Hobbledown

Ten days ago to Hobbledown, the operation which has replaced the children's farm carved out of the farm down Horton Lane which used to be attached to the Epsom Cluster by way of occupational therapy. A place we have visited in the distant past. Visits which extended, according to BH, to buying a Christmas turkey from them. On the other hand, they did decline our deluxe rabbit hutch, made by yours truly, when we had had enough of rabbits, even though, to our eyes, it was vastly better than a lot of the hutches that were on show. The deluxe rabbit run went to a Treasury Knight for a cucumber frame.

The programme

The day started rather wet, but it was due to clear by midday, which indeed it did, although the wet start may have resulted in a disappointing turnout for the last day of their wildflowers summer festival. Prices seemed a bit steep for ordinary folk, but we pensioners got in for £10 each, which, as it turned out was very good value, with lots to do and see.

A misplaced sign?

A well presented place with plenty of staff and virtually no litter. Bark chippings made a very good soft fall carpet around play equipment - although I have no idea how they kept that clean. And we were amused by the sign about enjoying the animals, snapped above. Perhaps some team member had a sense of humour?

Lots of good acts, somewhere between the bottom end of fringe theatre and the top end of busking. Two groups of musicians, one wandering about the picnic tables, another on stilts. Some acrobats from Ghana. A rather scatological Punch & Judy man - the humour having brought up to date since I had last hear it. Very Roald Dahl on bodily functions.

Quite a reasonable supply of animals, domestic and otherwise. Including some otters which were busy sharing a crab, which they washed in their pond before crunching it up. I wondered about all the bits - I think the gills - which we are not supposed to eat. Perhaps they have more powerful digestions than we do. But no big cats and no big bears, which meant that caging and management requirements generally were much simpler than they would otherwise have been. And no great loss as far as I was concerned.

Quite of reasonable supply of customers by the end of our afternoon, mostly young families.

An interesting display of hawks and falcons - at which I finally learned that falcons took their prey on the wing while hawks and owls took their prey on the ground. Which was why, with falcons, you got them to perform by swinging a lure about. As it happened, most of the birds on display were foreign and all bar one of them had been raised in captivity. I was slightly surprised that it was OK to take them from the wild at all. I also learned that these birds do moult, a process which is not necessarily incapacitating. The young lady doing the talking was also very into showing respect for the birds, which meant, inter alia, that you never touched or petted them.

The younger men of the party tried their hands in zorb balls, rolling energetically them around a zorb ball course arranged on a patch of grass. There was also an element of dodgems about them. BH had a go on the zip wire. I took notes.

The view (not mine) from the interior of a zorb

It can be seen from the snap above, the these zorb balls were well made things, a bit like an inflatable mattress, contrived into the form of a hollow sphere. With a sort of pluggable port hole through which you climb in.

Large numbers of very tame sparrows operating among the benches provided outside the main café.

Trial by shop on exit, as is proper at such a place. A very satisfactory visit and I dare say we will be back on a pensioner afternoon before too long, to have a proper look at all the animals.

Home to macaroni cheese. Recipe from the Radiation Cook Book adjusted to the extent of bringing the amount down, but using proper cheese - Poacher - rather than supermarket, and adding a finely chopped onion to the white sauce, cooking the onion in the butter, before adding the flour. Served with our second and last bottle of Pomice from the Isle of Wight. That is to say the Tenuta di Castellaro Bianco Pomice 2011, from Sicily, as noticed previously. All very good it was too.

Reference 1: https://www.hobbledown.com/.

Reference 2: http://www.zorbballz.co.uk/.

Reference 3: http://www.zorbing.us/.