Snow Palace

Just by the ponds in the back gardens there is an area that we know as the "piggery" (this dates back to the days when the building was a farm and pigs were kept in what is now the gardening area).  One night this week we had a burst pipe and it created a Snow Queen's palace effect ....

The Craft Centre has managed to stay open through the snow (except Saturday 19th when the heavy snow made it impossible), but many of the staff have struggled to get in so those that did make it have been covering in all areas - mucking in together.  We are not seeing many people out in the gardens as it is still bitterly cold.  The fox is still around but he shows up quite well in the snow so we are wary!

We understand that we are going to have some singing here tomorrow on Christmas Eve as Hanbury Church are relocating their christmas Eve Service to the Jinney Ring rather than risk people getting up the very steep hill in the icy conditions - this should be lovely!  After this the Craft Centre is closed for Chirstmas day and Boxing Day, reopening on the 27th at 11am.

We would like to wish all our followers and readers a "Quacking" good Christmas! 

White World....

It is so cold at the moment that even walking on the snow is painful - when we got fed this morning it was easier to sit down to eat than stand on the frozen surface.  We did all feel a lot warmer with some corn inside us though.

Yesterday was a white out in the garden - the snow did not stop from morning until night, about 10 - 12 inches - amazing.  This morning the sky is blue and it looks truely lovey for miles.

View to the Malverns from the Conservatory door 

The snow on the back gate shows how much snow fell yesterday! 

The roads around seem to be moving today (yesterday they were not good!) and a few folk have ventured out to see us.  Some of the staff here have had trouble getting off their drives and have not been able to get to work so there is a skeleton crew - but they are all mucking in to get the place up and running again.

Marcus and Tom - who work in the Kitchen are helping move the snow

 

Mick drives the mini-digger which has a snow plough on the front - Matt lives on site and is kindly helping out!

The path to the restaurant - past the wishing-well. 

Some of the craft workshop holders have made it in today as they have customers coming for Christmas Presents - Belinda Terry and "From the Tree" are here and the others are doing their best to get in if they can.  The car park is cleared at the front and the gift shop and restaurant will be open until at least 4pm.

Sad and very cold week in the garden!

We are all very sad this week as Jessica the Bengal Eagle owl, who lived at the Falconry at the end of the garden has died.  She had been poorly for about a week but the Vet could not find out what was wrong with her.  She had a very enlarged liver, but no-one knew why.  Jessica was only 17 and could have lived for twice this based on other owls of her type.  Dave and Danielle, the on site Falconers, are really upset as is everyone in the garden and the Craft Centre, as she was a real character and also gave you a good welcome when you visited.  Jess was a bit of a celebrity, often appearing on TV/film or at shows (see below).  We will miss her. 

We have had the water trickling all week trying to keep the top pond free of ice as far as possible - still seeing the fox everynight, but I think even he is a bit chilly at -10 degrees celius.  The Craft Centre has been a bit quiet this week considering it is Christmas, but listening to those that came, the roads are very well gritted this time, so there is no problem visiting us --- and we are a bit short of bread at the moment (we are getting more corn though, as we do need the internal heating!!).

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?








 

  

A really Blue day!!

It was the second Jinney Ring Blues Festival on Saturday (21st) and quite a day it was....

The garden was pretty busy in the three days running up to the festival with marquees going up, beer arriving and mowing all going on but, as Saturday came closer, there there was growing concern about the black clouds over the Malvens!  The, apparently well known, adage from these parts was heard several times "If you can see clouds over the Malvern's it is going to rain - if you can't - it is raining already!!"

Saturday morning dawned and we ducks could not see the Malvern hills - it was like we were inside the cloud, and it was raining!.  Never-the-less work continued and more marquees went up, a trailer with bales of straw arrived and it was clear that the Festival was going to happen.  As the morning passed and the festival gates opened the real stalwarts arrived, some in wellies, all with coats and umbrellas - there was a really good spirit in the air!

"Pete-the-Wagon" turned up in his shorts, (clearly an optimist) - his two girls helped the team finish off the preparations on the site as Pete set up (see below)

"Pete the Wagon" - An old fashioned wheel rite from Stratford,  restores these lovely old wagons and makes mushrooms!

Gloomy over the Malverns - but at least we could see them at this point!

Happily the weather brightened up considerably in the afternoon and we saw no more rain until just before the end of the evening.  There were six great bands playing during the day covering a terrific range of music - one band had a harmonica player leading the music!  There was plenty of beer, lots of food including Chef Shirley's homemade burgers and kebabs on top of the normal suppers and lunches.

Despite the damp it was a really good spirited occasion and at the end of the evening there was dancing and some pretty "happy" folk.  We ducks thought it best to stay on the water for most of the time but we did get a pretty good view throughout the event.  Surprisingly the baby ducks asked to go to bed (in their cage) at about 6pm and slept through most of the evening!.

Simon "Honeyboy" Hickling - quite a harmonica player!

