Tiara Boom-de-ay

Warm sunny and full of folks, a roasted-vegetable-and-mozzarella-panini day.
I practically bullied two people into going to see the church. My mad eyes, and the way I shrieked "You've GOT to see it now you've come all this way!" probably put them off.
The lovely steady flow of people were served very quickly - I think we're all still on Bank Holiday adrenalin. There were lots of gasps as we approached tables with paninis, quiche, homecooked ham salads and sandwiches just a few minutes after they'd been ordered.
Several groups came for coffee, stayed for lunch then came back for Afternoon Tea, among them a group of 3 ladies who'd known each other since school and who keep a meet-up kitty.
I have no idea what to expect from tomorrow.
It is a Bank Holiday but surely people will have made their Royal Wedding plans and we won't see anyone til 2pm. Nancie has brought in several plastic tiaras for us to wear.
The two new boys will be thrilled.
I have a very bad record on guessing what any single day may hold (apart from tiaras).
I've ordered lots of milk though. Just in case.

Wow

Am just getting over the shock that was Monday.
We need to restock and take stock.
So glad it's ages til the next Bank Holiday.
Oh.

Busy Bees

Aah.
Day three-of-four all over.
We were fine.
It seemed that lunches were not what people wanted, they'd probably got big fat roast lunches and family dinners to attend. What they all wanted was tea. And scones. And the lemon drizzle I got up early to make.
And, bizarrely, cappuccinos.
Another really beautiful and busy sunny day but we all seem to agree that tomorrow will be the biggie. Who wants to cook on Easter Monday?
I do also have a new worry to keep me awake.
Apparently, according to one customer, the masonry bees which circulate around the window of the main room are also partial to stripping the underside of my new wooden tables.
Grrrrr.
Bzzzzz.

Night terrors

After another busy day (Day Two of the Four) I went to bed early but haven't been able to sleep. There were eleven of us on Saturday. For Sunday's operation there'll only be eight - nine if I rope George in. Those extra pairs of hands make all the difference.
Plus I've almost run out of ice cream so George has to make an emergency trip into Bennetts in the morning.
I write this in the hope it clears my head enough to let me sleep.
In fact seeing it written down makes me even more nervous.

A very good Friday.

A message from the local BBC radio station was on the answer phone this morning. Would I speak to them about what people could do at the Court and Church on a sunny Bank Holiday.
It was, of course, a pleasure.
I raved about the fountain and the Easter Trail for the kids, I talked about the Church and told them that Freda was baking fresh scones.
I don't know how many people heard it or whether it had an impact but HUNDREDS of people came today.
Hundreds.
Upon hundreds.
And that was day one of the four-day-weekend.

Thursday - Appley ever after

A couple of days ago a family came for lunch. He was Spanish, she Japanese and their two daughters little, dark haired and gorgeous. They'd come from their home in London and were staying in the very nice hotel in the next village. They shared a large bottle of the apple juice which is made at Mill Orchards in the village.
Yesterday they were first through the doors. They wanted a case of apple juice to take back home to London with them. I only had two bottles but I do like a happy customer so raced down to the village, found the farmer (Peter) on his tractor in the middle of the orchard and forced him back to his store room for a box of twelve bottles of Laxton Fortune juice.
The day took a while to get going but when it did it really did.
I was momentarily stumped by one lady:
"Coffee please" she said.
"Filter?" I ventured.
"Erm"
"Or we also make latte, cappuccino, americano?" I suggested
"Well", she said, "I really only wanted a nescaff".

Where am I?

Ice lollies, ice cream, scones and Ploughman's lunch were the orders of the latest sunny day.
The other sign of really hot weather is the number of egg mayonnaise sandwiches people suddenly have a desire for.
The Bank Holiday weekend looms and we're low on a number of things so I'll be shopping early doors tomorrow. Again.

I was flummoxed by one question today.
A woman came in this afternoon:
"Am I in the right place?" she asked.

