A Duck's Diary from the Jinney Ring Craft Centre

Just some of the stuff that I see here!



Sunday 25 July 2010

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!).

  

Monday 12 July 2010

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....!!!

Saturday 10 July 2010

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.