Some chilled out, some chilly! The sun was out most of the afternoon and it was warmish - honest!

Andy Ford of Hanbury band "Reflections" enjoying the day with family and friends

Many of the visitors stayed over in campers or tents, they were rewarded by a beautiful day on Sunday and had breakfast in the farmhouse restaurant.  "The Big Blues Tribe" Band leader and organiser Oliver Carpenter of Jigsaw Community Festivals  arrived about 9:00 to start dismantling the massive tent and even as they did this the team were planning for next year!

What a "quacking" weekend!

Our garden was extremely busy and full of some very well dressed visitors (how they walk in those heels I just don't know...) on Saturday.

A large marquee went up on the Thursday and, much to'ing and fro'ing of equipment, bottles etc went on for a couple of days and then, Saturday at about 1 o'clock, the garden was full of wedding guests closely followed by the beautiful bride and her hansom groom.    The weather was reasonably kind to them as just as they came out of church the sun appeared and stayed around until about 2.30 for photographs - most of them taken here.  At 2:30 the heavens opens and everyone went inside just in time to eat.

They had a great party in the marquee, which was decorated out in black and white and even had a black and white dance floor.  We ducks could see in through the windows but were shooed away fairly regularly when we tried to go inside!

 

We did not get to bed til late but it was enormous fun watching the antics and the outfits so we did not mind much.

On Sunday there was yet more activity on in the marquee with a Wedding Fayre - lots of exhibitors including one that brought along a bed - Premier Inn, sadly, did not bring Lenny Henry - but who knows for next year!

 

The marquee (from Hanbury Marquees) has just been taken down again and the garden is back to normal - the staff here look a bit tired, but it all went very well so they are now working hard toward the next function which is the Blues Festival on 21st August, I am told by my feathered friends that this involves another type of tent and lots more people. 

Where has our pond gone?

We ducks have been getting increasingly concerned that water has been "evaporating" at an alarming pace on the top pond for the last couple of weeks so we were relieved to see maintenance manager Mick in his waders on Monday coming into the pond to check it out.


We have been doing our own "research" - that is scratching around at the sides of the pond and, only recently, found a bit of a hole - we all worked at it pretty diligently to expose it nicely for him to see - he did not seem that pleased though, and has now made plans to fill it in with clay later this week, there is gratitude for you!   He says that there is a much bigger job needed as the ponds need dredging and rebuilding as there is significant errosion, but this will have to wait until October - ohh what joy, plenty of mud to play in!

He also had his waders on for another reason it transpired .... the new ducklings had had their second outing out and were swimming on the bottom pond. They had gone into the thick bullrushes and were under attack from a couple of rather aggressive moorhens. Happily all ducklings survived and are once again back in their pen.

Baby Barn Owls at Arden Falconry

Plenty of children about at the moment feeding us - not doing my diet much good but very tasty!  They are also visiting the new baby barn owls at Arden Falconry which are growing fast (but are still at that very ugly stage!).  Some of them, the children that is, are also doing pottery short classes with Sophia Binney which are good fun. 

 

Final news for this Blog - we thought we had the FBI here last week - the carpark had 3 black transit vans parked up early one evening - it tuned out that Chocolate Deli were installing some airconditioning equipment, as the heat was stopping the chocolate setting properly - it is "well cool" in their unit now! 

Exhausting weekend.....

What a busy weekend this has been, well it all started on Thursday evening when we had a lovely crowd in for a retirement party in the evening - they were far from "retiring" and danced and laughed their way through the evening, popping out in the gardens to chat with us ducks from time to time (although I have to say that the ducklings in the pen are generally getting most attention).

After this we had a lovely wedding here yesterday - they were a bit late coming from the church (very "thorough" photographers - I heard it said!) but worth the wait .... both the bride and groom looked fantastic as they stepped out of their vintage car outside the marquee.

The next thing I saw was one of our resident Harris Hawkes on the arm of his hander coming up to meet the guests.  Apparently the Bride Groom loves the birds of prey and was determined to get some photos on his wedding day.  They all went off down the garden for more photos at this point before going in to the marquee for speeches and dinner.  Shirley (Head Chef) not only designed and cooked a lovely menu for the evening (no duck!) also made the cake for the couple.

 

Then just as we were hoping for a quiet nap on the pond we find that there is yet more excitment planned for today - an antiques valuation day.  David Walters and his colleague have been on hand to chat to people all day - there have been many curious shapped packages brought in and he has been very busy indeed.  Listening to folk in the garden afterwards he appears to have a lot of knowledge and is most interesting.

David Walters - Antiques Expert

Hopefully tomorrow will be a quieter day - but rumour has it that the schools have broken up now, so I expect we ill get a lot more visitors. There are some childrens pottery courses going on (Sophie Binney) and of course there are the new baby barn owls (4)  that Arden Falconry are looking after to interest the youngsters this holiday (as well as feeding us of course!).

