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.