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!