Wednesday 29 April 2015

Manifestly Great Cakes.







The General Cake-lection.

Your vote counts.
Because we count your vote. 




Sunday 26 April 2015

No cause for a llama.

At the risk of repeating myself....we are having a great run. Sunshine & lovely people make everything so much easier. I am really enjoying myself.
And we meet such interesting folks.
Two ladies who came in this morning were on their way home to Durham having spent the weekend walking alpacas on a farm in Tenbury Wells grabbedbythealpacas.co.uk which I'd never heard of before and is only half an hour away.
So you spend the weekend glamping and leading alpacas on a trek, which is apparently very relaxing.
Who'd have thought?


Saturday 25 April 2015

And they call it....

We are on a roll. Another wonderful day.
The forecast had been poor all week but we didn't see very much rain.

The fabulous day started with a couple poking their head in the door before we'd opened to ask if they could "Nick a cup of tea?".  They had traveled for two and half hours from Leatherhead to Witley to see a puppy. A  black flat haired retriever. They were going to be interviewed by the breeder to see whether they would be allowed to buy the last of the litter. I told them they couldn't come all the way from Surrey and not see our church. They promised they would return after their appointment.
And they did.
They saw the church and had lunch with us, raving about both their visit and the puppy.
They even showed me a video of the pups.
They'll return in three weeks to pick up their new baby.
I hope they pop in....

Thursday 23 April 2015

Flat (ulent) Fish

Another cracker of a day.
Sunshine, lovely visitors, babes in arms and babes in tummies, older people out for a drive and a cuppa, antipodean families and a French couple. Deliveries of more cards, more coffee beans and new outdoor furniture.

And a lady and gent who ordered two pieces of toffee cake and two lattes WITH MARSHMALLOWS - not sure it'll catch on. When I delivered their order I asked if they wanted me to leave the sugar on the table. "What do you think?" she asked. I left a full bowl of sugar and told them to call me if they wanted more.

Sara made us laugh with her story of once going to buy fish for her dad's aquarium. She and her sister had asked for guidance from someone in the store: "Well," the helper pointed out, "we have golden orfe and blue orfe."
She and her sister now just have to say "Blue Orfe" to one another and they're in giggles.
They're both over 50.

Wednesday 22 April 2015

Milky Way

"A latte and two of your dairy-free cakes, please."
I didn't ask.

Of the times.

This sign means a lot.
It means that the farm at one end of the village has started picking asparagus. It means that we can start making Witley Asparagus Soup. It means that it won't be too long before the same farm adds to the sign the words Strawberries, Raspberries and Cherries.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. 
For now I am content with this:


Monday 20 April 2015

Dilemma

The first customer in today proffered the palm of his hand and asked me to smell it.

What should my response have been?
Say,  "Eurrggh, are you KIDDING, no thanks." And run the risk of him taking his two-latte, two-slices-of-Victoria-Sponge business elsewhere?
Or really go for it, take a big sniff, and run the risk of making myself ill?

Generally I am risk-averse but on this occasion I sized up the situation (and the man) and decided to inhale. Deeply.
His hand smelled of coriander. He was taking a break from harvesting a field of what, he says, is some of the best he's ever grown.

Phew.

Friday 17 April 2015

Off Spring

My journey to work is short. If it weren't for having to collect the bread I wouldn't have to go on a road, just up the farm track from my home to the tea rooms. This morning as I bumped my way through the potholes I saw a beautiful sight to which my rubbish photography on my phone cannot do justice:


Mother Duck was very anxious to get her ducklings to safety and they moved pretty quackly (sic). I watched them make their way to the Court lake. I couldn't stop smiling.



Thursday 16 April 2015

Encore

This week has been just wonderful.
The past three days have been exceptional:
A) the weather has been warm and kind
B) the customers have been warm and kind and funny
C) nothing has broken.

Yesterday a couple ordered their lunch and were asked the usual question: where will you be sitting when we bring your order - in the main room, the conservatory or outside?
The gentleman answered immediately.
His wife looked astonished: "He's never that decisive!" she said.
"It won't happen again for another year" he quipped.

The same couple returned today. His opening line?
"I know what I'm having for lunch, but no idea where we're sitting or what sort of coffee to have."

It was a day of returning customers. Last year we hosted a family meal for four generations at two long garden tables in gorgeous sunshine in July. The organiser was celebrating her 80th birthday though we are certain she has a portrait in an attic somewhere.
Today she and her husband came for lunch and to book a repeat performance. This time to celebrate their diamond wedding anniversary. We checked the date, adjusted the menu a little and ordered the sunshine for July.

Wednesday 15 April 2015

Some of the people, some of the time.

