Entitled

I met a lovely couple today who may hold their wedding reception with us in September.
They had been to the Court where one of the English Heritage staff directed them to us, presumably telling them to go and see the tea rooms lady, Gill.

They came to the counter and asked to speak to Lady Gill.

It has a fine ring to it.
I can dream can't I?

Delivery for Daisy

Milk is an issue on these hot days.
Most people are drinking cold juices and ginger beer and old fashioned lemonade.
That sort of thing.
I have made one hot chocolate in the past three days.
There've been a handful of lattes. Nothing like our usual number.
So less milk is needed, right?
And yet yesterday I ran out.

So when Andy the milkman came today with my delivery I asked if he had any extra pintas on his van. Everyone had felt the same on his round so all his spares had gone.
We pondered.
Could I get through to Friday with what I had?

Then Andy came up with a solution:
"I'll bring more tomorrow, " he said, "I've got to pass this way to drop off some bull semen."

Yes. I'll make sure I check the label....

Hot dogs

The amazing heatwave continues. I've lost count of the number of days now but I'm watering the little plants that we sell twice a day and we've drafted in extra fans for the kitchen.
So it must be really hot.
Few can bear to be inside and it's a welcome relief to carry a tray outside to the tables in the shade under the trees. I have to stop myself from pulling up a chair....

One family brought their dog. In a coat.
But this was no ordinary coat.
It was a cooler coat.
They explained that it's like a chamois leather which they soak in water, wring out and then put it on the dog. It stays cool for about four hours as it dries.
We also had two families bring dog water bottles and bowls with them.
Properly prepared for the heat.
Unlike me.
The red-faced woman in a pinny.

Immaterial

Our last customers of the day had tea in the garden with their children.
They were celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary.
Sixty years ago today, when she was twenty and he twenty-one, they tied the knot in Worcester. Her parents had had to sign permission forms so that she might marry before she was 21.
I asked what else they were doing to celebrate?
They told me that at the weekend all their family will be getting together for a meal.
He will be wearing his wedding shirt.
A shirt she gave him for his twenty-first birthday.
A white shirt she paid a week's wages for.
The first nylon shirt either of them had ever owned.

Cool customers

This evening as I drove my two minute off-road commute home the digital display in my car (about the most mod of mod cons in my vehicle) told me it was 23 degrees.
At 7pm.
I could only imagine what the temperature had been earlier in the day when two ladies ordered their lunch.
They went to sit outside together with absolutely everyone else who came today.
But moments later they came back in.
"May we sit in the conservatory?" they asked, "it's a bit chilly out there."
I, fanning my face, answered that they could of course sit anywhere, but that the conservatory was incredibly hot.
"We want hot" they said, pulling their cardigans close around them.
They sat and had their lunch in their cardis, on one of the hottest days of the year so far. And looked at those sitting outside as if they were mad.

Back to the Future

Today the tea rooms telephone is out of order.
This means we reentered the Dark Ages.
We still received all the phone calls we should (BT kindly forwarded them all to my mobile).
What was scuppered was the credit/debit card machine.
Which uses the 'phone line.
So for the few who didn't have enough cash to pay for their cake/ice cream/tea/strawberries we produced some of those paper slips to take the details of their card and then I had to 'phone through to  an automated line for approval.
It took an age.
Actually it took two: stone and iron.

The line is still not fixed.
They say it'll be done tomorrow....
Then we'll return to the 21stC.

Worth the wait

Please give a big hand to the Witley Strawberry.
It's a little late to the stage, so late that it pretty much missed Wimbledon, but nevertheless it's very welcome.
We are serving our strawberries in china tea cups on china saucers with a jug of local single cream.
Very soon we shall be doing the same with the Witley raspberries when they choose to make their (late) appearance.

Ace

That was hot.
Really hot.
Lots of ice cream and Mary's homemade fruit ice lollies (have to order more).
Lots of cold drinks.
And just the four hot chocolates.
All weekend.

I slept in a tent last night after dancing in the open air at a local fundraising thing called Chill on the Hill.
And then today Andy Murray only goes and wins Wimbledon.

What a weekend.

Whether the weather be fine

Last year I grew so tired of the meteorologist people forecasting "unsettled" weather.
It meant rain, or the suspicion of rain.
It did not mean good weather interspersed with fairly good weather and a nice cool breeze.
Not that kind of unsettled.
It meant stay-at-home-you'll-probably-get-wet weather. And if you do go out take your brolly and waterproof trousers. And make sure your wellies are in the car.

This weekend, starting tomorrow, the weather people are pushing the boat out.
Not only are they saying it ain't gonna rain, they're suggesting we're in for a heatwave.
That will last a good way into next week.
I am elated.
The tearooms LOVE sunshine.
The parasols will be used as parasols instead of as umbrellas.
People will come in to order and will comment that it's way too hot.
I shall need my factor 30 just to deliver the trays outside.
We won't sell any hot chocolate.*

Am feeling good about it.
Mainly because for once I have actually ordered enough ice cream and fruit ice lollies.
And the boxes of local apple juice are being delivered tomorrow.


*this is not necessarily a good thing.