Snow and other decorations

Over night we had a bit of snow and it was once again very cold on our webbed feet.  The ponds are pretty iced up at the moment and the water input was frozen over.  This did get sorted out today and there is now a bit more swimming area in the pond as some of the ice has defrosted.  We are now a little less worried that the fox can visit us over the ice in the night - he did last night - we saw the foot prints in the morning!!  Fortunately all were ducks were 'present and correct' as far as I can tell in the morning. 

Lyn, the daytime Restaurant Manager loves Christmas - she has been counting the days to get the trees up in the restaurant. Today we watched as the snow was shaken from the trees (provided by Arkle Plants in the Craft Centre) and taken inside.  The tree by the window looks lovely, all lit up, there are two others that we cannot see so well from the garden, one of them by the roaring log fire.   Lyn has been singing carols all afternoon while she was decorating the trees - however her colleagues begged her to stop as it was driving customers away!!   We have proper carol singers to look forward to, on Christmas Eve (the Grafton Singers will be in the conservatory from 11:30am). 

The big tree outside will go up very soon and the lights go up tomorrow, with all this snow it looks really festive, even if most folk want to get inside to have a hot drink!

There are some other birds in the garden at the moment - a large Red Kite and an Owl - neither much of a threat, as they are wooden sculptures from artist John Moss - these lovely sculptures are not expected to be here long as they will make ideal Christmas presents for wildlife lovers.  John exhibited his work here in our annual sculpture trail last September and his work sold so well that he sent us some more for Christmas. 

John Moss making one of the Owls that we have at the front of the Craft Centre

Pond progress

The pond works are now pretty much complete and they are being refilled with water, which in itself is taking quite some days.

As the weather was so horrible while the work was going on the diggers have chewed up the gardens a bit but we are all helping to get it back to normal.  It is however likely to be next spring when the ground is properly repaired.  The field will need rolling where the trucks have been going up and down, but again it will be spring before this is done.  The cows and the horse have now had enough of the mud and tractors and have gone off to local farms for the winter and a bit of inside comfort! - No such luxury for us ducks - our duck houses have even been moved from the top island and are going to be relocated onto the bottom island while it can be accessed (as the water is low) - I guess this is "moving house" duck style, we haven't had to pack up much!

We ducks are throughly enjoying life at the moment - we love having some clean water and a new island (well it feels that way) and we are helping flatten the mud down by checking for worms very regularly - you can see our footprints everywhere!

Even though the pond themselves are now finished there are still quite a lot of other things to do - one of them is to tidy up the overgrown islands - today Mick was up the trees on the big island - he was Jinney Ring's own Monkey Man yesterday !  Today he is going to burn some of the excess wood and brush ... it is never dull here!



'Monkey Man' Mick downsizing a Poplar on the lower island

Elsewhere in the centre Christmas is coming ... the Christmas trees are on order and will be here this week - the lights go on on the 1st December and the Restaurant will be very pretty.

 

Lizzie has her calf

"Lizzie", The gorgeous Dexter cow that was in the field for most of the summer this year has had her first calf - it is a girl and she is already very adventurous!

Lizzie is back on the farm at the moment, having just given birth, but we are promised that she will be back with her calf in the spring time.

At the moment the calf has been nicknamed "dripping" - poor little thing! - What she needs is a proper name and Craft Centre visitors are being invited to come up with something suitable for her.  The best name will be chosen in the summer once everyone has had a chance to see her. The competition to name her is going to be run for charity.  A name can be submitted for £1 and the winning entry will be decided by a panel of a regular customer, a Jinney Ring employee and the Owner's son.

The prize will be a meal for two in the farmhouse restaurant. All proceeds of the competition will go to "The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association"

The digger is here....

A week late, the pond work has just started and it is pouring with rain - talk about 'mud, mud glorious mud' - there is nothing glourious about this - there must be at least 1 meter of slit in the bottom of this pond.  My duck friends and I are staying well clear at on the bottom pond while this goes on - the moorhens (who are not that bright!) are still popping in and out though.

Listening to the chaps on the big machines it should not take too long - a couple of weeks at the most and we will be back to normal.

"Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud"

Work on the top pond has started and the pond has been partially drained.  Mick (seen above) is looking elegant in his waders rescuing the Carp that are at the bottom of the pool.  They are being transported to the bottom pool where they should be quite happy.

We ducks are observing proceedings with interest - however have pretty much migrated to the bottom pond for now.

Lots of other stuff going on but with the cold snap the log fire now lit in the lounge and we are seeing less people in the garden as they are sticking to the cosy lounge area.

On the weekend before last we had some lively parties on with a Court Leet Ladies Dinner followed on Saturday evening with a 50th party (which was a 1980's theme - some fantastic costumes, make-up and huge hair!) and then, on Sunday a lovely family Golden Wedding party in the evening, all went really well but the staff did looked pretty tired at the end of the weekend.

On the 14th October there was a charity "make-over" event here too called "A Girls Night In" with supper and a make up demonstration from Esther Marie.  About 60 people all came along and raised some money for Age UK which is one of the Jinney Ring charities of the year.  We could see the demo through the conservatory window - looked pretty good but, generally we ducks prefer the mud and water treatments ourselves!

Finally on 17th Oct we had an Apple Pressing day - this was really interesting with people bring in their windfall apples and having them pressed into apple juice - the smell was quite intoxicating through the gardens, and this was before conversion into cider! (which many of the "pressers" were planning to do).  There is a bit of history with this event. In the early days of the Jinney Ring there was apparently an old working cider press here and this was used for a few years before it broke down and became obsolete. The press is still here, but only as a garden ornament.  Many people still remember the old days, even though it was 20+ years ago, therefore this year it was thought worth bringing in a working press with the help of Oliver Carpenter (dressed in Red) who works with the "Slow Food" organisation in Worcestershire.  This event was such fun that a repeat next year appears to be on the cards.   If you came along do let us have your thoughts for the future.

Letting off Steam...

There is always something going on here - planned or unplanned!

This weekend was the Hanbury Steam Rally (perversely not in Hanbury but in Stoke Prior, next village up the road).  We normally hear some pretty big and slow vehicles trundling up and down the road when the rally is on, but this weekend got a much closer look, as one rather large steam engine broke down right outside the craft centre on the road.  The drivers worked really hard on it for a couple of hours but, sadly, were unable to get it going again and had to catch a lift home from a very large lowloader.  Malcolm (one of the Jinney Ring owners) spent and hour or so directing traffic around the lovely old vehicles (there was an old tractor with plough with it) as there was a lot of traffic on the road.

The steam engine stuck on the road

Old tractor/plough parked up at the back of the Jinney Ring for a while Sunday night.

Meanwhile in the gardens - the sculpture trail is going well - lots of interest even when the weather is a bit inclement.  My Duck colleagues and I are now learning to live with the cats, dogs and birds made from recycled metal parts from artist Gavin Darby (see below).  The exhibition goes on until 30th September.

Plans are afoot to restore the top pond in the garden and I have heard discussions about fencing off areas to allow big diggers and dumper trucks in to dredge the pond and rebuild the edges.  The leak on the top pond is getting worse and the level is making it hard for us to get out of the pond easily now, so I will be glad when this is completed, even if it means a bit of disruption in October.

Alligator in my garden!

Well this was a bit unexpected....!! It certainly gave us all a start when we saw the alligator climbing out of the bottom pond until we realised he was not real.  He is part of this years garden sculpture which started on the 8th September and goes on to the 30th.  There are lots of other "concerning" things around the garden - dogs and cats and a horse being amongst them.

Lots of people are walking around and admiring these unmoving creatures - it is taking some of the attention away of us at the moment but fortunately none of them like bread so we come into our own at this point.

There are some more interlopers into the garden now - 4 baby chickens have taken over residence in the cage on the lawn, (the crested ducklings have started to refuse to go in at night and declared independence like the rest of us at last!). I hear tell that the chicks only here for another couple of weeks before they go to a loving home (one of the staff in the gift shop).

We had another lovely wedding here just before the sculptures went out - a 1966 camper van arrived with the bride and groom - it was rather special. 

We also had a choir singing in the garden during the canapé reception and photographs, they were very good - the Bride even joined them as she is part of the group.   Once again the whole thing was beautiful especially the Bride and Groom.  We even got fed by the bridesmaids - what could be better?