  

Crested ducklings come to the Garden

Another batch of ducklings have just arrived in the pen - 7 this time, and three have "bobbles" on their heads, most curious!

The ducklings are once again a mixture with 1 Peking, 1 Aylesbury, 4 call ducks (of which 3 are crested) and 1 black mixed duck.  I heard it said that the hatch rate was very poor with the eggs this time, probably as it is well into the season and the eggs are not so good.  None the less the new additions are already attracting attention in their baby hutch.

All of these ducklings are once again incubated so are relying on humans to keep them warm and fed. Rumour has it we may some "natural" ducklings in a few weeks too, as one my mates is now "sitting" on a batch of eggs in one of the nice houses on the island, the worry is whether they will survive as the crows are now worse than ever with their offspring visiting us regularly too.

Talking of ponds - Mick, the maintenance manager has spent the day digging a very large hole in the middle of the gardens as he thinks we have a leak somewhere - in the end it looks like errosion at the pond edges causing the seapage - it needs to be fixed very soon and it is a big job.  There was talk of tractors and clay for the Autumn .....can't wait....!!!

Lizzie

We have been observing that the cows in the field have been growing up and outwards at a fair pace since they arrived, however one has been growing outwards much quicker!  This week we found out why - she is expecting a calf, this is wonderful news.

"Lizzie" as she is known is a long legged Dexter and is a year or so older than the other cows in the field - she fits in well with them as they are not yet full grown and Dexters are a small breed of cow.  She is a cow that knows her own mind and takes no nonsense from the youngsters - just as well in her condition.

The calf is expected some time late in August. The farmer visited this week and will probably take her home for the birth - but we hope to have news and pictures!

At the moment the grass is looking a bit worn out in the near fields so the cows and the horse have been let into the top meadow so we are seeing a bit less of them, except when they come to drink at the water trough.

They are out and about.....

The incubated ducklings are now out and about around the ponds - they are largely stick together and rush around (many of them are runner ducks) and are enjoying the sunshine and the ponds. 

We have also had some late mallard ducklings arrive, mum seems to be looking after them well so far.

Finally - look at this beauty.  This duck is one of the 6 six that survived from our own egg collection earlier - he/she is an Appleyard cross and we are delighted to have had some reminder of the lovely Appleyards that the fox robbed us of earlier in the year.  Quite a character!

Wedding Bells for Jinney Ring Gardener

Rachel - our hard working gardener gets married today in Worcester.  Can you believe that she was not going to have flowers for her big day?....  Fortunately no-one here thought that this was "quite right" so arranged for local Hanbuy florist Anna Brian to come an take some of the flowers from our (her) gardens here and make a lovely scented bouquet and button hole for Joe (Groom).  The bouquet was pink and yellow (to match her dress) and had some beautiful roses.  Anna said that it was a delight to cut the flowers yesterday as it was such a fantastic day in the early morning (when it was not too hot for the flowers).

Rachel spends almost every day, even in the winter, out in the gardens with us and is always looking after our well being - we wish her a fantastic wedding day and a great future with Joe.  The only thing is she is now off on honeymoon for 2 weeks and we, and her garden, will miss her!

Garden and Countryside

Last week Jinney Ring Gardener, Rachel, had some help in the gardens from a young works experience chap and his teacher.  He was from central Birmingham and had visited our gardens and fallen in love with them.  Between them all they created a new flower bed at the bottom of the site and planted it up - it looks great and we are very grateful to the team for making the garden better.  Rachel has however asked us Ducks not to "ferret around" in the bark for a bit though - to let the plants settle.   The bed is next to the fence line at the bottom of the overflow carpark, where there is also a new hedge planted - it is a wildlife hedge and has a range of different hedge plants in that are designed to work with the insects and birds.  It will all take a while to get established.

Talking wildlife (apart from me) I am told that the meadow field is particularly lovely at the moment - this is one field away from the Jinney Ring and can be accessed from the footpath through the wood at the end of the site.  Pictures below: 

The owners are holding off cutting for hay until the wild flower seeds have dropped and then the meadow will be well replenished next year.  There are footpaths through the field which take you to the school and the church - a really nice walk!

Life on the pond is pretty good at the moment with great sunshine - the babies are growing fast in the cage on the lawn, but do not yet have their oil glands properly developed, so do not swim well!! - They get waterlogged fast and would sink if not helped out!  Have you ever seen a waterlogged duck - looks very commical! 

As to activities in the Craft Centre - there is lots of "Not the world cup" stuff going on - this Friday (25th June) we are getting ready for a "Mad Hatters Tea Party" which will be in the garden (so we can join in).  Cream teas and Pimms are promised with lots of hats from "the hattery" who are a group of miliners working at the craft centre each Friday (they often come out to see us when they are here).  There is also the chance to see Jamie Olivers new cookware range "Jamie at Home" (3pm - 9pm).

The Jinney Ring also had a stand at the BBC Gardeners World Show last week - I overheard some of the staff saying that it was a good show but hard to resist the smells coming from the food show next door!