Come again another day.

 Our gate remains closed today. 

I’ve taken the unusual decision not to open after going out this morning for supplies and being stopped by flood water in every direction. 

We’ve had some awfully quiet rain-hit days in the past couple of weeks. Today was a day too far for me.

I did venture in just to receive a delivery. The driver told me he’d come through water which reached the wing mirrors of his van. It’s still raining. 

We’ll be back open tomorrow. I’ll be taking towels to dry the outdoor furniture and maybe even some of those inside. 

Luddites No Longer

We have just over two weeks of this season left. 

It’s the time of year when we slow down, start putting things away, don’t order as much, write lists of what needs to be achieved in the winter months.

This year, instead, we have taken delivery of a new till. All singing and all dancing and the giver of all headaches. It’s touch screen and integrated with the card machine- no searching for a pen, no writing orders on a pad, no having to read the order-takers scrawl.

The plan is to get used to it, iron out any problems, set it all up this year so we’ll know what we’re doing when the Easter Bank Holiday hits early next season.

Today I was surprised to find that if the order paper in the little printer runs out then the till drawer won’t open. Perhaps the system might be a little too integrated for my liking…

 A few weeks ago an envelope arrived in the post addressed to The Garden Tea Rooms. 

Inside was an old postcard. 

No message. 

It appears there used to be two other tea rooms in the small village of Great Witley once upon a time. This one was definitely there in the late 1960s and possibly as early as the 1940s. It had a truck stop next to it. The other one was a particular favourite of those who came to fish from the River Teme. 

I wish I could thank whoever was kind enough to send the postcard to us for sparking a good number of conversations and memories.