Butter scotched

Today was utterly glorious. High Summer in April.
I called in extra staff in anticipation of a busy one and I'm so glad I did.
It was a Ploughmans and sandwich day and a day when I had to tell several people that there may be a longer wait than usual for their order - there were just so many people.
Noone seemed to mind waiting. They sat in the garden, where the wisteria is just starting to bloom, and soaked up the sunshine.
Late in the afternoon a mum with 7-month old Edward asked if we did anything which was dairy free.
I'm really going to have to look into this one - she's the third person in two a half weeks to ask. Surely I can find something better than a bag of crisps.

Minor Rush

Palm Sunday started with a donkey.
The congregation met at the tea rooms together with the Bishop of Worcester. Yes, really.
They started the service in the garden and then sang the short walk up to the Church following a donkey. The bloke who was leading her was a little concerned:
"Will there be someone up there to stop her?" he asked, "because when she starts going, she just goes." The Bishop said that made a change as usually when he does this service the donkey refuses to go anywhere.
When the congregation returned for tea the place was rammed with Morris enthusiasts. Cars, not dancers.
Two different groups had turned up on the same day in their Morris somethings.
And they needed caffeine.

Angela's Apple

The first couple came through the door at 10 unaware that we don't open til 11. They had coffee and tea then walked round the Court and came back for lunch. They were in their thirties and had come from Stratford and she said she wanted to stay forever.
There was a wedding in the Church so some grandly dressed guests came in ahead of the service for cor-fee. They were from Indiana and left the single word "Lovely" in the visitors' book.
We tried out a new cake - apple and honey cake made by Angela who also delivered, for a trial, three little bags of shortbread tied up with ribbon. We'd sold all the cake and all three bags by lunchtime. Am very much looking forward to telling her.
Tomorrow's looking glorious and should be as busy as today so I'll be in bed as soon as the credits roll on BGT.

Extra, extra

The day started with a couple and their grandson ordering two hot cross buns with their coffee. As soon as the toasted buns hit their stomachs they were back at the counter ordering more.
The day finished with a lady, her two young daughters and their dog. They ordered cheese scones all round. And then three more.
That is known as a run on cheese scones.
We have a new egg supplier from Abberley, the next village along from us. The 400 hens move freely around the farm's other main focus: Christmas Trees.
Hence the name - Tree Range.

Pale and interesting

Some really interesting customers today. Among them:
- two people meeting up to compare their family history searches. They'd never met before but think they may share a common ancestor.
- a family from Cumbria. Mum is coeliac and loved the banana cake. I asked her to try the new biscuits I'd been sent samples of. She said they were truly awful and is going to email me the name of a company which makes good ones.
- a Midlands family who apologised for the mess their kids had left and then told me that the original Procul Harem video for A Whiter Shade of Pale was made at Witley Court but wasn't shown because it was cut with footage from the Vietnam War. They later made another video in London.
I've checked. It's on youtube here.
The fountain the fellas are standing in is now fully restored.
Weird seeing it as it was then.

Over and Out

I bought a new filter coffee machine for the busier days. It's a good one but not as user-friendly as our current lady. She can be set up ahead of the first order then as soon as someone wants a filter a flick of the switch will start her flying. But the best thing about her is that if you remove the jug halfway through the brew she stops. Until the jug is replaced. So no-one waits long for a fresh mug.
Mr New Filter wants more attention. You can't set him up. Once he's going he's going and he just doesn't stop. He's a good wing man but not the main machine.
Today the trip switch went. It couldn't be encouraged to come back on.
We traced the problem.
The wing man has got to fly solo tomorrow.

Without a trace

Ita is from Chile, and is very efficient.
This morning we've had two ladies in for tea and hot cross buns (they told me they'd come straight from a weight watching group). They sat in the conservatory and once the buns were finished they came back to the counter for coffee and walnut cake.
By the time they made it back to the table Ita had cleared away their tea.

Paper trail

Honestly, I have to believe in some kind of karma.
No sooner do I write that I've got to grips with the ordering than I run out of....
NAPKINS.
I mean really. How stupid?
And not just once.
Yesterday I was in the last large pack of the napkins, which I buy in bulk. They were on order but not due to be delivered til this afternoon. When I went to pick up the kids from sport camp I bought an eye-wateringly expensive small packet from the local stores, to tide us over. Then Jennifer said she had a pack of 100 she'd bought from IKEA, which she'd happily swap for a piece of cake. She brought them in this morning. They were huge, but I was grateful.
Then we were swamped with customers.
We were heading towards running out again, and the delivery still hadn't come, so I dashed to pick up a second pack from the local store.
The owners of that particular shop will probably long wonder what caused the April napkin rush of 2011.

