Late arrivals

I could not believe my eyes today as I spied little 'dots' on the bottom pond -- 15 new ducklings fresh off the island with a very diligent mum (but let's face it how can you control 15 babies on your own?).

The garden was pretty busy today therefore it was not long before they created quite a stir and were being fed by the children.  They did get cold quite quickly though, so Mum rounded them up onto the side and sat on them to warm them up.  Fairly soon  humans arrived and tried to catch them all -- they managed to catch all but 3, and of course Mum who was far too quick!

The ducklings are very late arrivals in the season and, without some help developing, will not get their feathers in time for the frosts - even I know enough to accept that the humans are being 'cruel to be kind' by putting the youngsters into a heated pen and feeding them up.  This way they should all have a very good chance of survival.  It is still possible that they will catch the Mum and the other 3 and put them in too -- if she is not too quick.  The pen is in the garden next to the pond so the ducklings can be watched over by all of us.

Loads of people here yesterday and today - some are here for children's pottery classes, some are just starting shopping for Christmas (stock now out) and many just enjoying the mild weather in the garden.   We love it - we are getting plenty of duck food!

Floss the Chestnut horse has been popping her head over the fence a bit today too.  She is feeling much better now after having a big tooth out last week - what a whopper it was, took a long time to sort out!  She is getting ready to go to her winter stable soon - when the weather changes.

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 .....

Wine and Sunshine!

What a glorious week on the ponds, the weather heat wave has certainly brought people out and sent us ducks in -- the water that is!

This week we a new craft workshop opened up.  Free Bird Framing is a picture framer and sells memorabilia pictures.  Peter and Jo Turvey who are running the business have started this weekend having first noticed the unit for sale when they came to the Blues Festival this summer - funny how a Blues Festival can change your life!

Last night we were all kept awake by laughter and light from the restaurant where a wine tasting was going on.  Paul Green from Heritage Wines was leading the tasting of the new range of Australian and New Zealand Wines that had literally just landed!  They must have been good as everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves.

The Hattery Ladies were here for two days this week rather than just one (we were glad as they are very nice ladies and always pop out to see us!).  They had a Hat Sale on with some dashing pieces on display - not quite as jaunty as the Crested Duck's head gear - but close!

On the ponds there is a little sad news as one of the four "reared" ducklings disappeared one evening when they had all declared UDI and refused to go into their pen, not sure but we suspect the fox again!   Rosie and Jim (the Hanbury school ducks) are still coming in a t night, too but they are now so huge we think they need to have a bit more exercise in the day - very chunky ducks!

Despite the glorious weather I keep hearing talk of Christmas around the place -- The gift shop are planning to put all their new stock out for a Preview night on the 13th of October - to coincide with "Pudding Night" - what could ladies want more than an evening of exclusive shopping followed by as many puddings as you can eat!

Garden back to normal

The sculpture trail has ended and customers are collecting their purchases with the remainder going away with the artists - feels odd to have the garden so empty again, particularly with Autumn in the air and the leaves falling too!

Wire Owl by David Metcalfe

Once again the most popular pieces in the sculpture trail were the birds --this is completely unsurprising to us.  All of the recycled metal birds have found a new home and so have several of David Metcalfe's wire owls.  Top Glass (glass blower in the centre) made a range of glass birds in various colours which will brighten the garden too - these also sold well and more will be available after the end of the trail.

My duck friends admiring the glass birds (Top Glass)

One of the nicest stories heard in the garden was a young couple who purchased the copper lilies on Sunday (made by Jo Floyd pictured on the Duck's diary 25th Aug) - the lady was heard to admire the piece as she had had Cana Lilies in her wedding bouquet -  they were just approaching their second wedding anniversary so they bought the piece - it is lovely, we do hope they enjoy it for a good long time!

Talking of anniversaries - we had a 5th Wedding Anniversary party here in the restaurant this Saturday night - a lovely crowd, all very well dressed, they had a nice meal and a good long chat. Despite being locals, many of the guests had not been here before and had certainly not realised what lovely gardens we live in - we hope to see them again soon.

Autumn blowing in

Gosh it has been blowy this week - the garden is quite open, so it felt quite fierce, but not cold.  Sadly the wind blew the gazebo to bits on Monday and the lovely clay horse sculpture from Paul Michael Langford was also blown over - he was not too upset though as it was always intended to be a temporary thing, and was only expected to last a short time when the rain came.  It was a lovely sculpture though - he is talking of making one in bronze next year.

With the children retuning to school this week and the change in the weather we have been a bit quieter and can return to leisurely swimming rather than identifying the best customers to chase for food!  The most exciting thing to happen this week has been the 4 ducklings in the pen being allowed out - they went mad - we have never seen ducklings move so far so fast they went right down to the bottom pond on the first day (it normally takes a couple of weeks for them to pluck up courage for this!). But the best fun was watching the humans trying to get them off the pond at the end of the day, so that they could return them to the safety of the pen for the night -  it took many attempts!  These ducklings are smart though - last night they returned to the pen of their own volition - they have worked out where the food is now!

You may remember that these four have a mum and a couple of siblings on the pond (see earlier diary note) and we speculated as to whether she would recognise them when they came back -- she did not and was very careful to ward them off the much smaller siblings (they have not been eating as well as the ones in the pen!)

This Saxophonist by Alan Ross is part of trail

Sculpture trail ends next Sunday.  Next event on the books is Wine tasting on 30th September.

Scarecrows or Scareducks?

Yesterday we had a real scare -- some additions to the sculpture trail but this time they actually moved -- not fast but we definitely saw them move.

A Scarecrows picnic/tea party was set up in the garden (which is a bit ironic really as there are NO PICNIC signs up everywhere... I guess they can't read...) and four "Scarecrows" arrived as part of the sculpture trail.

The "Scarecrows" are local lad and trainee Thespian Joel Davidige, and his friends who are sparing a little time in between rehearsals for their show "In Short" at the Artrix this Saturday.

Accompanying their tea party, they had a Jo Lucas who turned up to busk in the gardens today, beautiful music to swim to!

Tomorrow, 2nd Sept, within the Sculpture Trail programme, Paul Michael Langford is back to finish his clay horse sculpture at the bottom of the garden - he is wonderful to watch - we are looking forward to seeing him again.

What a shower!

It has been a really active week at the craft centre, firstly the sculpture trail launch and then yesterday an evening wedding party.  I heard it said that this was our first "American Bride" and later, when the party were in the garden before dinner, I found out that this was the "English bit" of their nuptials. The Bride and Groom had married in America last week in a garden ceremony with blazing sunshine.  Yesterday they had their second celebration in real English style - everyone was in their finest regalia (they all looked great, especially the Bride) - dodging the raindrops.  In fact during the evening we probably had more rainfall in the garden than we have in the entire month, including some thunder and lightening.    The weather did not appear to worry anyone - they ate dinner and partied in really good spirits, while we ducks danced in the rain - gosh we did enjoy it!

Dodging raindrops - Nick and Lindsey with family

We have the courtyard marquee at the centre until after the bank holiday and I understand that there is a wedding and special event display on show until it goes, so people can see what goes on here, or what could go on here!

The courtyard marquee display

A bit of sad news today - the mother of the ducklings on the pond is now down to two left on the water (four are still being brought up by the humans), one of the ducklings just disappeared (the crows we think) and the other just keeled over, although we have a suspicion he may have got under someone's foot as he had been getting far to close to people!