Boxing day

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and jingled your bells with the best of them....The carol singing the other night was lovely and there was a good turn out, counted over 20 people, hopefully a few pounds were raised for charity. Mulled wine was provided at the Sawrey hotel which was a great start! After the singing it was back to a neighbours house for drinks and they had made a fantastic curry! A good night was had. The box from Germany was opened and inside were the most beautiful hand made gifts! I got an origami star and a tree decotration, we also got german cakes and biscuits and a lovely card, it was at about that moment that christmas really started for me, it was LOVELY....
There was an ambulance racing through the village on christmas day, we hoped it was nothing serious but unfortunately it was one of our customers who whilst packing her car up to go visit family for xmas fell and dislocated her ankle and broke it...OUCH!!! Speaking from one who broke her leg a couple of years ago in the remote village of buttermere I know only too well how painful the drive to the hospital must have been in the Ambulance for her! We send her our love....
The bonus ball was won by a farming family in the next village, the little children came in to collect their winnings and they looked very very happy!
I opened up bright and early this morning not really knowing what to expect, it has been steady, sold lots of milk and papers and kindling and firelighters....
Mother is at my house, she has a bad back, things like that always happen at christmas, guess different beds dont help....
Santa broguht me a most wonderful gift.......my very own Alpaca package from Oxfam....apparently thr gift helps farmers buy and look after these fluffy fellas, and make a living from their wool, with shears, shelter, food and fences...Excellent.....hope you all have a great Boxing day

busy busy

Good afternoon from far sawrey! What a day What a busy busy day, this has been the busiest trading day we have ever had here at the shop! It has been none stop, helped along by some bucks fizz and chocolates which were supposed to be for customers, but it has turned out, one for them and one for us! Hic Hic.....I am just so pleased that we have in stock the things people want, so many suprised people finding us and stocking up for the next few days, only a few logs left!

Tonight is carol singing in the village, it starts at the sawrey hotel at 6pm, I have told everyone who has been in the shop, you never know we could have a full choir!!! Hopefully there will be some people left indoors to sing too!

I must blog something amusing that I read in the local paper yesterday, a man who was doing the GO APE in grizedale forest was coming down the zip wire, hands firmly tied above his head and monty the dog who was below him looked up heard the noise, saw him swining through the trees and as he was off lead decided to give chase, meeting him at the end where the dog deeply embedded his teeth in the mans buttocks! OUCHY OUCH or what!!! I know one shouldnt laugh but it was funny to read, poooooooooooor man, think the dog has had an ASBO placed on him! poor Monty, I bet he only wanted to play!

I have just had to edit the above lines, the bucks fizz has gone to my head and my spelling was much worse than normal, I have my camera to take pics of the carol singing....

Pleased to report all of the bonus balls have been sold today so someone is in for a nice christmas treat tonight.......Better and and go jingle my bells with the rest of the village :-)

Local Produce

Good afternoon from far Sawrey..The fog has finally lifted!!!! It is bitterly cold but there is masses of blue sky to be seen! Lots of stock delivered today, so many logs that the shop could double as a wood merchants! :-)
The cheese man has been and brought lots and lots of yummy local cheeses, the fridge has never had it so good! And finally we have local honey! Its from Satterthwaite and is made by a lovely woman who is also a volunteer at hill top the home of Beatrix Potter, its great to have real local honey in the shop. A customer who knows a thing or two about honey has looked at the jars and said they are worthy of winning awards! Happy!!! :-)
Now I am getting worried, as I am typing the log mountain has just turned into a mere pile, someone has just been in an bought half of it! Hmmmm, well when its gone its gone, only room to store so much!
With this been our first christmas here in the shop and the village its really hard to judge how busy we are going to be, hopefully we will be ok....................ok so now I start to panic, since I started typing this blog I have taken more money than I have taken all day!!! I guess today is holiday cottage let day for christmas, its suddenly got very busy!!! What was I saying a couple of lines earlier!
Better go and make some lists, hope all of your xmas preparations are going better than mine
;-)

