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All but two of the outside tables have been moved to the shade under the trees.
Occasionally someone will move a chair half into the sun but even after weeks and weeks of acclimatising it is very hot for all.
Lovely to sit in, lovely to drink tea and eat lunch in, not so great to work in.
The many fans aren’t doing a lot, just moving the hot air around. We’re having to cook a ham every day so the oven is in use.
Just to make it clear, I am not complaining.
The headaches brought by a hot summer are nothing compared to those of a rainy one.

Norwegians Would

Last year a Norwegian family came on holiday and stayed at Pool House, an English Heritage property to let in the grounds of Witley Court. On their return home they sent us a message. Could they please have the recipe for one of our cakes to which they’d taken a particular liking? We call it Anna’s Favourite (Millionaires Shortbread) and that’s how they described it. 

We sent them the recipe and they made it for their daughter’s birthday. 

This week they came back for their now annual holiday. In the week they were here they visited the tearooms at least three times. They are really lovely. On their last day they presented me with these as a thank you for the recipe:

I can now say several things in Norwegian. 

I can say “extra large bag” (ekstra stor pose)

I can say “teddy bear marshmallows” (skumbamser)

I can say “covered” (dekket)
And I can say milk chocolate (melkesjokolade).
Practically fluent.

Too much information.

They ordered lunch at the counter. An older couple. It was his birthday, his wife told me. They went to sit in the conservatory.
When we brought their meal she was sitting at the table on her own.
I met him as he came back from the loo and told him his lunch had just been delivered.
“And I’ve just made room for it,” he said.

A bumpy ride

Yesterday I had a call from Martin, a coach driver looking for a coffee stop for a group this morning.
I warned him about the track, he was up for trying it and this morning I talked him in as he drove from a nearby village. He said he’d never have found us otherwise.
He brought the dewdrop lunch club who ordered coffees and teas and sat for an hour before making their way back to the coach and setting off for their lunch in nearby Lower Broadheath.
A busy lunchtime followed. The slight drop in temperature (to 22 degrees, not exactly cool) and a few threatening clouds meant a run on panini.
I found a couple in the garden a) smoking and b) drinking their own coffee from a thermos flask. She’d even brought her own mug.

It was also the day for High Teas.
One lady had given her mother our vouchers for Christmas. They sat in the garden and had their sandwiches, cakes, scones and tea. I wished them a Merry Christmas as they tucked in.
Then 25 Bridgend Retired Teachers arrived on a coach for their prearranged cream tea. They sat in the garden under the trees. The good weather had returned.
As they were leaving another group arrived.
Another coach.
This time from Stratford.
This time unexpected.
We coped.
They ate us out of scones and made a dent in the cakes.

Three coach parties on one day. Must be a record?

There are worse things I could do

They were called “Fifties World” and booked cream teas for twenty members a few weeks ago.
They were coming on a coach from Solihull.
I had no idea what to expect. Would they be ladies and gents in their fifties. In other words, my age? Or would they arrive dressed in 1950s garb? Would we have James Dean lookalikes and big skirted girls. Would it be like Grease?
Turned out they had been in their fifties when they met years ago. Now they were mostly in their seventies but hated the idea of changing the name of the group. “I wouldn’t tell anyone I was in Seventies World” one lady told me.

Meanwhile my older son, who likes a practical joke, told me he would give me his tips if I performed a task. I must ask the next person who ordered tea at the counter to show me ID and if they couldn’t provide it I was to refuse to serve them.
I thought about it. And agreed.
A few minutes later an older man came in and asked me for two teas. Could I see some ID, please?
(All the staff were gathered just out of sight)
The gentleman told me he didn’t have any ID.
I said I was sorry but I couldn’t serve him.
He said it was ridiculous. He only wanted two teas. He asked me why he needed ID?
I kept telling him I was sorry.
He told me that trip advisor would be hearing all about it.
I told him I was sorry but that’s the way it had to be.
My son was looking at me, appalled, shocked, open-mouthed that I was going so far, too far. (A challenge is a challenge, right?).
The man walked out.
And rejoined the Fifties World group.
His performance had been Oscar worthy. My son, now aware that his mother had set him up, went to shake his hand to congratulate him.

If you don’t know me by now

A twenty-strong lunch club from Stretton Sugwas came on Wednesday for our ham and quiche salads.
I was offering them tea or coffee as they finished eating.
“I do like tea,” said a gentleman at the end of the table, “but on this occasion I’d like coffee.” Then he added, “my wife will also have coffee,” and he gestured to a lady seated a couple of places away.
She told him that, actually, she would like tea.
He looked surprised.
“You don’t know her at all, do you?” I joked, “how long have you been married?”
“Sixty two years,” he said.
It must take sixty three.

Trip the light fantastic

I counted my chickens way too early.
The spider web was actually a red herring.
It was not the cause of the electrical problems which returned with a vengeance in the middle of a very busy Sunday lunchtime. This time we couldn’t get much to work at all. We offered filter coffee, tea, cold drinks, sandwiches and salads. Oh and ice cream, although I was very precious about the length of time anyone left the ice cream freezer lid open.
At the end of a difficult day Adrian managed to get the fridges and freezers back on.
We went in this morning wondering what on earth was going to happen.
It didn’t take us long to find out.
Trips galore.
Once again we were facing no coffee machine, no water boiler, no dishwashers, no fridges and no till or card machine.
Once again people were very understanding.
Once again we called Lee who told me he’d find the problem.
He was like a superhero. Using superhero language. He actually said that he’d never been beaten before and wasn’t about to be beaten now.
While he was working, walking from room to room, taking covers off things and drinking his tea with multiple sugars the electrics would occasionally trip. I’d wince. He’d smile, “that’s good,” he said, “that’s what it should have done.” He tracked it eventually to the light fitting in the conservatory - a light fitting we don’t even use.
He is confident it’s now sorted. This makes me confident.
Still I’ll be crossing my fingers tomorrow.

Best china

Friday dawned with no electricity problems. It was like it hadn’t happened.
Lee’s best guess was that a spider web in the fuse box had acted as a conductor. It can do that apparently when there’s condensation around. Who knew?
Our annual booking from a school in China brought 42 children and 6 teachers for tea, sandwiches and scones. They almost ate us out of ice cream. One of them also bought a dog collar from our gift display.
They took up all of the larger tables in the garden for an hour. Then they were gone. Off to the Safari Park. I should have called ahead to warn them to fill up their ice cream freezers.

Power mad

The heat continues.
Unabated.
Being in the kitchen is hard work.
Toasting a teacake in front of the grill is hard work.
Being anywhere near the panini machine, the coffee machine, the water boilers is hard work.
Carrying a tray out to the tables under the trees in the shade is wonderful. If there’s an extra chair it’s hard to stop myself sitting down.
Today was made even harder when the electricity started playing up.
Trip.
Trip.
Trip.
Eventually we plumped for keeping on the freezers and one fridge at the expense of everything else.
Which meant no till, no coffee machine, no hot water boiler, no card machine, no dishwashers.
Water was boiled on the gas stove, we made sandwiches and salads for lunches, washed everything by hand and kept fridge opening to a minimum.
We closed an hour early and Adrian and Lee tried to find the source of the trip.
Did they? Didn’t they?
Really, like all the best cliffhangers, I don’t know.
I doubt that my sleep tonight will be undisturbed.
No idea what I’ll find when I go in tomorrow.