Starring Alan Titchmarsh

Two couples, renting a cottage in Witley Court's grounds for the weekend, came for lunch. They asked about walks in the area and one lady bought a plant. She was obviously a gardener. She knew the names of everything and said that until recently when they downsized she and her husband opened their gardens to the public for charity.
Told me she came from Cheshire but goes all over the place chasing nurserymen.
There's got to be a sitcom in that, surely.

Double meaning

From our visitors' book:
"Our second visit - we so enjoyed the first."

Over the threshold

Just a thought.
We appear to be zipping through the filter coffee.
Last season it was all lattes and cappuccinos, mochas and americanos. They were £1.90.
Now they're £2.10.
The filter coffee has also gone up but has stayed below £2.
Is that the reason?

Bin there, done that

The first full week is over and apart from a little gas trouble (see last weekend) it's gone well. I don't exactly feel like an old hand but last year at this stage I felt a little out of control. I seemed to be incapable of going even one day without having to visit the cash and carry or the farm shop or, at the other extreme, getting the bread order right. We were drowning in bread in the early weeks. And drowning in cream in the later ones. We were running out of change, and milk. The card machine was temperamental. We struggled with the froth for the cappuccinos.
It's not been perfect this year and I'm still making mistakes but the weather has really helped get us off to a good start. We haven't had a bad day since we opened, so the outside tables have been in full use - last year we started with rain and lots of mud being walked into the newly-cleaned carpets. I remember one rainy Thursday asking Nancie if she'd ever known a day without customers.
She hadn't.
I was convinced that day would be it.
It wasn't.
I'm much more proud of our menu now. Someone asked me today what I would recommend and I could rave about it all. It would have been wrong of me to recommend the paninis given that we'd run out by 1.30 but I could easily wax lyrical about the Witley Asparagus soup which made its seasonal debut today and will be making frequent appearances for the next few weeks.
One more big change from last year.
We've asked the council to take away one of our huge bins. Last year we paid them weekly for two but only ever filled one. What a waste of money (more than a tenner a week). Why did it take me the whole season to realise that?

Inside Out

Today felt like a busy Bank Holiday which means I've already started worrying about the FOUR looming Bank Holidays.
And I've drafted in more help for tomorrow.
The weather is gorgeous - hot, sunny, no breeze. We carried some of the conservatory tables outside this morning because I knew people would rather make the most of this Summer-like sunshine. We still didn't have enough space. Folks were sitting on the grass, perching on benches, waiting for tables to become free.
We had a party in too - four generations of the same family celebrating a two year old's birthday. The guest of honour fell asleep in the car on the way so was left to snooze while the rest of the clan ate sandwiches and quiche.
I've had an enquiry about another wedding. This time it's a request to have a late night barn dance in a marquee next year with outside caterers for a three course meal. Rather different from the simple Afternoon Tea wedding we're doing in June. We'll see.
The Afternoon Tea deal proved very popular again.
As did the paninis.
We trialled a local Apple and Onion Chutney with the ploughmans and had very good feedback (albeit only from two people - is that a representative sample?)
A very lovely but long day.
I need a drink.

Many Happy Returns

We officially open at 11 but by 11 yesterday I'd served three groups of people. It was glorious, and one of those days when folks came and sat for hours. Just lovely. And very busy. The tiered plates of Afternoon Tea specials were going out, coming back, going out again...
We had three birthday visitors. My own 11 year old son, fresh (?) from his last day of term, came for cake. An 87 year old celebrated with a cheese scone, and a Kate dropped in for a swift earl grey en route to Oxford.

Lolly

A day for deliveries - ice cream, gas canisters, plants and Just Scrummy ice lollies which are made by Mary in Worcester using local fruit. She brought our first order of the season and told me that two years ago when she started she made 2,000 lollies.
Last year she made 10,000. And her business, Just Scrummy, consists of....just her.
We had another sunny one. Lots of tea and cold drinks, not so many cappuccinos. We ploughed on with a new bestseller - the Ploughman's Lunch - it even got a mention in the visitors' book.

