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"!

Disco Duck!

We have a couple of comical ducks within the clutch of newer duckling - they are keeping us all amused even through they are still in the penned off area of the pond!

First of all there is "Disco Duck" -- ever since he was first let out on the pond he has been showing signs of being just a bit different - he paddles backwards at the slightest opportunity - this means he can do some really 'cool moves',   all he needs is some music!   The other comic we have named "Jar Jar" after Jar Jar Binks in Starwars - He is a lanky black and yellow duck with the big floppy feet which are orange - he was a walk just like his namesake.  He is keeping us 'quacking-up' regularly as he has worked out how to escape the pen (by swimming under the bar) and then spends the rest of the day trying to get back in again!

We had a pretty busy weekend, people wise last week - a lovely hen party of 16 girls who had lunch and then made pottery all afternoon - there was plenty of laughter!

As well as this the conservatory was full all afternoon with a school retirement party - High Tea for 45 people, looked lovely.  The weather even brightened up a bit for some of the guests to visit us too!

Our Feathered Fiends!

The new ducklings in the pen and segregated pond area have been reducing in number almost daily - the smallest ones going first. Of the original batch of 12 or so there are only 5 left and fortunately they are now quite big.  Yesterday when the new ducklings were let out one of them disappeared almost at once... this has been most disturbing and everyone has been on the look out for the culprit.

The latest suspicion is that it is either a buzzard or a sparrow hawk that is talking them away.  The new ducklings are still good prey for these birds and they are amazingly fast to swoop and collect - they will be kept in for a couple more weeks until they grow up a bit - we don't want to lose any more!