What a busy weekend!

The baby ducks are now out and about - they like 'teenagers' at the moment - a bit gangly and eating all the time! They are out during the day and still coming in at night (well mostly!). 

They, and we, have been very heavily socializing this bankholiday weekend with beer festival customers - the beer tent was in the garden and so was the entertainment.   Firday saw Droitwich Blues Duo "Broke Down Engine" playing both ouside and inside.

"One Step Beyond" appalachian step dancers performed on Saturday and Sunday (and were such good sports through the rain on Saturday!) as did local guitarist Mick Quickfall 

Saturday night was a bit chilly and wet but folk group "Just Good Friends" played on in the beer tent and did a great job.

  

One Step Beyond

Mick Quickfall

Visitors had the choice of 20 real ales (most of them local) and 5 ciders - many have worked their way through the whole list.  Favourites seem to be the "Triple Chocohollic", "Bottom Knocker" and "Matrix".

Mark Treverton from Marksman Leisure was also on hand most of the weekend to test wits shooting laser clays. There were skittles (courtesy of local man John Ford) and horseshoes (thanks to Bob and Leigh -farriers to Floss the horse in the field!) to keep the children (and adults) entertained.

It has been a very mixed weather weekend with Saturday being wet and then a lot of wind Sunday (the wind caused a bit of unexpected entertainment with one of the Marquees sailing away - fortunately everyone took it in good spirits and helped take it apart, bend tubes included!) . 

All in all it has been a very fun and busy few days - and it is not over yet - the festival goes on until the end of today (Monday).

Stop Press....

While all this has been going on we have also had some new arrivals - some more incubated ducklings.  Thety have not made it outside yet as they have only just hatched.  They are real cuties - Mini Silver AppleYards, White Runners and Mixed Runners.  We are still hoping for a few more to hatch in the next few days. Look out for them in the garden in the next week or so.

Unusual visitors

The night before last two surprise visitors dropped in on a lovely sunny evening when all the customers had disappeared.

They are a male (b/w) and female Tufted Duck 

They were not here long - probably just stopping off on their way to Scotland - they are commonly found up the west coast of the country - we have not seen them on our ponds before!

Also seen last night, standing bold as brass in the middle of the garden was a very fine FOX - not quite to welcome - we all made it to water pretty quick!

Very smart cars!

This weekend we all had a lovely treat - the Historic Car society arrived for tea with their rather smart cars.
Here are just a couple.

There were 33 cars in all, lots to see and some very enthuiastic people looking arround them.

Weather getting a bit better now and it is quite pleasant in the garden.  The incubated ducklings are growing fast and we are all getting much better at watching for the crows although they have eaten an aweful lot of our eggs.

In the Restaurant they are well along with preparations for the beer festival (on bank holiday weekend) - 20 real ales (most of them from local breweries) have been ordered and 5 ciders.  Lots of games and some music in the garden are now sorted out - should be fun!

Criminal found!

Another horrific night last night in the garden - we all kept look out and saw no one but in the morning 14 ducklings have vanished, now only have 10 left, we are all so sad.

Humans came and moved the pen and have found the culprit - a weasle or stoat run has been dug under the duck house and came out under the house ramp where it could not be seen.  They have now moved the pen with the remaining ducklings and are building a new house for them.  We can't have another night like that!

At least the mystery is solved and faith in human kind is restored!

Thanks to those who are as upset as we are for you kind thoughts.

The "wild" white ducklings reported two blogs ago are now 5 in number but they are growing very well and as each day passes have more chances of reaching maturity - it is a tough life in the country!

There is also another white duck sitting on eggs at the moment.

Talking of my feathered friends - spotted a wild barn owl in the back field last night.... lovely to see, wonder if it has a nest nearby?

"Ducknap" !!! and Cows

Crime has occurred in my back yard! - someone has stolen 8 of the new ducklings from the pen in the middle of the garden.  We are all extremely shocked, and very sad about this. We sincelerly hope that the "Criminal" knows how to look after the little ones as they are only a week old and need a lot of warmth, proper chick food (not corn or bread) and plenty of water at this stage of their lives.  If they get wise they will just return them to the pen quickly, otherwise I have heard the owners of the Centre saying that they will be looking back on the CCTV footage, whatever this means.  It is sad that humans can be so uncaring and take these ducklings out of such a lovely place to grow up.....

The Cows and the Horse are here - I am told by the older ducks, that this is normal for this time of year and that I should get used to them peering at us over the fence and making a lot of noise.  They are all very young and are fascinated by everything new, as they have been inside all winter and it is all very exciting to them. (There is an absolutely beautiful black cow with such a pretty face that I am already very fond of).  The horse "Floss"  is already wooing the visitors in the centre and seems to spend most of her day "chatting" to the girls and boys. Wish I had a job like that!  She also seems to be taking the lead with cows and often leads the youngsters around the field at pace.

"Floss" is in charge of the young cows again