See you in Court

A really lovely day. Sunshine and lovely people. Even the large group who pushed three outside tables together and started to eat out of their own lunchboxes were pleasant enough when I pointed out that I'd rather they bought my food and not bring their own. Of course they could always use one of the picnic tables in Witley Court...
The feedback on the new cheese continues. I've had only good reports. One smashing couple, who sat under the newly constructed arbour, were split on the Branston question. They were wonderfully cosmopolitan choosing a single espresso to follow their Ploughmans. When I delivered the coffee he commented that I was a true barista. I told them that when my sister-in-law was commissioned (well, if you can commission and not pay someone) to make my tea room aprons she downloaded a pattern for a barista apron which was mis-spelled.
What we're wearing are actually "barrister" aprons.

Nice jugs

I decided during my Winter break (for such I am calling it now) that we should raise our game further by replacing the small, stainless steel milk jugs (unbreakable but poor pourers) with white porcelain. I know, I know, I'm asking for trouble. And chips. And full-on breakages. But let me try, please.
Well I ordered the wrong size (teeny tiny), so it'll be a while longer before they arrive to be put to the test.
Jennifer (Mondays and Tuesdays) has sold as many necklaces as teacakes this week. There's a shelf of super shiny bling in the cabinet as apparently it's prom season.
Well.
I never.
Did.

Stellar

It was joy.
Mr Enviro Health has awarded us FIVE STARS. We are truly in the firmament.
What's more he said we have 5 star toilets, something you don't hear everyday.
He'll be sending us a certificate and says now we have to try to get 5 stars for 3 years running which would mean we would join the super élite.
I celebrated with a piece of coffee and walnut cake.

Rising Panic

It started badly.
The oven wouldn't stay lit. Mary and I tried 6, 7, 8 times and each time after 30 seconds there'd be a *pop* and the gas would blow out. I had visions of hundreds of Mothers, desperate for Afternoon Tea, being told there were NO SCONES and being disappointed in me. Because if there's one thing you want on a warm Mothering Sunday it's a freshly baked scone with cream. And jam.
I took the trays of unbaked scones home along the bumpy track.
I baked them in my tiny oven at too low a temperature.
They struggled to rise.
Anyway, it was an air lock. By the time I got back to the Tea Rooms the oven was laughing merrily at me and the next batch of scones was on its way.
We had a very busy day. By the end of lunchtime we had sold all the soup, all the jacket spuds, all the white bread and (a first for me) all the ham. That's good business, said a regular customer. No, I corrected, that's bad planning.

It's been a weekend full of surprises, trauma and lessons. I haven't even mentioned the flood from the new filter coffee machine.
And the environmental health man is coming tomorrow. Joy.

Life's A Gas

Another new concept for us - the Afternoon Tea deal - proved popular today. We're offering a pot of tea for two, two scones with jam and cream and two pieces of cake for the princely sum of £10. Bargain. And we used the tiered cake stands so it was even better.
It's really interesting to watch people digest the idea when they first read about it. Two different people asked if we'd wrap up anything they couldn't eat so that they could take it home? Of course we would. But nothing was left, so nothing was wrapped.
This afternoon the gas ran out.
Day 2 of the season and I've run out of gas.
What was I thinking?
All sorted now but at the expense of a number of items which were part way through cooking.
Lesson learned.

Already in a pickle

Made the first Americano (and second) and it was like we'd never been away.
Our first customers waited in the car until the church clock chimed 11 and then headed in, the first of a steady stream of dream customers. Dream customers because between them all they managed to order everything on the menu.
Including the **all new** Ploughman's Lunch.
I asked the gentleman guinea pig for feedback and he took his role very seriously using lovely descriptive words as if he were writing a foodie column - just the right bloke. And, what's more, he loved it.
My follow up question concerned pickle/chutney. Was he disappointed, I asked, to find we'd served Branston with it? (I'm considering finding a local chutney)
"I'd have been disappointed," he replied, "to find anything else. I love Branston."
So that's made me think.
The fella who made it also reckons Branston is best.
So am I being a pickle snob?