bumps, powercuts and more bumps

Good Foggy Morning from far Sawrey.......It is extremely foggy here today... It was also foggy as I drove home last night, I arrived home to find there had been a power cut, could I find a torch? Matches? A Lighter?!!! It was like a scene from Fawlty Towers! After much fumbling about I found some matches, today I am going to stock up on more matches and lighters and put them somewhere obvious!
Talking of power cuts there was a few problems here at the shop yesterday, firstly one of the fridge's decided to stop working, then later in the day the fairy lights around the window also stopped working...thankfully my friend Alan popped into the shop to get some groceries for his mum and duly fixed the christmas lights! WELL DONE ALAN! I am sure given the right tools he could have fixed the fridge, he is a superstar!
Mum bumped her car enroute to work yesterday, it was very icy yesterday morning, thankfully there was only a scratch to the car, though her nerves were shot to pieces....My car also took a bashing in the supermarket car park in Kendal on Monday! That will teach me for shopping elsewhere! :-) It looks like someone revesed into my side door and then drove off without mentioning it....I must admit I did mutter a few explitives when I saw the damage...

On a happier note, the postman has delivered a rather large box covered in xmas wrapping from Germany, it it addressed to Mum and I, Billy a local chef and our neighbours here at the shop....it is from Ninette, the girl who grew a giant marrow when she was working here earlier in the year, we are all going to get together and have dinner and open up our present...
The window cleaner has just arrived, he looks freeeeezing! Better go make him a hot drink... :-)

sunny sunday

Good morning all.....its a lovely blue sky day up here today, cold but dry....its a very quiet morning today, everyone is either lying in or out doing all things xmas! We had a lovely suprise here in the shop yesterday when a couple of blog readers staying at buckle yeat came into the shop to say hello, they were a really lovely couple who knew all that is going on here in the village from reading the blogs.....hope to see them again later in the year.......
I hear santa paid a visit to the village yesterday, hope you all visited him and got your lists in! ;-)
I also hear Miss Potter premiered in Bowness last night! Hopefully it will be good for business when its on nationally at the cinema....One customer opened up her daily mail yesterday and saw an article on the film and there was a picture of her beautiful house spead across the pages! Benny is here today, he is sat outside with his winter waterproof coat on, he has already had one walk from a customer! Mother here to take over now......Happy sunday :-)

Global Warming.....

Good Morning from far Sawrey....Its still raining!!! Had a look at the ferry webcam before, you can certainly see why its been shut all week, its about a foot higher than the lake! It would be like taking a leap of faith trying to get off it in a car!!!
Lots of stamps have arrived this morning, so I must have rung just in time last night! Its the last weekend for second class post this weekend I believe....
Something I did not mention about London in yesterdays blog is something that really shocked me.......ITS ALL LIT UP....and I mean EVERY BUILDING! EVERY OFFICE! EVERY COMPUTER! ALL ON!!!!!!!!!! How mad is that! We arrived in the middle of the night and had a drive around to get our bearings and it appeared everyone forgot to turn the lights off, though I found when speaking to people its like that all of the time!!! Here the rest of us are trying to do our bit for global warming and there is london lit up 24hours a day! Not good! Anyway here is my attempt to redress the balance, I found a link to a site that talks of what we can do to have a greener xmas http://www.survivingchristmas.org.uk/green.htm

Village news today is that a local Bed and Breakfast called Fair Rigg which has recently been extensively refurbished has been awarded a coveted silver award grading!!! Thats excellent news!!! Rob and Lorraine who are customers here should be very proud of all of their hard work and as newcomers to that business they have done exeptionally well!! We wish them every success, take a look at their website, their huge beds look DIVINE!!! www.fair-rigg.co.uk

I read in the Westmorland Gazette today that there will be carol singing in near and far sawrey next week, wednesday in near sawrey and saturday in far sawrey, both starting at 6pm, I will be there like a bear!!! :-)

Someone across the road from the shop has just lit their fire, I am sat here typing in smog! Better go shut the door!

:-)

recycling...

recycling...

