All Hail All Hallows

I particularly like a time of year when cobwebs can be classed as decoration.

Tea minus 3

A really lovely day filled with the very best of people.
You know who you are.
You are the americano drinkers (with hot milk) and the cakes to take home; the soup & fruit-and-lemon & blueberry cake lovers who bring us end-of-term gifts and the tea-with-the-bag-left-out-and-an-extra-saucer couple.
You all make the day brighter whenever you join us and we ask each other about you when we haven't seen you for a while.
You make the busy days easier to manage when you nod and give us a knowing smile.
You make the quieter days more fun with time for a chat.
Not seeing you is the only downside of closing for the winter.
Thank you.

Tea minus 4

Ice cream situation now excellent.
Crisps much more positive.
Drinks fridge looking a bit sorry for itself so may have to buy more cans of what I still refer to as "pop".
We counted up how many hams we've cooked this season - 85.
And we're going to need another one at least.

Tea minus 5

"I'd like a coffee please. Don't offer me all those funny kinds. I just want a nescaff."
I told him we don't have any instant coffee.
"I know," he said, "but just as normal as you can. It's not your fault. I blame Tony Blair. All that choice. All those tv channels. We didn't have them before him. 440 channels full of rubbish."

The ice cream position is, with five days left of the season, good.
The crisps position is a little more worrying (too many) as is the soft drinks situation (too few).
We have cooked two large hams in two days and I have been to the cash and carry two days in a row. A run on hot chocolate with marshmallows prompted the second trip. I should have foreseen that.

By Jiminy

It's that time of year: ice cream conundrum time.
With less than 3 weeks of the season left should I buy more, given that the weather is dry and sunny (but not warm) and that we have half term looming? The risk is that I'll have tubs left over....
Or should I stick with what I have and hope we don't disappoint too many kids?
At the moment I'm going with option 2.

Also deja vu over the cake display fridge.
It's making end-of-the-season noises. Earlier this week Geoff (who likes fruit cake and very short americanos) told us it sounded like a cricket was chirruping away loudly inside it.
Today it sounds like a broken machine grinding to a halt.
Bring back the cricket.

Horse power

A very busy day which required all sorts of organisational skills.
At 12 the Christening party for young Rory arrived for lunch. 30 people and a wishing tree.
They left us at 2pm.
At 3.15pm forty took over the same room for tea, sandwiches, cakes and scones.
They made way at 4pm for the other half of their group.
Another forty sandwiches, cups of tea, cakes and scones.
By 4.45pm all 80 were in the church preparing for a concert.

In the meantime we'd filled a further 100+ orders on what was a lovely,  sunny, Autumn day.

My favourite comment came from Charlotte, one of the 17 year old learner-drivers who work with us at the weekend. I should say she's a keen horse rider too.
We asked her about her driving skills.
"I can start and I can stop," she told us, "but mum says I have to get out of the habit of making clicking noises when I want the car to go a bit faster."

Hope springs

As well as the greetings cards we now sell we also have a small range of cards with local scenes - the fountain, the court, the church and a bluebell covered hill.
We sell these for a local charity.
They're very popular.
Especially the ones of the fountain.
Yesterday one of these was bought by a couple.
"We need a card," said she, "because we have to write an appeal against a parking fine. We put the money in but the ticket didn't come out."
I hope their plea is well received.
I hope the recipient likes the picture of the fountain.

Names and Numbers

We are so close to the end...
Less than a month until the curtain falls on the 2015 season.
But one more BIG Sunday to go. This Sunday.
Firstly a Christening party for 32, complete with Wishing Tree (I'll let you know on Monday).
Then a tea party for a choir.
Eighty of them.
Yes. Eighty.
Daunting to say the least.

Tales of the Unexpected

Just a couple of curveballs in the past few days....
Last week an email arrived asking if we could accommodate 11 cyclists for coffee & cake in Sunday morning. They were cycling from Ludlow to Gloucester.
Yes, happily, we said, and prepared for their arrival.
We served the eleven (they like their cake) but the orders kept coming.
A second, larger cycling group had arrived. They too wanted coffee and cake.
The cake display needed refilling and all the mugs in the place were in use.

Then yesterday - forecast rain and strong winds - I thought I'd be fine to take a few hours off.
Silly me.
That was the day for an unexpected coach.
That was the day that Freda agreed to come in to help but then realised she didn't have transport so walked the 3 miles to work.
That was the day the other two people who were working both felt under the weather.

I need a good crystal ball. And no curve ones.

October Octogenarians

This week has been busy. 

We've had that Indian Summer that we'd all wished for. Chilly autumnal mornings have given way to bright, sunny, 20 degree lunchtimes & afternoons. 

The customers too have been sunny and warm. Lots of two-couple parties out for the day, mums and daughters, ladies for coffee and one group of ten ladies for High Tea in the garden.

I wouldn't have managed this week without two people who are proper role models:

Eileen (81) washes up, clears tables, takes out trays and this week has had puppy entertainment added to her list of jobs.

My dad (81 next month) drives a round trip of well over an hour to wash up for me. 

He also looks after all the conservatory plants. 

This week he was paid in cups of coffee and seeds from the monkey puzzle tree which he's challenged himself to grow.

If I get to 80 I would like their work ethic, their cheerfulness and their energy.

In fact, I'd like those things now, please.

A left palaver

A couple of months ago, maybe three, we found a pale grey V neck sweater at an empty table.
We dutifully hung it with the lost property.
I have a vague memory (a lot of tea under the bridge since then) of a 'phone call from the owner (Gentleman 1) and it was moved into the staff-coats-hanging-area.
Two or three weeks ago we found another pale grey V neck sweater on the back of a chair in the conservatory. We dutifully hung it with the lost property.
Coincidentally, one day later Gentleman 1 came to retrieve his lost sweater. We gave him sweater 2, having forgotten all about sweater 1. He was really happy. Until his wife pointed out that it wasn't his.  It was a lady's sweater. (Dogs? Sweaters? How is one to tell the difference?)
They had tea in the garden and went home.
And then we found sweater 1, folded neatly, waiting to be collected.

This week gentleman 1 returned for tea and I was thrilled to be able to reunite him with his real, actual sweater. He was SO happy. And incredulous.
He took it outside to his wife on what was a beautiful, sunny, warm afternoon.
I expect the warmth made his wife take off her black cardigan.
Which is why we found it on the back of her chair after they'd left.