Good Afternoon from a balmy Sawrey, I am not sure if its the heat of the sun or the heat of Miss Potter pilgrims on the road between this village and the next, Bonkers is an understatement, Having had to queue 15minutes each way just to do a quick errand, I know how everyone is feeling........

Busy day here so far, fruity market was under staffed so it was each man/woman for themselves

This weeks exotic fruit is a pear from China called a Ya pear,
"The Chinese White Pear (白梨 bái lí) (Pyrus x bretschneideri) is a naturally-occurring interspecific hybrid species of pear native to northern China, where it is widely grown for its edible fruit. These very juicy, white to lightly yellow pears, unlike the round Nashi pears, also grown in eastern Asia, are shaped more like a European Pear with a narrower, elongated base. They taste like a cross between a rose and a pineapple, and are crisp and sweet from the tree. 'Ya Li' is one cultivar widely grown in China, and has been exported to Europe and North America"

A bargain at only 20p a pear! Having sold out of strawberries quick sharpe last week we have bought trays and trays of them, the shop smells like a strawberry farm!

Cannot believe it is the end of May already! Time certainly does fly, wish it would fly in respect of my case, it has been decided today that the final hearing in repsect of it will be held in OCTOBER! I protested that the length of time was unfair but October it is, that will be one year and seven months since the judgement was originally handed down.....Ho Hum...

Sandwiches are flying out of the shop this afternoon, they were only delivered at 12 and already there is only a couple left...

Thats about all for now folks :-)

Good Afternoon from Sawrey, the snow has missed the village but a customer on a day out from Sedbergh said that there were snow showers there this morning!

Its been a busy day here in the village. The May Quuen festival is going on as I type, Katie the May Queen looked lovely on her horse, my little helper Alan played a great Dragon who was been chased by George, its really lovely having Maypole Dancing in the village...

Thats about all for now.....

Good Afternoon from Sawrey, Look what I got today! A blogger who lives in Carlisle popped in and brought me a plant! It brought me to tears! It was a lovely suprise, so thankyou very very much Joyce...

A busy day here in the shop today, I had to pop to Kendal at lunch time, the traffic was absolutely mad! there was a queue of traffic from Windermere right back to kendal! I came back via Newby Bridge, which was quite quiet...

We had to do another fruit market run last night, we had run out of so much in the past few days...Everyone wants Strawberries!

I just checked the weather forecast for the next few days and it says its going to get real cold and some snow on the tops! hard to believe as its such a lovely afternoon here today...

Saturday afternoons are really nice as lots of new people arrive for their weeks holiday in the village, they all come in to see what we have got here in our little tardis of a shop, I say tardis as a woman came in the other day, she said that in her holiday cottage in Hawkshead their was one of our leaflets and someone had handwritten on it, "you must visit this shop, it is like a tardis filled with goodies!" That made us smile

Thats about all for now, better get the snow shovels out ready for tomorrow :-)

Good Morning from a fruity sawrey, despite the drizzly rain we have tried to bring a little bit of sunshine to the village with our friuty display. The mammouth mushroom is absolutely fabulous! it would give the giant marrows a run for their money!

Suma the wholefood co-operative whom we get lots of products from have delivered some new products this week, they include some risotto rice with asparagus and porchini, also we thought we would try some jars of tapas, they are flavoured with caramalised red onion, roasted red pepper and aubergine and garlic. They are from a company called Sierra Rica, which was set up by an englishman who fell in love with the village where they are from in the Andalusian Hills in Spain. They are made using all organic products and look lush! Sunshine food in Sawrey!

So thats the good news, the bad news is Tesco is attempting to land in the village, well their home delivery service is! The van has been spotted several times this week, its one thing delivering to people who work full time and have no time to shop or who cannot get out, but the current trend is them delivering to holiday makers who are self catering in the village,its a difficult issue to talk about but it sends a shiver down the spine of small independent retailers like us. There is a website that I am working my way through called Tescopoli, its a website which is set up by an allience of organisations concerned with the negative impacts of supermarket power. We meet growers who deliver their produce to the wholesale fruit market and is insightful in relation to the demands supermarkets place on them and how prices are pushed lower than low. http://www.tescopoly.org/

So if your at a loose end this holiday weekend, come to Sawrey and get some lush fresh produce, personal delivery service guarenteed with a smile

P.S

http://www.alienchoir.noisegames.com/

something you need to turn up the speakers on your pc for, it make me smile

Good Morning from Sunny sawrey, what started out as a damp morning has turned into a beautiful blue sky day,
A steady away morning here at the shop, we are sensing a lull before the storm of the bank holiday weekend, there are lots more people coming into the shop looking for gifts etc.

A customer who lives in the village has given me the name of his two race horses that he owns which both seem to be on a winning streak at the moment, I wouldnt know how or where to put a bet on but if you do the horses names are "provost" and "regime". He told me that Frankie Detorri rode one of them yesterday, thats a name I have heard of!! http://www.highclereracing.co.uk/jkwd/default.aspx?pg=30&horseid=41

We are awaiting another delivery of the english lakes ice cream today, think we are going to try a new flavour this week, death by chocolate!