Hellooooo

Good afternoon from far Sawrey.well I have been to london and survied to tell the tale, what an experience it has been....The judge who heard the case has deferred judgement on the matter until January....BUT....all the time this matter has been going on the council have denied what went on did go on and finally, they have stopped saying it didnt happen they are now only denying that it is their responsibility.Hmmmmmmmmm Anyway, if I am successful I will be the first person in the country to make their employer vicariously liable for harassment suffered under the whistleblowing law....but my barrister did advise that which ever way the decision goes the other side will probably get leave to appeal as its such a new law, so it seems this matter is going to roll on for some time, but hey I have......my family, the shop and the FANTASTIC people of Far Sawrey to give me strength....
As for the shop it is ticking along nicely despite the weather, we have had a SUMA delivery today, lots of organic nuts and seeds for christmas, we have pecan nuts! I love pecan nuts, especially when they are on top of a maple danish :-)
have to go offline, just noticed we are out of stamps! Better try and order some before the close of business, Keep warm and dry

Soggy Sunday

Good morning from a windswept wet Far Sawrey....It was a red sky this morning so if the saying is right we are in for a bad weather day I guess...
No one has won the bonus ball this week again so it will rollover, that should make a nice suprise for someones christmas! Logs have been flying out of the shop this morning....The owners of the holiday cottage across from the shop have arrived for the week to renovate the bathroom in their cottage hence I can hear lots of banging this morning...
I will not be blogging agian until wednesday this week, I am going to London for the Appeal the council have lodged against my case that I won earlier in the year...I am feeling quite anxious and wish it was all over...I will update the blog as soon as I am I back
I found an old premium bond number the other day, I have discovered that you can check you premium bond numbers online! the link is below...
http://www.nsandi.com/products/pb/haveYouWon.jsp
Good luck if you have any premium bonds you have not checked for a while!!! :-)

sunny saturday

Good Morning from Far Sawrey......For some strange reason I could not log onto the blog yesterday, thankfully its working fine today.....
The panto in Hawkshead the other night was fantastic!!! It must have taken lots of hard work to put on such a show..it was very funny and the set design was absolutely fabulous! Then at the interval drinks and biscuits were brought to us in the seats! Marvellous! I was extremely suprised to see Mr Man that Can (aka the mobile mechanic) up on stage singing dancing and doing a belly dance! yes a belly dance! He was great though, I sent him a text afterwards saying he did the best belly dance in the west, didnt say who it was from though ;-)
Thursday night seemed to be Sawrey night at the panto and there were lots of customers in the audience, anyway a GREAT night was had by all......
I am having to apologise to everyone who comes in the shop this morning, the smell of camenbert cheese is still filling the shop despite selling some of it, the remaining packets are smelling for england.........Note to self-do not buy anymore :-)
The weather in the past few days has been dreadful, lots and lots of rain, the road from here to home was like being on a log flume, pleased to report today that I can see blue skies.
The car ferry is not working still today, the lake is too high for it to dock properly, I said to the ferryman earlier, has no one thought of pulling the plug out in the lake still and letting a bit out, not suprisingly he said no :-) He forecast that it will be on tomorrow though, just in time for the storms that are coming our way no doubt! Its all good fun...
Mother has finally moved into her own place, she has a little cottage in the village, last night was her first night...it was really odd at home without her and the dog!
All of the tv magazines have arrived today for xmas, they are not due out for another 4days,guess that means we will be inundated with other papers and magazines ready for xmas on the day when they usually come.
The soup mountain as discussed the other week is now a mere line of soup, Better get some more ordered!
Found a funny website the other day when trying to get the name of a song I keep humming but didnt know the name of, when you log onto it and download it all you have to do it tap into your keyboard the tune and it comes up with a selection of songs that match your tapping! It works and now I can hum away knowing who sang the song! Dont ask me how I found such a site! (its been a quiet week!)
http://www.songtapper.com/s/tappingmain.bin?dotap=1
Happy Tapping :-)

Tuesday

Good afternoon from far Sawrey.......its only 4pm and its totally dark outside.....struggling to type as my fingers hurt, I have been putting cloves into oranges for the shop (because its very quiet today) and it has left my fingers very tender, should have done a risk assessment hey! ;-)

Think our phone number must have been put on some new data base this week, we have been inundated with callers asking to speak to the owner of the shop......If they dont know our name surely they have nothing we want to hear.......Anyway the last person who called I told them it was not a shop and that I was a little bit deaf, they soon put the phone down!!!

