Where is everyone??

For us in the Jinney Ring gardens, Christmas Day was a very odd indeed - the Centre was deserted and not a brown bag of food in sight all day, we had to rely on out normal two feeds a day instead of the regular visits from our friends.  Fortunately we had had plenty of visitors in the run up to Christmas so we had taken plenty of corn on board.

It was a pretty busy week before our "day off" - we heard that Santa saw lots more of children when he visited us on his 3rd weekend here in the shop and that he had quite a few letters in his post box (replies have been made and are available for collection).

Santa reviews his "nice and naughty" book with his elf!

 We could see that the restaurant was pretty busy all the way through December with quite a number of office and family parties in the daytime and the evening. There were crackers and party hats and a good choice of menu, they were all 'suitably' noisy and had lots of fun and generally made time to come and see us too!

On Christmas Eve there was another sound from the Conservatory when the local singing group "Hanbury In Voice" sang carols to get everyone in the Christmas spirit - it worked a treat and the atmosphere was really festive.

Hanbury In Voice - a lovely sound!

The Centre has been really well lit this advent period,  including the gardens, and one night recently a professional photographer was here taking some night pictures so that we can remember it properly - we have not seen them yet but we did make sure we were swimming in the limelight as much as possible!  Even in the daylight some of the lights have made quite an impression!

Reindeer on the stairs

We are now looking forward to the New Year celebrations with a Casablanca party on New Years eve and an All day breakfast on New Years Day.

We are also planning our 2013 resolutions and seriously hope for a bit better weather -- this Christmas has been a bit too wet - even for us ducks!!

A little Elf!

Santa has been visiting this weekend in his lovely grotto upstairs in the gift shop.  We did not see much of him    as he stayed in the warm this weekend, however we did see his elf!  Very appropriately named, "Holly", one of the regular staff working in the shop volunteered to help Santa this year and what a good and cheerful job she has made of it!  Holly is a very versatile person as we have seen her working in the restaurant doing table waiting as well as cleaning two evenings a week - she is a real worker and is well loved by everyone!

Elf Holly

Santa will be back in the grotto for the next two weekends from 2-4 each day.

Out and about there is much frantic shopping going on ready for the big day and this weekend was a particularly busy one for Mike at Arkle plants and shrubs - he nearly sold out of Christmas trees today!

Sadly this will be Mike's last Christmas here at the Jinney Ring as he is retiring at Christmas.  Taking over his business and plant unit is Karl who is a local and grows his own plants close by.  KArl was here today meeting customers and helping with the trees.  He has assured us that we will still have the same quality if plants as previously - of course our only input has been to have a little taster when they are planted in the Jinney Ring gardens!  We understand that there is also a vacancy for a new gardener here too as Jean (Mike's sister) and Chris (Mike's wife) are also retiring and they have been maintaining the gardens for a long time on and off.  We will miss them all but expect them to come back and visit us regularly.

Here is a reminder of the help we give the gardening team:

Helping out in the Spring - they put up wire barriers!

So sad to lose a friend!

We have just had news that Floss the chestnut mare who normally spends her summers in the fields next to us has died. She had undergone surgery recently for a tumour in her intestines and we thought she was recovering well (which for a 26 year old horse would have been impressive), however she has been suffering with more stomach problems and her owners have put her out of her pain.

We are all very sad and will miss her but are glad she is not suffering any more.

Floss with her friend Molly in the fields this summer.

On a more positive note - the newest ducklings still have not got their full feathers but are out and about on the water now and loving it -- the nights are a bit cold for them though so they are still snuggling up under a lamp.   And -- the mallards are back - not really sure where they went during the floods but they certainly look fit and well!

Alpacas steal the show!

This weekend was all about shopping and lights -- or so we were led to believe!

Late night shopping on Friday night was followed by the craft fayre in a marquee on the front carpark.  There were lots of lovely crafty bits and pieces for Christmas decorations incremental to the normal showing and also the regular Art group here (Art Circle) held their Christmas Exhibition (This showing/sale was extensive this year as there are now two groups of painters meeting here on a Tuesday and a Thursday).

The stars of the show were some baby Alpacas who came along with their owner Victoria to promote her Alpaca wool products -- they certainly proved very popular with children and adults over the busy weekend - we ducks definitely were not the main centre of attraction, our beaks were most put out!

