Shiny Happy People

Children everywhere. Perhaps glitter as a decoration for the masks wasn't the best of ideas. The first four boys tipped both full tubes onto their masks rendering them empty. The table was covered in glitter. The floor was covered in glitter. One mum said: "I don't allow glitter at home. It's too messy." Hmmm. All the masks went so for the second evening in a row we made 30+.
Saturday dawns. The last weekend of the season. Two days left. Today and tomorrow.
I reckon I'll have loads of cake left over. Not such an awful problem to have.


8

Which is witch.

Another day which didn't make sense. Half term: yes. Pumpkin trail: yes. Weather: worse. Eerily quiet: NO. Had to call Freda in when it was obvious we would be much busier. We had a record panini day (21) and sold out. I can't remember what the jacket potato record is but I'm pretty sure we broke that too. We also sold out of cobweb cakes - at one stage I was icing to order. Icing cobwebs onto fairy cakes under pressure is no mean feat. For me.
Up early tomorrow to bake, ice and cut out masks. They all went too.



21

Eerily Quiet

I'll admit it. I don't understand. The forecast was good, it's half term, there's a pumpkin trail at the Court. We should have been very busy. I woke early worrying we wouldn't have enough staff. Instead we stood around for large parts of the day thumb-twiddling. On a brighter note the paninis proved popular again and the visiting kids seemed very happy with the cardboard bat masks which we'd put on a table to decorate with glitter and bits.
Witches' brew soup was made this morning. And we had a familiar sounding quiche of the day: ghosted vegetable and monsterella. My own children had fun this morning thinking up that one.


7

La Belle Day Off.

My family's annual day trip to France with friends meant I wasn't at the tea rooms yesterday when the half-term world descended. And ordered paninis. Hurray. And had to wait for them. Not such a huge hurray. The stash of cake was rapidly reduced so I'll be baking again tomorrow - cobweb cakes for the kids and lemon drizzle. I may even have to dust off my Victoria Sponge recipe at this rate.
I'm on a countdown to Sunday when we close our doors for Winter.


2.

& nonsense

Off today to buy ingredients for eyeball cakes and witches' brew soup.
I've also started to decorate the tea rooms for halloween but I fear I need more *stuff*.
The panini machine passed its electrical test yesterday so now all I need to do is work out what I'm going to put in them.

A Cut Above

That was the last of the stand-alone weekends. I don't like them very much. On Saturday morning we had to start from scratch - make chilli, cook ham, bake scones, make soup. Turned out to be a busy, pleasant day with lots of regular visitors. Yesterday was one of those gorgeous bright, sunny, dry and cold days so it was jacket-potatoes-a-go-go. Tomorrow I'm opening for an hour for the Barber Institute to have afternoon tea.
My attention must then turn to half term and my Halloween decorations. Woooooooooo (that was a ghost noise)

Tall tales

Six cups and saucers safely brought to Worcestershire from North Yorks after successful ebay purchase..
Panini machine sort of likewise. It's here but I have to get it checked out as it's been dropped.
In other news, George has now been inside the capsule which brought the miners up to the surface. He squeezed into it and claims it wasn't the size of his tummy which made him uncomfortable but rather that he was too tall for it.
Hmmm.

Addendum

The pigeon came back up.
Almost whole.
In the living room.

To catch the spider

Finally October delivered and people sat outside in the Sunday sunshine.
This weekend-opening lark is tricky though. I over-ordered bread AND milk AND cream. None of which will last til next weekend. I've frozen a couple of loaves and my family will be living on rice pudding for the foreseeable.
Having felt really guilty about the lack of dog exercising carried out this weekend I took Jess off to the local woods this morning for an hour and a half. How did she repay me? She found a dead pigeon. And ate it.
Now she's in the dog house.
Literally.