On Saturday a lovely young couple ordered, amongst other things, a cream tea.
So far, nothing unusual.
We took their tea, scone, jam and cream to their table in the conservatory.
Just as it should be.
Seconds later the young man returned to the counter to say they hadn't been given their cream. We were confused. "Did we bring your scone?" we asked.
"Yes," he replied, "the scone came with jam and cream....but there wasn't any cream to go in the tea."


Then on Sunday a lady asked for a pot of tea, drank it, and then returned to the counter to berate us for giving her too much. "I could have had four cups out of that one pot," she said crossly, "and I only wanted one."
That left us open mouthed....

Monday 13 April 2015

Solid ground

Our "new" Fracino coffee machine. He's being kept very busy....

Friday 10 April 2015

More is more

The great weather continues with summer temperatures and lots of sunshine. It's meant to be the last day of it today. Staying dry for the weekend but a more normal 11 degrees.
We've been open two weeks.
That's all.
The first week was breakages week, and now feels like we've run a marathon every day for the past seven days.
We've taken the plunge and bought the borrowed coffee machine. It's bigger and better in every way and it would have been hard to return to the small one after that (now fixed). We're going to keep the littl'un for emergencies. Fingers crossed we won't need it.


Tuesday 7 April 2015

No butts

I couldn't have written anything yesterday.
Easter Monday is usually busy but this was beyond superlatives and I was far too tired to try to sum it up.
Mary had made ninety scones in the morning. All gone by 4.30, and even if we had more to sell we'd run out of cream.
We also ran out of bread, panini, baking potatoes, tea cakes, hot cross buns, red onion marmalade, cheese, smoked salmon and peppers.
We did not run out of milk chiefly because we had 64 pints delivered yesterday morning.
This morning I had to go out for more.

Today was lovely. Busy, but not on yesterday's scale.
A group of ladies were in the garden at the end of the day. One told me that she always likes to help clear her own table ever since a stint working in the BHS restaurant:
"That was back in the days," she said, "when people would stub their cigarettes out in their food."
Which somehow made me feel a lot better.

Sunday 5 April 2015

Bad

Yesterday Will carried a tray out to the garden and called out the order number.
He was greeted by a man waving his numbered spoon who called out, "Over here, bitch".
The other people at the table were apparently very apologetic and told their friend that he'd been very rude.
His excuse was that he didn't mean it, it was a joke, he was just using a phrase from Breaking Bad.

When Will came back in to tell us we wanted to know how old the perpetrator was?
Will answered that the people at the table were "quite old". But then he's 18 so most people are quite old in comparison.

Saturday 4 April 2015

Above and Beyond

So, back to Thursday. The engineer arrived at 4.30 and "fixed" the coffee machine. He tried to explain what was wrong with it. I didn't really understand.
Turned out, neither did he really, because yesterday morning when I turned it on EXACTLY THE SAME THING HAPPENED.
I was on my own, having gone in early to bake, and I'm ashamed to say I had a minor meltdown.
There were a few tears.
Because of course by now it's Friday. Good Friday. A Bank Holiday. So the manufacturer is closed and the engineer is enjoying a day off. He may even have decided to take the family out for the day. Somewhere where they could enjoy a nice cup of coffee.......

Anyway, step forward Ethical Addictions, the company which supplies my excellent coffee beans. Huw had been trying to sort out the repair for me and had foolishly given me his mobile number. I rang it. At the end of my tether.
Bear in mind Huw was also "enjoying" a day off (until I called). He offered to loan me their office coffee machine, twice the size of mine. George went to collect it and had a quick lesson in plumbing-in & setting-up, arriving back before the afternoon rush. We were making cappuccino after latte after mocha within minutes.

So now we have it, and it works beautifully.
Both Meg and Annie don't want to give it back.

Today we've been astonishingly busy, a proper holiday weekend feel with loads of families. Our first lunch orders came at 11.30. People could actually sit in the garden - the sun came out this afternoon.
And thanks to Huw we haven't had to disappoint the coffee-lovers.

Wednesday 1 April 2015

Grinding to a halt

Enough. Please make it stop.
This morning the coffee machine broke down. It refused point blank to warm up then dumped a lot of water all over the serving area.
The engineer has been called.
We're third on his list for tomorrow so I'm hoping the first two calls are to people who have simply forgotten how to plug in their machine ....

A young couple with their gorgeous Dalmatian came in early and went to sit in the conservatory. They were back at the counter within a minute to ask if we had anything they could use to clear up after their dog who'd been sick. A lot. They apologised about ten times and insisted on clearing and cleaning and mopping. I bet their tea was almost cold by the time they got to it.

In better news...our huge gate was in the process of being replaced and painted as I left this evening. Plus the card machine seems to have settled in, and we're all rather taken by the ham slicer which works a treat.
I hope I haven't spoken too soon.

We had a busy day of ice creams and panini, sandwiches and lots of scones, ham slicing and coleslaw making.