One little boy was really happy to be photographed with the Alpacas

Craft Fayre - lots of gifts for Christmas

The real excitement of the weekend was when Santa arrived to switch on the lights -- we were worried though as the first thing we saw was an Ambulance with flashing blue light - it was pulling the West Midlands Search and Rescue boat, and we were really relived to see Santa fit and well on the boat.  He then came onto land and sounded the bell to light up the Centre.  There are lots more lights this year, including some in the gardens so we got to see them too.

Santa came to switch on the lights.

Santa is coming back to meet children in the Grotto each weekend until Christmas and there is a post box outside the shop for letters.

The next late night shopping event is 12 December for those that missed the last one.

Good weather for ducks and antics in the restaurant

We saw a couple of fun nights going on in the restaurant last week.. the first was a ‘Mission Morogoro’ Ladies’ Evening, held last Friday, 16^th November. This involved a glass of wine followed by a talk from Jane Brook of ‘The House of Colour’ -- she gave an overview (to the 50 or so ladies that were listening) on how best to buy the right colours in clothes for your skin type, as well as how to accessorize!  (We have never seen this many ladies all be this quite - not at all normal in the Jinney Ring restaurant!)  After this the Centre's own Jenny Muschner of Blue Lemon gave a short presentation about their soaps -- then everyone chatted as normal and had a good look at the stalls.  The event was to raise money for the African charity supported by Bowbrook group of churches and happily it raised £570, the cheque is displayed above!

The winner!

The second evening witnessed was much "sweeter" - the Christmas themed "Pudding" Night had some delicious puds on show (not that there was anything except corn for us!).  Chef Shirley had made a gingerbread house as a raffle prize for everyone that came - this was fantastic and was won by the youngest "pudding eater".  Shirley is making another one which will be raffled for charity over the Christmas period.

Just one of the lovely puds.

We also had an unwelcome visitor in the restaurant last week - at 4 am in the morning we were forced awake by the Centre alarms going off, a window had been forced and a young man entered the building.  Fortunately, as the owners live on site they were very quick to react to the alarms and the intruder left empty handed - we are not used to having this sort of rude awakening in the gardens. (The police visited but did not ask us ducks for descriptions, oddly.....). It is a sad state of affairs when you have to have CCTV and alarms everywhere (they even watch us in the gardens) but we can see why when this sort of thing happens.

Aside from this excitement, out here in the garden - well, it has been "a bit wet!" hasn't it? and windy too? The ponds have overflowed once and the garden is extremely "squishy" -- just how we like it, with plenty of worms around.  The wild mallards seem to have flown off though - probably to get some richer pickings in the flood zones locally, yum yum! 

We are now getting excited about the lights going on in the gardens on Saturday.......

Carpets and Santa

The girls in the gift shop have had a very busy few weeks - first of all they have been preparing the new Jinney Ring outlet in Kidderminster - it is part of the newly opened Museum of Carpets. (located next door to Morrisons supermarket) The shop ladies also look after one other "off site" shop at Bodenham Arboretum so they will be pretty busy this Christmas looking after all of them.

Jinney Ring Buyer Carolyn with Catherine from the Museum of Carpet in the new gift shop 

While all this has been going on they have also been getting ready for Santa's visits here and the grotto is now complete, and in the garden we can see lights going up.

Santa's Grotto - ready for his visits - located in the gallery area upstairs

The men putting the lights up today have been good to watch and it looks like we ducks are going to have some new lights in the garden for December.  (I do hope they don't keep us awake at night - but then we are used to being in the 'spotlight'!) These lights were used on the canal for the last few years but this year the team are sticking on dry land, well dryish -- we have made it nice and muddy down that end of the garden.  

Nick, Paddy and the crew putting up lights in the gardens ready for December

The Christmas lights are going to be switched on by Santa and West Midlands Search and Rescue as part of the Craft Fayre weekend -- should be fun as there are lots of extra crafts people here that weekend.

Finally - a little note about the new ducklings - they are now outside in the pen but are finding it a bit chilly as they did get used to a nice warm house, they are spending a lot of time inside next to the heat lamp at the moment -- it won't be long before they venture out a bit more though.

Late Ducklings and Horse trouble!

It has been a couple of weeks since my last diary entry, as my scribe took a break from us and we did not see each other to catch up.  Putting this to rights now...

Out in the gardens the temperature has definitely dropped - winter feather 'duvet' definitely called for now!  Water getting a bit chilly too -- but obviously not too chilly as we had two new arrivals on the pond from one of my girl fiends.   As has become the habit, these were given over to the care of humans for a while to ensure that can grow a bit before they get let out in the big world -- not before they had a good swim on the ponds though!

