gardens have suffered some plant losses over the winter - some of the shrubs look dead but the gardener is going to wait a bit before digging anything else - just in case.  Work in the garden is mainly about repairing the lawns after the pond damage at the moment and new pond plants will be installed in March/April time.  All should be back to normal soon.

Happily most of my duck friends have survived the winter very well and now we also have a new comer - a Muscovy duck that was rescued after a dog bit it. She is fitting in very well and will probably settle with us.

The Craft Centre is getting busier again now and there is lots going on, mostly inside - there was a Cider Making evening at the end of January where "apple pressers" tasted each others cider and learned some of the tricks of the trade from local cider maker Steve Cooper of Tardebigge Cider.  Sounded like a lot of fun!

Getting ready for Valentine's day, Glass blower Stuart Fletcher and the Team from Top Glass adorned the tree outside there workshop with glass red hearts - looks lovely particularly when the sun shines (sadly it was not when the picture was taken!).

Coming up - An Antiques evening on 23rd Feb and a Ladies Night on 9th March.

Snow Palace

Just by the ponds in the back gardens there is an area that we know as the "piggery" (this dates back to the days when the building was a farm and pigs were kept in what is now the gardening area).  One night this week we had a burst pipe and it created a Snow Queen's palace effect ....

The Craft Centre has managed to stay open through the snow (except Saturday 19th when the heavy snow made it impossible), but many of the staff have struggled to get in so those that did make it have been covering in all areas - mucking in together.  We are not seeing many people out in the gardens as it is still bitterly cold.  The fox is still around but he shows up quite well in the snow so we are wary!

We understand that we are going to have some singing here tomorrow on Christmas Eve as Hanbury Church are relocating their christmas Eve Service to the Jinney Ring rather than risk people getting up the very steep hill in the icy conditions - this should be lovely!  After this the Craft Centre is closed for Chirstmas day and Boxing Day, reopening on the 27th at 11am.

We would like to wish all our followers and readers a "Quacking" good Christmas! 

White World....

It is so cold at the moment that even walking on the snow is painful - when we got fed this morning it was easier to sit down to eat than stand on the frozen surface.  We did all feel a lot warmer with some corn inside us though.

Yesterday was a white out in the garden - the snow did not stop from morning until night, about 10 - 12 inches - amazing.  This morning the sky is blue and it looks truely lovey for miles.

View to the Malverns from the Conservatory door 

The snow on the back gate shows how much snow fell yesterday! 

The roads around seem to be moving today (yesterday they were not good!) and a few folk have ventured out to see us.  Some of the staff here have had trouble getting off their drives and have not been able to get to work so there is a skeleton crew - but they are all mucking in to get the place up and running again.

Marcus and Tom - who work in the Kitchen are helping move the snow

 

Mick drives the mini-digger which has a snow plough on the front - Matt lives on site and is kindly helping out!

The path to the restaurant - past the wishing-well. 

Some of the craft workshop holders have made it in today as they have customers coming for Christmas Presents - Belinda Terry and "From the Tree" are here and the others are doing their best to get in if they can.  The car park is cleared at the front and the gift shop and restaurant will be open until at least 4pm.

Sad and very cold week in the garden!

We are all very sad this week as Jessica the Bengal Eagle owl, who lived at the Falconry at the end of the garden has died.  She had been poorly for about a week but the Vet could not find out what was wrong with her.  She had a very enlarged liver, but no-one knew why.  Jessica was only 17 and could have lived for twice this based on other owls of her type.  Dave and Danielle, the on site Falconers, are really upset as is everyone in the garden and the Craft Centre, as she was a real character and also gave you a good welcome when you visited.  Jess was a bit of a celebrity, often appearing on TV/film or at shows (see below).  We will miss her. 

We have had the water trickling all week trying to keep the top pond free of ice as far as possible - still seeing the fox everynight, but I think even he is a bit chilly at -10 degrees celius.  The Craft Centre has been a bit quiet this week considering it is Christmas, but listening to those that came, the roads are very well gritted this time, so there is no problem visiting us --- and we are a bit short of bread at the moment (we are getting more corn though, as we do need the internal heating!!).