Touché

A good day when we ran out of soup. Again. This time A Taste of the Garden, followed by an utterly delicious Mildly Spiced Parsnip. The warm weather we'd been promised failed to materialise (deja vu) but I did manage to nip home and place a winning ebay bid on 6 cups and saucers in our no-longer-made range. The downside is that I have to go to North Yorkshire to pick them up.
Three ladies came for lunch and cake. They also went shopping. One bought a bird box, the second a necklace and a pair of earrings and the third 13 plants. They told me they don't get together often. Were they old school friends? I asked.
No. They were in a fencing team together.
Of course.

I'm alright, Jill.

The surprise was twofold: the good weather failed to materialise and we had a busy lunchtime.
Two members of the coach party came in early. They had their tea. their soup, their sandwiches. Two more arrived. They had their coffee, their soup, their sandwiches (this is going well, I thought). Unusually we'd made two seasonal soups: parsnip & apple and cream of spicy cauliflower. Both delicious. But I wish I hadn't bothered to give a choice. The problem was that 95% of the coach party wanted the first one. Which meant we ran out. So the people we served last got the raw end of the deal - we served them last and they didn't have a soup choice.
With one particular table this didn't go down well.
Still, the organiser (who DID get her choice of soup. Yes. Parsnip & Apple) was very happy.

Not so Chilly

It's been a lovely week *sigh*. The sun has shone and I'm sure a few folk would have enjoyed a cup of tea IF WE'D BEEN OPEN. Still. Back to it tomorrow when a coach party's due for lunch. The 42 Friends of Salisbury Cathedral have booked soup and sandwiches. I've had to buy more soup bowls. Today I went in to cook a ham and a lemon drizzle ahead of a weekend which the forecasters promise will be glorious. Is this what's known as "St Luke's little summer?".
George is going to Chile tomorrow to lend a hand with the trapped miners. Don't know when they'll be brought out. Don't know when he'll be back.

The beginning of the end

It rained. But people came. Not in huge numbers but enough to keep us from falling asleep.
Tomorrow is the first day the tea rooms will have closed since March 26th which means that at the end of today I brought home leftover cake, salad, cake, ham, cake, tomatoes, cake, tuna, cake. And more cake. Please don't let anyone be inspecting the kids' lunchboxes tomorrow.
Mary and I defrosted one of the freezers too.
Made me feel quite sad.
Which means I obviously am.

Each to their own.

Ah. Back to normal. If only for a day. Lots of lovely people who bought bird boxes, jewellery, plants as well as tea, cake and soup. We're back round to the beginning on soup. Way back in the spring we did that mildly-spiced-parsnip. Today we did mildly-spiced-parsnip-and-cauliflower. The cauliflower was rather lost in the mix but the soup went down well nevertheless.
The most surprising event of the day happened at lunchtime. Anna brought her family for lunch, coffee and cake. She ordered 4 pieces of cake: carrot, fruit, millionaire's shortbread and mystery cake. What's strange about that?
Anna MAKES my carrot and fruit cakes. She'd only just delivered a batch to me.
I'm still shaking my head in disbelief.
Rain due back in town tomorrow.

Perchance to Dream

This morning I woke to rain, rain and more rain. I knew we were in for a rotten day. It started in surprising fashion with a couple, three mums and their toddlers, a couple of sisters and a group of three. Then it stopped. Noone for ages. Then a mum and her 8 year old son (just collected from a nearby boarding school) came for the only lunches we did all day. Apart from our own.
At 2.30 Sue and I started to clear up. We'd decided to close at 3. No point in prolonging the agony. At 5 to 3 (you couldn't make it up) EIGHT people (at least three of whom were in Hunter wellies) and a dog came in, stood their umbrellas in the entrance hall, pulled a couple of large tables together and ordered tea and cake. Their order accounted for a third of the day's takings.
So that was the last full week of the season. Just weekends and half term left, then hibernation.

Thursday - last of the summer

Marginally better yesterday. A few more people came some of whom were even able to sit outside. Having seen that the rain (lots of it) was heading our way I put all the table umbrellas up to dry out and then in the afternoon took them inside for the Winter. It looks pretty bare outside now.
This morning the rain has arrived. I'm taking my book with me to work today.