Oh, what a giggle!

Talulah came to visit us this weekend -- and we all got just a bit excited as she fed us and we pushed forward until she fell backwards over the small wall into the flower bed!! This little girl was not one to cry and shout -- no, she got up and dusted herself off and carried on feeding us, and giggling -- we like her and her mum and sister -- they all giggled!

We have had lots of young couples visiting the gardens and the restaurant over the last week or two -- all planning their weddings, I heard the lady showing them round telling them that we ducks are always guests at the wedding - 'invited or not' -- not sure how to take this!

Anyway may be a few more coming up as Valentines day is nearly upon us - there is a lovely evening planned in the restaurant with music from Blues2Jazz and a lovely menu (no duck!).  also don't forget ladies -- it is a leap year!

Heat Wave, Apples and More....

My 'scribe' has been on holiday so I am unavoidably behind in the my news, many apologies. (It is probably no surprise to you, but the computer companies have yet to make a keyboard that is 'webfoot' friendly... but who knows what quackers ideas will come next!).  As a result I have lots to catch up on over the last few weeks.

Coach trip - BARRA enjoy tea in the garden on 29th September!

The late September heat wave appears to have been very welcome in the gardens here - one group of visitors arrived by coach and had their tea served in glorious sunshine in the gardens, a couple even gave me a taste of their shortbread.  They were the Birmingham Air Raid Remembrance Association (BARRA), an very interesting group.  

Being birds we are always interested in our fellow species and over the last month we have been visited several times by the RSPB who has set up a stall in the front courtyard.  They have been quite successful at recruiting new members we hear so I guess this will protect a few more of us - although have to admit to having a pretty good life here myself!

Also in the front courtyard/carpark we had a lot of excitement on the 16th October with what has now become an annual event of "Apple Pressing".  Pressing went on all day and a lot of juice was made for drinking neat and turning into cider - this happens once a year and is in October.  Mick and neighbour Matt (who kindly helped out) both had very sore arms next day!

Mick above was crushing apples all day!

I have not been able to see them yet but keep hearing about the exhibition of "Tea Cosies" that has arrived from the Avoncroft Museum and is inside the restaurant, there are apparently some lovely cosies on hanging around the beams on display and for sale.  The Tea cosies have been made by volunteers to raise funds for the conservation of the Avoncroft Museum's historic buildings.  Sadly, whilst there is a cosy with chickens on,  there are none with ducks on --- maybe next time!

Part of the Gift Shop Christmas Display

Even with a heat wave, the gift shop staff have been thinking about Christmas and have now launched their Christmas stock and displays with a preview night (on the same night as the autumn/winter "pudding night").  Don't worry if you missed it though as there is a Christmas late night shopping night (including supper) on 10th November and then a "switch on" of Christmas lights with the full centre open on the 23rd November with music and food, we are looking forward to that as the ponds will be lit up and it looks really pretty in the gardens at night.

Maureen and John - happy events at the Jinney Ring!

This weekend we have had a lovely wedding party here.  The couple, Maureen and John, had their first date at the Jinney Ring and then a big engagement party here last year so it wonderful to see them back for their wedding breakfast.  They had an intimate party in our meeting room and then a stroll around the gardens as the weather was lovely for yesterday. We hope to see them back for their next celebration soon as they are committed "Jinney Ringers"!

This is not everything that went on but need to "quack on" now .....

Lots of Ministers!

This weekend started badly with pouring rain, not that it bothered us ducks much (except it puts people off feeding us!), but we knew that we were to be having another wedding here later in the day so we crossed out wings for the day to brightened -- it worked and the sun was out by the time they arrived at about 5pm and once again we got a good look at everyone while pictures were taken.

It turned out that we had 3 minsters with us for the wedding reception - one performed the ceremony, one said grace and the third was the Groom himself (Ron) who retired recently.  Probably because he was an ex-minister, the Groom said he was actually looking forward to his speech and performed like a professional, even had a microphone! (Most of the time Grooms hate this bit!).   The Bride (Rebecca) looked radiant as did her Bridesmaid, Nicola and her family who are all very close to Rebecca. This group are all 'regulars' at the Jinney Ring, so we were delighted to see them (they all brush up really well!).  The party went on until about midnight and we had the ponds lights on so that we could have a good swim in the limelight too!

Next on the agenda we have a garden party (Sunday 24th) -- sounds like we are going to have to keep our heads down for this one with coconut shy, skittles, stocks as well as music on the agenda!

Bit of breaking news (literally)  -- 4 new ducklings are rumoured to have hatched and will be out in the garden next week.  Two of these have been hatched by Hanbury First School with their new incubator, can't wait to see them.

Finally -- an update on the ducks that went to the Vet -- one is fully back to health, rushing around with his mates, the other is still not walking very well at all but seems happy enough in herself, she is managing to get onto and off the water.  She seems to be sensible enough to sleep on the island to keep safe.  One thing for sure is that she has had enough of being caught by the humans and force fed anti-biotic, no-way is she being caught again!

A hot weekend

Last weekend we had another bride and groom and their party spend the afternoon with us in the gardens.  The sky was not blue but is was hot and the rain held off for them.  They looked fantastic, especially the Bride Lynsey who was radiant, and they had some lovely photos taken with us too!

Arriving at the Centre

Lynsey and her "MC" brother

The party arrived about 2:30pm and had sandwiches and drinks with many guests exploring the craft units but as usual the Falconry was the favourite attraction and we lost some of the guests for quite a while to the thrills of the  new owl and falcon.  They disappeared for dinner at about 6pm and then we watched them through the conservatory windows.   They had a lovely menu which the Bride and Groom chose -- it included a pie (Grooms choice) which although it is unusual for a wedding was very popular!

