Another interesting month with a couple of entertaining events.
At the beginning of the month we had a request from a young man who wanted to film a Dr Who spoof in the gardens. He needed a location for some outdoor shots and had persuded his mum and a friend to be two of his actors. I’m afraid they didn’t take it as seriously as young Jordan would have liked and I think the filming took rather longer than intended due to the fits of giggles that pealed forth. Still, Jordan was very professional throughout. He then told me he was going to take all the footage home, edit it, and add sound and special effects where necessary to make the final film. He wants to work in films when he is older, and I have no doubt he will.
A couple of weeks later we were asked to clean out the fountain in the middle of the Fountain Gardens. Photos were needed so that a quote can be obtained for repair and maintenance. In the 13 years I have been at Spetchley this hasn’t been done so I was rather interested to see what was at the bottom of the fountain.
I had spent the previous day pumping out the water, rescuing the 10 or so carp and putting them in a large dustbin for safekeeping, and removing some of the sludge. We enlisted the help of the forester, ‘Big Chris’ who said he would make a start clearing the remaining foot or so of sludge. I said I was going to finish the pea planting I was doing with our volunteer ‘Little Chris’, and would then help Big Chris. 3 or 4 minutes later a very irate Big Chris came slopping back through the Kitchen Garden, absolutely covered in sludge. He had stepped over the edge of the fountain onto the steps, the steps had moved, he had missed his footing and fallen in. I’m afraid he didn’t get any sympathy, just a lot of laughter from the gardeners and from Dave, the maintenance man. Poor chap. Anyway, after a hot bath and a large bandage on his elbow he felt justified in starting to help again. We finally got the fountain emptied, (see photo of Little Chris and Steve), finding a childs shoe, a pair of sunglasses, two piles of rocks and stones and about 80p in loose change in the process. The base of the fountain is laid out very neatly in what looks like blue engineering bricks, which was a bit of a suprise to me. There is also a sump that I knew nothing of until I nearly swamped my wellies when I stood in it as the sludge was being removed.
The requisite photos were taken and the fountain filled again 2 days later. The fish were fine and are now enjoying their newly cleaned home.