Reports from the bingo to raise money for the hall last night are that over £350 was raised, thats excellent news bearing in mind the weather last night!

There is a funny smell in the shop all day, spent ages trying to find it only to discover its the Camenbert cheese in the fridge which every time someone opens the fridge door the smell wafts around the shop, sell by date is has weeks left on it so I guess I am going to have to get used to the smell........PLEASE COME IN AND BUY IT :-)

Thats all for now folks

Sunday....

Good wet and windy morning from far sawrey!
Blowing a gale is an understatement! Thankfully I managed to get the inserts into the papers before the heavens opened fully....Have to do it outside as there is not a spare surface in the shop now, what with all of the logs and vegetables inside and of course all of the bread and bath buns as it is bread day....must say, all of this stock indoors is like insulation, its quite warm in here at the moment! :-)
We popped along to the Hawkshead xmas festival on friday evening, it was great!!! ALL of the shops stayed open late and there were street stalls all around the village, men on stilts and lots of mulled wine to sample.....the hog roast was excellent! Santa even popped into the village to get the lists off the hawskhead children ready for xmas day....It was a really nice atmosphere in the village, the free samples of hawkshead beer, mulled wine, curry and pickles helped the festivities along nicely............then I spotted a sign at the hawkshead clothing shop offering 30% off everything.......came out with new wellies and new rain mac...wanted the wellies covered in flowers but unfortunately they did not have my size......might pop back today and get some wooly socks..I know how to party hey!
Nearly sold out of bacon this morning...logs and bacon butties seem to be the order of the day in the village today.....and quite rightly...it certainly is not a day for much else.....
I am looking forward to going to the panto in hawkshead on thursday evening, its ALadin and lots of customers are in it, apparently thursday night is Sawrey night at the pant, will try and take some pics for the blog...
I dont feel like I did the mobile mechanic who fixed my car justice the other day on the blog, and after receiving the bill and I still smiling, he is a true professional and as his overheads are lower than a garage as he is mobile so it keeps costs down, which is excellent! There was no inconvenience as he came here...He drove my car over to windermere for its MOT, fixed what needed fixing and brought it back with a new MOT and its working like a dream.....
ANDREW STOKER...MAN THAT CAN....01229 860292
Tomorrow night it is Bingo in Hawkshead and its to raise money for Braithwaite Hall in the village here....
The triple rollover has been won by a customer who lives down the road in Cunsey....I phoned him up and gave him the good news this morning, he was thrilled and said "good things come to those who need em" Well Done!
This morning there is a chruch service in the village, I cannot go as I am always in the shop on a sunday morning, the only sermon I hear is the one from Steve Wright on the radio...

Wrap up and keep warm everyone :-)

Greetings.......

Well December is finally upon us!...I am sat here surrounded by tinsel listening to christmas carols....My young helper Alan who lives in the village came dashing in after school last night and we set too and brought christmas to the shop, must say it does look good. Alan is a whizz with lights and has made sure all three sets of lights are up and in order...THANKYOU ALAN :-)
I have been doing legal things this week, for those of who who dont know I have a legal case which I am pursuing against the county council. Despite winning several months ago the council lodged an appeal and it is due to be heard very soon (12th of Dec) in london...So I have had my head in files all week....typing is difficult as Alan covered the keyboard in tinsel! HA HA very funny Alan!
A woman who grew up in the village has her picture in the Westmorland gazette today, she has been nominated for a teaching award and is off to london this weekend, its a lovely picture of her...
The museum (think that is the correct spelling?) where mum used to work before moving to the lakes has had a feature on mums rug classes on a bbc web site this week, it looks really nice and its nice to see the fab things made with rugging techniques, here is a link to the site...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bradford/content/articles/2006/11/27/christmas_rugs_tolson_museum_feature.shtml
I have taken a few snaps of the shop today, will take one as it gets dark later, Alans lights look fab lighting up the shop
Tonight there is a christmas festival in Hawkshead, am doing to pop along after work and might have a glass of mulled wine and some chestnuts....I believe it start about 4.30pm and is on all weekend...
Despite it being December today it is a really lovely blue sky day.....Hope it is where you are :-)