Our pair of Aylesbury ducklings are now being looked after by Charlotte and her Mum who live at the back of the Jinney Ring, so they have not gone far.  Charlotte has decided, if they are male, they will be called 'Ant and Dec'  ... as it will be a while before we know I guess this will stick (there must be some girls names that will work with this too...??? Answers below please! ).  They will be put outside in the heated pen very soon now so that they don't become house ducks!

Ant and Dec - which is which, the perpetual question!

The two chestnut mares have gone from the adjacent fields now, as it was getting too wet underfoot. However we have heard serious news about Floss (the older one). She has just been rushed into the nearby equine hospital for an emergency operation on her intestines.  So far so good but the next 48 hours are critical, she is 26 years old so not so young, we are keeping our wings crossed for her!

Floss (at the back) has had emergency surgery

Around the Centre everyone is starting to get ready for Christmas with some lovely things in the gift shop and all of the craft units working hard to build some stock.  Lights and trees are being planned, as is the Christmas Fayre on the first weekend of December.  Busy Busy Busy!

Fame at last and a Farewell ....

It's on the TV this week!

You may remember me quacking on about the really exciting weekend in August when we had a big BBC team here filming for a new series called “Paul Martin’s Handmade Revolution”.  They have now made a series of 10 programs, half filmed half at the Jinney Ring and half at Amberley Museum & Heritage Centre in West Sussex.   It was a very interesting weekend, both learning about filming and seeing all the arts and crafts.  Many of our own crafts people were involved alongside others who came in for the event.  Now we hear that the series is being aired on BBC 2  this week and the week after, each weekday at 3:45pm (first one is on the 8^th Oct), those who have seen it say we ducks are getting really good coverage -- Fame at last!  We do hope some of you get a chance to watch it then, or perhaps on i-player later.   My crested duck friend has been a real "diva-duck" this week since he heard he is a star!

Needs his own dressing room now!

Another update on news earlier in this diary - we had a farewell visit from Lola today - Lola is a black Labrador who was designated by the Guide dogs for the Blind charity to be a brood bitch.  She came to visit with her handler Linda earlier in the year.  It now turns out that some of Lola's relatives have developed a skin disorder, so she is no longer considered suitable for breeding.  Happily, she is not at all down in the dumps - she is now off for proper guide dog training and will hopefully be a guide for someone in need.  Marley, the other Labrador who was with her earlier in the year is already progressing well through his training we here so she has some catching up to do.  We now we have a new 'friend' with the introduction of Connie who will stay with Linda to replace Lola.  Connie does not seem to be familiar with cows, horses or ducks so is having great fun meeting us all! 

A fond farewell to Lola - good luck with the guiding!

New Girl Connie - very interested!

End of the Trail!

Lots of animals and  related activities around the gardens

The annual sculpture trail finished on Sunday with the charity day for the Cinnamon Trust (Animal R Magic). It was such a shame that the weather did not hold from the glorious day on Saturday, so everyone got a bit wet as the day progressed.  We were however surprised and delighted at just how many people came out to support the event, despite the conditions and especially the children that enjoyed the pony rides (from Julie Thomas Equestrian ) in the pouring rain!

As well as wet horses and dogs we also had Alpaccas (Simply Alpacca from Alcester) in the garden - what lovely creatures they are, they were quite the stars of the show and the products made from their wool were lovely.

The Cinnamon Trust raised £460 from the day so were very pleased and delighted with the support.

Talking of charities - the month long sculpture trail also raised £360 for West Midlands Search and Rescue with the raffle for a lovely piece of sculpture made by one of this years most popular artists Steve Blaylock.
Mark Rogers from the charity drew the winning tickets late afternoon on the 23rd September and the first prize winner came to collect her prize today - she was thrilled!

Mark drawing the raffle.

Winning the Bulrush with dragon flies.

We are now wandering around the garden watching Mick and Carolyn taking all the sculptures away and emptying the garden - it feels a bit anticlimactic at the moment but the mud in the garden is giving us plenty to do -- lots of dabbling ahead this week based on the forecast!  For those that missed the trail  - there are some photos on the website http://www.jinneyring.co.uk/acatalog/Previous-Years-Sculpture-Trails.html

Blooming success!

Gardeners Chris Evans (seen below) and Jean Hubball were so excited this week .... one of their variegated Yucca plants is shooting a bloom and will be in flower very soon now - they are excited because this is an event that happens at the most every 7 years with this plant.    We ducks have been 'warned' not to go near the plant, as it so spiky I don't think this will be a problem!

