Want not.

And suddenly everyone is inside again after a week of soaking up the sun.

The Court is now properly open but we weren't run off our feet until lunchtime when it was a jacket potatoes and chilli day.

The news that I have won a compost bin in a competition to come up with an Eco motto* for the local library has not been met with the excitement I envisaged.

And yes, it was the first and only prize.

And no, I have no idea if anyone else entered.

*well read, and green.

Fruit picking

Yesterday we had two of the more unusual comments.
One man ordered a sandwich. Egg mayonnaise. He asked how we did them so we explained. Free range blah blah, boil blah blah, grate or mash etc (wondering how many different ways there are to make an egg mayo sarnie). When we'd finished he said: "so you don't poach the eggs, then?".

Towards the end of the day a man came in and asked me: "Are you the lady?"

I think the fruit cake issue is solved. A few more people need to try it but so far we've had a very favourable response to Sue from Bewdley's offering. It doesn't contain mixed peel which ticks my fruit cake box.

Hamstrung

We are fortunate to work in a very quiet, tranquil spot.
But when I opened up this morning things were a little too quiet.
The sort of quiet which means the fridges aren't working.
The trip switch had done its best to ruin our day so we sighed, chucked out stuff we couldn't be absolutely sure about including A WHOLE HAM* and cooked everything again from scratch.
Good job it wasn't a Bank Holiday.

*when I say "chucked out" I mean took home. We'll be eating ham in our house for a while.

One a penny.

Unbelievably busy for an opening weekend. It felt like high Summer and we even had to get the fans going in the kitchen. They don't usually come out of the cupboard til June.
Almost everyone sat outside and now that big fat twiggy shrub's been taken out you can actually see the full length of the garden. The down side to this is that lots more people chose to sit on the benches further down the garden - further for our aching feet to carry those trays.
A few people clung onto Lent promises despite the temptation of cake. One had a hot cross bun instead. Not really cake. Is it?

A right pane

A big day. Almost everything that would go through the dishwashers did. All the outdoor furniture was cleaned and taken...outdoors. We swept the conservatory and replaced all the tables and chairs in a new formation. Just to keep us interested. I took apart the cake display fridge to give it a good going over and boy did I. I rather cleverly managed to push the large sheet of glass from the top of it. Onto the floor. Into hundreds of pieces.
Just what I needed four days from opening.

Fudging

Ruby from Ruby's Kitchen has offered to supply me with her locally made fudge. I'll have to try it first (of course) but that raises an issue.
For this year's Lent I chose to give up eating between meals.
Which means if I'm going to try it then Ruby's fudge would have to form part of a meal.
Or...if it's as good as I think it's going to be...all of it.

Face It.

In my family we're either in the vanguard of early adopters (a big fat tv in a swish Georgian-style cabinet thing) or it takes us years to catch up with everyone else (a colour tv).
I have resisted Facebook.
Until this week.
The Garden Tea Rooms now has its own page.
So what with the blog/ramble, the FB page and the sudden urge to tweet every incident that happens in the tea rooms I'm not sure I'll have any time to make tea or serve cake.
But I'm going to give it a go....