Speech time 

In the evening the party all danced in the marquee far into the night -  we had regular bulletins as many of the guests came to cool off in the garden.   The Bride and Groom had chosen a complete playlist to ensure maximum dancing -- a really good mix!

The marquee all lit up ready to dance the night away

The marquee has gone again now and we are getting ready for our next excitement which is the "Experience Chocolate" weekend on 9th/10th July.  Chocolate Deli have all sorts of chocolately treats in store for visitors all weekend and the shop and restaurant are joining in too!

Special visitors

We knew that there was something going on when we were woken up on Thursday morning with the clanging of pipes -- the courtyard marquee was going up, so we suspected a wedding for the weekend.  Lots of comings and goings later, the wedding party arrived on Saturday, just after a heavy down pour of rain that had everyone worried.  Fortunately, the sky cleared just as the Bride and Groom arrived and everyone was able to enjoy there welcome drink in the gardens while they took photographs.  The guests were all meandering back into the marquee for speeches when the second down pour arrived and we thought that we had seen the last of them, but it did cheer up again later and we had a lovely surprise when the Bride and Groom came and fed us -- you would have thought that they would have had too much to do to worry about us,  we were thrilled !

Matt and Rebekah made time for us on their special day, we think they will be very happy!

A quiet moment - Father of the Bride and Page

There were some cheeky pages at this wedding - we did have to keep our eyes on them!

The day after the wedding was atrocious, weather-wise - even for us ducks, however the restaurant looked pretty busy serving Sunday lunch -- probably comfort food!  We did not get of this and bread was scare -- it was just too wet.  There was a Wedding Fayre in the marquee all day Sunday and some very brave couples came along to see the 4 local wedding venues that were here.  We heard that it was a good show and lots of interested parties came -- despite the rain.  

Monday we had a dry day and lots of visitors - many with foreign accents. It turned out to be a "Twinning Visit" between Ross-on-Wye and Betzdorf, Germany.  They had a great visit to Avoncroft Museum in the morning and came to us for lunch and the afternoon. We got a good look at everyone, as spent a long time in the garden with the Falconry birds and were very complimentary about it -- can't see what all the fuss is about, the birds of prey are interesting but they don't chat like we do!

Just as we thought it was all over -- another group of special visitors arrived on Tuesday - The Redditch and Bromsgrove Carers Support Group had an open day with us and invited many of the hard working carers in the area, some lovely people and we were really pleased to see them and they seemed to have a good day out.

The Carers Carline used the Courtyard Marquee for their stands.

Now can I get some sleep?   Oh no...... it would appear not , the Beer Tent has just gone up for the annual beer festival which starts Friday!

What a "quacking" weekend!

Our garden was extremely busy and full of some very well dressed visitors (how they walk in those heels I just don't know...) on Saturday.

A large marquee went up on the Thursday and, much to'ing and fro'ing of equipment, bottles etc went on for a couple of days and then, Saturday at about 1 o'clock, the garden was full of wedding guests closely followed by the beautiful bride and her hansom groom.    The weather was reasonably kind to them as just as they came out of church the sun appeared and stayed around until about 2.30 for photographs - most of them taken here.  At 2:30 the heavens opens and everyone went inside just in time to eat.

They had a great party in the marquee, which was decorated out in black and white and even had a black and white dance floor.  We ducks could see in through the windows but were shooed away fairly regularly when we tried to go inside!

 

We did not get to bed til late but it was enormous fun watching the antics and the outfits so we did not mind much.

On Sunday there was yet more activity on in the marquee with a Wedding Fayre - lots of exhibitors including one that brought along a bed - Premier Inn, sadly, did not bring Lenny Henry - but who knows for next year!

 

The marquee (from Hanbury Marquees) has just been taken down again and the garden is back to normal - the staff here look a bit tired, but it all went very well so they are now working hard toward the next function which is the Blues Festival on 21st August, I am told by my feathered friends that this involves another type of tent and lots more people. 

Exhausting weekend.....

What a busy weekend this has been, well it all started on Thursday evening when we had a lovely crowd in for a retirement party in the evening - they were far from "retiring" and danced and laughed their way through the evening, popping out in the gardens to chat with us ducks from time to time (although I have to say that the ducklings in the pen are generally getting most attention).

After this we had a lovely wedding here yesterday - they were a bit late coming from the church (very "thorough" photographers - I heard it said!) but worth the wait .... both the bride and groom looked fantastic as they stepped out of their vintage car outside the marquee.

The next thing I saw was one of our resident Harris Hawkes on the arm of his hander coming up to meet the guests.  Apparently the Bride Groom loves the birds of prey and was determined to get some photos on his wedding day.  They all went off down the garden for more photos at this point before going in to the marquee for speeches and dinner.  Shirley (Head Chef) not only designed and cooked a lovely menu for the evening (no duck!) also made the cake for the couple.

 

Then just as we were hoping for a quiet nap on the pond we find that there is yet more excitment planned for today - an antiques valuation day.  David Walters and his colleague have been on hand to chat to people all day - there have been many curious shapped packages brought in and he has been very busy indeed.  Listening to folk in the garden afterwards he appears to have a lot of knowledge and is most interesting.

David Walters - Antiques Expert

Hopefully tomorrow will be a quieter day - but rumour has it that the schools have broken up now, so I expect we ill get a lot more visitors. There are some childrens pottery courses going on (Sophie Binney) and of course there are the new baby barn owls (4)  that Arden Falconry are looking after to interest the youngsters this holiday (as well as feeding us of course!).