Chris Evans with the Yucca

It was a very busy weekend in the garden with lovely weather on Saturday making it a perfect setting for pre-dinner reception drinks when David and Svetlana to celebrate their marriage with their close friends and family.   After a wander around our sculpture trail with their drinks and canapés they had a lovely relaxed meal in our meeting room overlooking the ponds.  The room was decorated to suit the occasion with flowers too.  It was a lovely celebration for all - we even got fed by the guests and the horses in the field got lots of petting from the 3 children.

This year's sculpture trail is also proving a great 'success' - lots more people here viewing this weekend and huge appreciation for the artworks around the gardens.  Even the children are enjoying it with more pictures in the spider chair!

Jacob - looks quite relaxed with a spider near his head!

Fearless Freya!

The trail finishes this Sunday (23rd) with live animals joining us in the gardens for a charity day Animals R Magic!

Romantic Tale

Yesterday was a bit blowy in the gardens, particularly about lunchtime when Bride and Groom Dorothy and Jeff arrived for their intimate wedding reception.  The good news was that the drizzle cleared up for a while and they were all able to go into the garden and have their photos taken around this year's Sculpture trail.

Dorothy seen in centre with her bridesmaid.

It turns out that Jinney Ring is quite an important place to Dorothy and Jeff.  They met here on their first date, then, some time later, Jeff got down on one knee and proposed to Dorothy in the gardens here and now they have come here to celebrate their marriage with their respective families.

The wedding party decorated the meeting room next to the restaurant with their own hand made felt bunting and and pink and cream flowers - it all looked lovely.  They had a farmhouse menu including our famous Steak and Ale pie and Salmon in White Wine sauce finished with a trio of desserts, a menu you to suit their party and their own individual style.

The meeting room fits two tables all decorated

The best bit of the day was that we ducks were included in their planning, the Bride made sure that she and the children all had a bag of duck food for us - so we celebrated too!  We wish them every "quackiness" for the future and look forward to seeing them on many anniversaries to come.

Scary Spiders

There are a lot more spiders in our gardens at the moment than are normal at this time of year -- and they are big!

Steve Webb (very aptly named) is one of this years artists exhibiting in the annual scultpure trail and he obviously has a fascination with our Arachnid friends - we are not sure if it is a love or a hate relationship!

There are small spiders, medium spiders and huge spiders - some of them hanging from the trees and some working their way across the grass as seen below ...

There is also a Spider chair which the children love sitting in to have their photos taken.

Honey and Eleanor were difficult to scare!

Children are also enjoying the activity pack/competition around the trail and we have had some terrific colouring and shapes.

The Spiders represent just part of an extensive trail with over 100 pieces in the gardens.  It finishes on 23rd September.  

Sculpture Trail in the Gardens

There seem to be animals everywhere in the 2012 Sculpture Trail around the ponds and gardens here.   The Trail opened on Saturday 25th August just in time for the bank holiday and the JR team worked really hard to place the almost 80 pieces of art in the best locations, this included one in OUR pond!  Carolyn and her team have also set up the marquee area like a "fete" with bunting and bails of straw. There is lots going on in the tent too - children's activities as well as the chance to win on of two sculptures donated by artist Steve Blaylock.  (Charity Prize Draw).

We have some amazing 'critters' keeping us company for the month, even if they are not very communicative, they are certainly creating quite a stir with the visitors.

Happy as a pig in clover!  There is a cow, dog and a fish too... 

There are other non animal things as well - some fantastic items, dragonflies, glass, lilies etc, plenty to see.  Of course, being in the Jinney Ring gardens there are a lot of other birds too.

Magnificent pheasants - you need to see these close up

Mosaic Duck

The SculptureTrail is on every day until 23rd September when it finishes with a charity event "Animals R Magic".  Free entry and we would love to see you all  -  Just remember we are the only ducks that need feeding though!

TV Stars!

How many Ducks get a chance to be a star on the TV (besides Daffy of course) ?  Well, we hope we will be some of the minority, we were certainly filmed quite a bit yesterday when "Paul Martin's Handmade Revolution" was filmed in our gardens.

