A Duck's Diary from the Jinney Ring Craft Centre

Just some of the stuff that I see here!



Sunday 24 July 2011

What a Garden Party!

Children making dragon scales for the potters sculpture

It felt like the first day of summer today and what could be nicer than swimming around the ponds quietly in the sun -- but no, it was not to be!  The garden was an absolute hive of activity today, partially with the potters who were in the middle of the garden firing with a smoking kiln and children making scales for a dragon (very appropriate with the smoke and fire we felt -- and the dragon is going to be featured in this years garden sculpture trail in starting on 24th August).

As well as this we had music playing most of the afternoon from The Ragtime Jug Orchestra who have visited us before but not in such good weather!  They were excellent once again and had some really quirky songs.

The Ragtime Jug Orchestra -  Fab!
The highlight for us was the garden games which were all being run for charity, skittles, coconut shy, horseshoes and ye olde stocks. The best bit was when the owner, Malcolm, was put in the stocks and got very wet indeed, we did quack!!.

Malcolm in the Stocks (which came from Avoncroft Museum)

It was not quite the day we had in mind but it was fun having so many people visiting - lots of them fed us as they enjoyed lunch, pimms, ice cream etc.  I guess we need to get acclimatised as I hear it is the Blues festival soon - now that is a lot of music!

Thursday 21 July 2011

Rosie and Jim settle in

Rosie and Jim in the big pen
As rumoured the new ducklings turned up a two days ago - 2 of them had been born at Hanbury First School and have been living a life of luxury between the warm school class room and class teachers Miss Thorne  home.  They have been very well fed and watered and are now quite big ducklings.  The children have named them "Rosie and Jim" .

About a week later than Rosie and Jim were hatched, another smaller duckling hatched on its own at the Jinney Ring- this is a mini Silver Appleyard. Rather than keep the duckling on its own it went off to join Rosie and Jim at school, but because they were so big and rowdy they frightened the smaller duckling. This duckling was named "Squeak" due the the noise it was making!.

Squeak has some black in his feathers
The final arrival was a very late and unexpected duckling again hatched at the Jinney Ring. Because this one is so new it is not much bigger than Squeak and at the moment and they have been put together for company in a smaller pen -- he/she will grow to be like Rosie and Jim eventually, but hopefully the ducks will be firm friends by then so size will not matter!    The children have very aptly named this new one "Bubble".

Hanbury First school Reception class came over with teacher Miss Thorne to see the ducklings had settled in OK.  I think they went away happy that they were comfortable.   The children fed us bigger ducks too so we hope they visit regularly!

Sunday 17 July 2011

Lots of Ministers!

This weekend started badly with pouring rain, not that it bothered us ducks much (except it puts people off feeding us!), but we knew that we were to be having another wedding here later in the day so we crossed out wings for the day to brightened -- it worked and the sun was out by the time they arrived at about 5pm and once again we got a good look at everyone while pictures were taken.



It turned out that we had 3 minsters with us for the wedding reception - one performed the ceremony, one said grace and the third was the Groom himself (Ron) who retired recently.  Probably because he was an ex-minister, the Groom said he was actually looking forward to his speech and performed like a professional, even had a microphone! (Most of the time Grooms hate this bit!).   The Bride (Rebecca) looked radiant as did her Bridesmaid, Nicola and her family who are all very close to Rebecca. This group are all 'regulars' at the Jinney Ring, so we were delighted to see them (they all brush up really well!).  The party went on until about midnight and we had the ponds lights on so that we could have a good swim in the limelight too!

Next on the agenda we have a garden party (Sunday 24th) -- sounds like we are going to have to keep our heads down for this one with coconut shy, skittles, stocks as well as music on the agenda!

Bit of breaking news (literally)  -- 4 new ducklings are rumoured to have hatched and will be out in the garden next week.  Two of these have been hatched by Hanbury First School with their new incubator, can't wait to see them.

Finally -- an update on the ducks that went to the Vet -- one is fully back to health, rushing around with his mates, the other is still not walking very well at all but seems happy enough in herself, she is managing to get onto and off the water.  She seems to be sensible enough to sleep on the island to keep safe.  One thing for sure is that she has had enough of being caught by the humans and force fed anti-biotic, no-way is she being caught again!

Friday 15 July 2011

Food Food and Chocolate!

Last week we all noticed that we have been getting fed a lot less bread from the customers of the craft centre and are now being fed corn.  Very nice and filling but a definite change  -- it turns out that someone has done some research and found out that the amount of bread we were eating was really not good for us as it is not nutritional.  With summer holidays upon us and lots more children visiting, the restaurant staff are now buying in corn for the customers to give us (if they want to).  For us bread is a lot like chocolate though -- it may not be good for us but we do like it!

Talking of chocolate (even we ducks look for links!) -- last weekend was a The 'Experience Chocolate' weekend run by Chocolate Deli.  We had lots of visitors who came and made truffles, lollies and learned about chocolate.  The restaurant ran a "chocolate bar" and the chef made a huge chocolate cupcake to raffle.  Lots of fun.  They also ran two quizzes for the Guide Dogs for the Blind (and had a visit from a brand new puppy -- who got a lot of fuss).

Chocolate lollies - made by the children


Friday 1 July 2011

A visit to the Vet

Two of my friends in the garden have been limping badly lately and have been confined to the pen in the hope that they recover naturally.  Sadly they have not got any better so they were taken off in a cardboard box yesterday and we feared the worst! Happily, it turned out that they had had a visit to the Vet and they are now back and taking medicine for their problems.  They both seem to be getting better and hope to be on the pond again soon.  (Neither is that happy about the medicine though -- tastes horrible!)

Confined to bed!

We have a bit of a mystery at the moment  -- several of my Indian Runner duck friends have disappeared very recently -- including the lovely new duckling that was protected for so long.  Some of my fellows think it is the fox, but I haven't seen any evidence of this and they are not very "meaty".  We are now all on alert, keeping a very good eye out watching comings and goings, foxes and people!

A hot weekend

Last weekend we had another bride and groom and their party spend the afternoon with us in the gardens.  The sky was not blue but is was hot and the rain held off for them.  They looked fantastic, especially the Bride Lynsey who was radiant, and they had some lovely photos taken with us too!

Arriving at the Centre

Lynsey and her "MC" brother
The party arrived about 2:30pm and had sandwiches and drinks with many guests exploring the craft units but as usual the Falconry was the favourite attraction and we lost some of the guests for quite a while to the thrills of the  new owl and falcon.  They disappeared for dinner at about 6pm and then we watched them through the conservatory windows.   They had a lovely menu which the Bride and Groom chose -- it included a pie (Grooms choice) which although it is unusual for a wedding was very popular!



Speech time 
In the evening the party all danced in the marquee far into the night -  we had regular bulletins as many of the guests came to cool off in the garden.   The Bride and Groom had chosen a complete playlist to ensure maximum dancing -- a really good mix!

The marquee all lit up ready to dance the night away
The marquee has gone again now and we are getting ready for our next excitement which is the "Experience Chocolate" weekend on 9th/10th July.  Chocolate Deli have all sorts of chocolately treats in store for visitors all weekend and the shop and restaurant are joining in too!