2011 Beer Festival

There were lot of machinations earlier this week as to where to put this years Beer Festival - the weather forecast was indicating fairly poor conditions for Friday and showers, so should it be in the garden on the main building?  In the end the tent went up in the garden and so did the beer racks and the festival started out Friday at 3pm with showers, gradually improving through the weekend to Sunday when it was windy but warm.   Lots of people coming and going and some great beers --  "Miss Whiplash" (Batemans) and "Mad Goose" (Purity) bothered us ducks a bit, as did "Dr Morton's Hare Straightener" (Sheffield Beer Works) which sounded more like a medicine rather than a beer. The first beer to go was the "Natural Blonde" (Birds Brewery -- Bromsgrove) which probably tells a tale about our customers!

16 beers on the rack with 5 ciders

 We had plenty of entertainment in the garden -- lots to watch beside the customers

Jo Lucas busking on her violin  Saturday and Sunday  - She is one of Violin Maker  William Piper's Customers.

One Step Beyond danced between the showers on Saturday.

The Ragtime Jug Orchestra from The Forest of Dean

Saturday evening we had local guitar player Mick Quickfall and his friend playing and singing for us, this was followed by the Ragtime Jug orchestra (above), they entertained us with a mix of blues and folk - they had the customers joining in shaking pill pots, what a lark!

In the middle of all this we also had skittles being played and the arrival of the "Big Dog" (below) collecting funds for the Guide dogs for the blind.  Mark Treverton of Marksman Leisure also kindly loaned his laser blast game to raise some funds for charity during the festival -- we were glad that this was inside though, as it meant we were safe on the pond.  Talking of the pond.... timing being all, one of my duck friends took the festival as an invitation to introduce her new duckings to the world - 8 mallard ducklings that showed no fear at all!

"Big Dog"  danced on the car park!

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!

Worcester Arts Trail

Bank holidays are normally pretty good for bread consumption - plenty of people dropping in to see us no matter what the weather, but this year may be busier than normal as some of the artists here are inviting people in as part of the first ever Worcestershire Arts Trail which is on now until the end of bank holiday Monday.

To celebrate the start of the trail Stuart Fletcher and his team in Top Glass are 'ringing the changes' with new ornaments on the tree outside his workshop in the courtyard.  These glass bells work well inside and outside and can have clangers in or not, whatever you fancy!

We have local artist Ian Ridley here too for this period (in the meeting room) - he has some lovely landscapes on sale, and he does smile so don't worry about the photo!

Out on the ponds - the 2011 hatch are out and about, they really enjoyed their first swim and are now proving difficult to round up and put away again.  The only fear at the moment is that the moorhens attack them - they are still hatching their own chicks and are being very aggressive!

The Big Dog!

We had lots of dogs her this weekend and one "Big Dog" for our charity event in aid of the Guide Dogs for the Blind.  "GoWalkies" was really well supported with both people and dogs, on line and on foot.  

This is Paddy (the Big Dog) who is the Go Walkies Mascot alongside  a couple well prepared walkers

We were a bit worried about pandemonium around the ponds with all these dogs arriving but they were all really well behaved as they went off for their 3 mile circular walk taking them up to Hanbury Church and through some of the Hanbury Hall park lands.   

There were some guide dog puppies in training as well as working guides dogs around but also a good selection of pets of all sizes and shapes.  It was very windy but fortunately dry - it was however too windy for the normal guide dog marquee so they used the forest school shelter to set up their merchandise.

It has not been used for this before!

The event raised about £1,400 for the charity and was lovely to run - a big thanks to all the guide dog helpers and participants for making it such an interesting day - it is not often we get do see such a lot of canines under control!

Other news around the centre - 

No sign of Henry the Peregrine Falcon that went missing a few weeks ago, we now fear that we will not see him again sadly.  The Falconers are still sad about this and hope he is surviving in the wild.  They do have some new birds including a Lanner Falcon which will start to work soon.  