There were a number of craft stalls set up with Mosaic, Millinery and Corsage Making in the middle of the lawn - lots of people came along to have a go.  Alongside the bottom pond there were some really talented "makers" being filmed by the crews - they were all part of a competition that is running in the new show.  At the end of the site our potters were running the visually interesting Raku pottery process, with lots of fire and smoke. Besides this the TV crews were in and out of the Jinney Ring craft workshops with Paul Martin discussing their various processes and products -- all very exciting !

Filming table with one of the contestants

Paul Martin filming on the move

It was a lovely day with tonnes of creativity and we had lots of corn too -- rumour has it the new show will be televised in October on BBC 2  -- do look out for us, we may not be able to give autographs, but we are happy to be photographed with all our fans!

Where is that camera......?

A couple of the participants in the show also brought some wonderful pieces of art which will stay here for a while as part of our 2012 Sculpture Trail - we do like seeing the art close up in the gardens.  The sculpture trail opens next Saturday and runs for a month.

All photographs above were taken by Olivia Holloway, many thanks.

Quacking the Blues 2012

There had been lots of human 'finger crossing' going on around the centre last week as we approached Saturday 4th August with the tents going up for the annual blues festival - and it paid off - the weather held out and was not bad (relative the summer we have 'not had'!).

Storm before the calm!  Plenty of cover just in case!

One stormy shower at about 2pm while the first act sang a song called "let it rain" caused everyone to run for cover - after that we banned songs about rain and had no more!

JR staff Ghislaine and Mick (Gate Keepers) sheltered from the rain in the pergola

The music line up was terrific with 6 bands playing from 1pm to 11pm.  To start the show there was a little rearrangement of schedule as larger than life Steve Steinhaus and his band had a last minute booking to play at the Olympic celebrations in Hyde Park - too good an opportunity to miss, we were very glad he came here first --- what a great sound!
 

Steiny's Blues - got the party started fast!

We had some smashing visitors here for the day - many who have been before but also some new too.

Also some furry visitors - they were very well behaved and left us alone so we did not mind at all  There was a gorgeous Labradoodle as well, who even featured in one of the songs - sadly did not get a picture!

Not sure he was pay full attention to the music!

Overall a terrific day - lots of food and drink for everyone and plenty of good humour and cheer.  We ducks got fed regularly by the visitors and we stayed up late partying, can't wait till next year!

Jazzy weekend

On Sunday we were due to have a Garden Party here but because the lawn was still recovering from the rain and all of our "dabbling" , which had made it a bit of a mess, there were no garden games played this year - just as well as it did thunder and rain in the morning.  We did have music though with Paul Douglas and his daughter Jess otherwise known as Blue2 playing some lovely chilled out music from a gazebo in the garden, the sun came out and the audience relaxed....

Blue2 playing Jazz in the gardens

We had some visitors who heard the sounds from Hanbury Church and came down to have a listen - it normally works the other way around with the church bells calling to us from the hill!

Some of the audience - relaxing ...

We also had some baby hedgehogs here this weekend - they are still very new and are being fed at regular intervals by carer Jane and the team at Willows Hedgehog Rescue who visited this weekend.  We don't see a lot of hedgehogs in the Jinney Ring gardens - we are told that this is because there are too many badgers around and they eat them!

We are looking forward to more music next weekend and as there will be a lot going on in readiness for the annual Blues Festival which is here next Saturday -- lots of music with 6 bands playing.

A Midsummers Night's (and Day's) Dream!

This week end was full of unusual folk - dressed in curious costumes.... The Norbury Theatre came to the Jinney Ring with their outside theatre performance of A Midsummers Night's Dream.  We had all been a bit worried about this because the weather has been some dreadful and the lawn is very very soggy (in part due to all of our dabbling about!), however we had a splendid weekend.

On Saturday evening the performance was held near the restaurant and there was a meal as part of the ticket.  The performance in the courtyard worked really well -- only interrupted occasionally with passing traffic (at one time a tractor!).   The players did a great job and everyone who came seemed to thoroughly enjoy it.

The setting for the Sunday Matinee was a little more idyllic and similar to the wooded area that the play is principally set in.  This time we had a "birds eye view" as it was right next to the pond.  We did enjoy it and joined in occasionally as we felt appropriate!  It is an amusing play and Bottom was a real Ass!  We did quack!

We had such a lovely afternoon and so did the visitors, hopefully we will see something like this again.

The dry weather this weekend has already helped the lawns so we are keeping our fingers crossed for continuation through the school holidays now.  We have not seen our friends the cows much this weekend - they have been banished to the top field as they broke into the falconry field area on Friday to eat the grass cuttings and are in the "dog house"!