On the 18th May one of our ducks appeared on the pond with 12 tiny ducklings.  The mum seemed to be very good with them keeping them all together out of harms way at the back of the pond.  We went over to have another look just after we had finished with our Sunday lunches and we faced with a sorry sight, the Mum had gone taking 10 ducklings with her and leaving two behind.  The ducklings were chirping away looking for their mum who was no where to be seen.  We went back a bit later and still no sign of Mum. 

We managed to catch the two ducklings and have been hand rearing them ever since.  They spent the first few days in a box in a stable with a lamp to keep them warm overnight.  Then James and Mr G built them a lovely house and run.  So they were moved outside and bought in at night.  When they became bigger and the weather warmer they stayed out all the time but were put in their Duck House at night.

Their mother did eventually re-appear with 8 ducklings but within a week they had all disappeared.

With a ready supply of chick crumbs and water Dib and Dab have been thriving.  Their house and run is now located by the stream and pond.  They have regular swimming lessons on the new pond.  In their run there is  a large container filled with pond water and weed, this is to encourage them to find food for themselves.

We look forward to the day when that have their feathers and are thus water proofed so that we can release them back in to the environment.  We hope that once they are free that they will continue to use their duck house and become our full time resident ducks.

We will keep you updated. 

We have now prepared the pool for the summer.  It has been cleaned and freshly painted.  We have installed a new boiler and heat exchanger for heating the pool and so we are hopeful that the pool will be warmer and more enjoyable for all.

Sara’s vegetable patch is also coming along.  The herb garden has had a set back as the rabbits have helped themselves to our Parsley, Coriander and Chives, so next week we will fence in our embryonic herb garden.

This year we have a Gardener, called Mr G.  Mr G has tidied up the gardens up by the road and cleared out the bog pond.  It looks lovely we are leaving the grass around the bog pond long and sowing wild flower seeds to help attract butterflies and other wildlife.

We had a glorious weekend and we have managed to further progress our plans for our vegetable garden.  By the end of the weekend we had completed building the framework for our poly tunnel and lay a water main to it.  We will now prepare the ground inside before putting the polythene over the frame.

The project went well apart from the mini digger falling over, ( with James inside) luckily no harm was done to man or machine but we would like to thank one of our guests, Mr Jim Clarke  and his Land Rover ! for helping us to up right the machine!!

With the improving weather we can now start to prepare the pool for another summer, so that it can open on time on 15th May.

Hello welcome to our new blog and our new look website.

We would like to thank Mark, Karen and Rob who have all been working hard to produce our new website, brochures and letterheads.  We hope that you like the changes.

We will use this page to let you know what is happening here at the Rose in Vale.  We hope that you will pop back from time to time.

James & Sara