The new Muscovey ducks that were given a home here when their owner died recently have settled in and are now venturing off the islands a bit - they were so fat when they came that they could hardly walk - they were clearly not having to do enough for their corn!  They have lost a bit now but still "waddle"!

The 2011 hatch are progressing well and should be out of their pen in the next couple weeks - it is alway fun to watch them take their first proper swim!

Coming up this bank holiday weekend 6 of the Jinney Ring artist studios are participating in the Worcestershire Arts Trail which starts Friday and runs over the bank holiday weekend. 

As always lots going on! 

The 2011 hatch

The chickens have moved on to a new home this weekend so the new ducklings are now out in the big pen.  It is a big world for them at the moment and most of them are exploring with vigour, and have had their first swim.

There is one bird missing from the garden at the moment - Henry the Perigrin Falcon is missing - he went for a extra-curricular flight over a week ago during a flying demonstration and has not returned - the falconers are very worried about him as he was not bred to survive in the wild.

The news from the craft centre is that that Digital Wizardry the graphic design craft unit have moved on (to bigger premises, as they had outgrown the unit) and a new soap business is setting up.  Jorg Muschner whose new unit is called "The Blue Lemon" is making artisan soaps from natural ingredients.  He is due to open on 1st June but hopes to be making product before that time.

Plenty of visitors dropping in!

As always on a Bank Holiday weekends, this is another hectic one here,  well all except for Friday morning of course, when understandably most people were glued to the TV watching the Royal Wedding.  We did have some visitors in garden while this was going on though - a Canada Goose called in for a cuppa (pond water of course) and a bit of a rest and then a group of 10 cyclists made us their first port of call on their 100 mile journey - they were all making the most of the time off work!

A flying visitor - popped in for a drink before continuing journey

A bacon bap before saddling up again only 80 miles left !

At the Jinney Ring, the staff put out the bunting for the Royal Wedding and then held a High Tea in the restaurant - all very "English" with sandwiches and scones!  Most of those working managed to catch glimpses of the ceremony during the day.

A very "English" afternoon

On Saturday and Sunday we had our own little celebration here with the arrival of "drainpipe duck"'s babies - they started "pipping" on Friday and by Sunday nine out of the eleven eggs had hatched and the ducklings were swimming on the pond.  Mum has now abandoned the drainpipe and is keeping her babies around the pond area.

Proud parents take the ducklings out for their first swim.

St Georges Day and Early Arrivals

A very patriotic pottery event on St George's Day

Saturday in the courtyard was really busy with potential knights making their own shields!  The Potters ran pottery workshops for children all day showing children how to roll, shape and decorate the raw clay.  They have now an array of shields in the kiln ready for firing which will be ready for pick up very soon.  As well as making shields they also made a dragon "scale" will be used as part of a large sculpture which will be fired outside in the garden on 24th August with a process called "Raku" - quite appropriate in making a dragon as it is a very fiery process!  Once the scales have been fired the final sculpture will be exhibited as part of the annual sculpture trail at the Craft Centre.

The Guide Dogs for the Blind charity also came along and help out and we had a couple of very well behaved Labrador dogs here for the day.

All of this was going on right next to where "Drainpipe Duck" is sitting on her eggs - she sat quietly with most people not even aware she was there, throughout the whole day, she only left the nest for a very short time - what a good mum!

A baby runner duck - first out!

Talking of ducks - we hear that there have been some very early arrivals in the incubator - this little one arrived out of the blue (it was a blue egg too!) at least a 10 days before he was expected.  The mum must have started sitting on the eggs before they were collected.  A couple of days latter there were another couple.  These ducks have a much higher chance of survival bred like this, rather than in the open - we have already seen the Carrion Crow waiting around the ponds and the Moorhens are on the prowl!  I hear that the babies will be in the gardens sometime today - the electricity has been wired up so that they can keep warm at night in the new pen.