Another new edition to the cheeses that we sell this week is called Mrs Applebys Cheshire, its a pinky colour and it tastes just lush, its flakey and crumbly, but not dry, with a clean, acidic tang and combined with the cumbrian oatcakes it makes a lovely snack

Thats about all for now, some thirsty cyclists have landed

Greetings from Far Sawrey....The rain has left the village and the sunshine is out! Steady away day here in the shop, lots of japanese girls in looking for gifts.......

The new shop local bags have arrived this week, so many people still come into the shop and say they did not know we were here! Perhaps we need a marketing strategy! As the shop was closed for sometime before we came I sometimes think that people have got used to going elsewhere for things when they run out, hopefully word will keep speading that we are still here and plan to stay.

Benny has been taken out by some customers today, he loves it when people come in and say "does benny fancy a walk?" His ears perk up and he is off

Today is the day of the Brathy Marathon, One of our customers who was a marshall said that there were over 1300 people out running the 26miles around lake windermere this morning! A couple of our friends Pete and Andrea who own Head to the Hills in Ambleside are doing it http://www.headtothehills.co.uk/, Good Luck to all, plenty of hot baths tonight I imagine!

Another friend of ours is Annette who has a guest house in Windermere, she has today done the race for life......She has just sent a text to say she has completed it..........WELL DONE ANNETTE!!!! http://www.ellerdene.co.uk/

Thats about all for now, ice cream sales pending

Good Afternoon from Sawrey, weather wise its been quite miserable for a few days, driving rain and high winds, well windy enough for the ferry to have to be off for a couple of days, when that happens it does make the village quite quiet. However I have just had a little look on the BBC weather page and it seems June is predicted to be lush and this will be followed by a long hot summer! Thats brilliant news hey!

Some more brilliant news is that customers and friends of ours have announced that they are to have a baby! CONGRATULATIONS Rob and Lorraine, a new baby in the village will be just great! They have a lovely guest house called http://www.fair-rigg.co.uk/ just over the hill, I cannot think of a better place to bring up a family!

The new bread from Munx lakaland bakery has all sold out this week and we are thrilled thats it delivered here to the shop, it will make such a difference in summer

As the days, now weeks, go by with still no sign of little Madeleine McCann we can only hope someone out there is takingt good care of her. I have put a link below to the web site set up to help find her. It may be a long shot but the lake district is a good place to hide away if you do not want to be found, madeleine has very distinctive eyes, all we can do is keep our eyes and ears open http://findmadeleine.com/

As I type the Ambulance has not long since gone through the village heading towards Near Sawrey, fingers crossed whoever it is for is not in too much pain

We had a young man called Joe, not the Joe who worked hear before, do some work experience here at the shop for the day yesterday, mum said he did great, He is now working here on a weekend morning, having taken over from Joe who has gone to work at Booths, all change here!

A couple of celebrity chef's have been staying in the village this week, Anthony Worrell-Thomson and Paul Rankin were staying at West Vale Country House whilst filming a cookery programme in Kendal, no sign of them in the village shop tho!

There is still some bunches of English Asparagus left here at the shop, I managed to unintentionally hide one of the boxes from the market the other night, silly me! It does look so lush tho and is a great reminder of the changes in season, not that this rain is!

Thats about all for now folks, Happy Saturday from Sawrey

Good Morning from Sawrey Stores.... Its a lovely May morning here in the village... The ram raiders are back with avengence this morning, they have stolen an apple, some red grapes and the plums.... I have dangled some CD's to try and deter them but they keep coming back!

The new bread from Munx lakeland bakery has gone down a treat! The chocolate and hazelnut danish pastries look divine and have all sold out very quickly... The crusty french sticks look lush and are proving very popular, we are not sure how to display them as yet tho

The doctor has advised that I do more walking to reduce the anxiety I am feeling regarding my case, so I set off last night and had a great walk around both near and far sawrey, it was really lush, I enjoyed seeing all of the baby lambs tucked away in the fields... A lush way to spend an hour...

More double yokers eggs have been reported in the free range eggs that we are selling, it all happens in Sawrey hey!

We have started selling raffle tickets for the up and coming may day festivities, they are 20p each or a book for £1, there are some great prizes including a cookery demo at Lucy Cooks in Staveley, a family ticket for Lake Cruises, afternoon tea for 2 at the Lakeside Hotel plus many other fab prizes, included a voucher to spend on ice creams here at the shop

Thats about all for now, off to order some cumberland sausage :-)

Good Afternoon from Sawrey, its a very quite day here in the village today, the promised rain which as just arrived has not helped I guess.

I am conscious that I am using the blog more and more to express my feelings about my legal battle with the council as its so all consuming, however today I want to try and write about something I do every day that gives me so much pleasure and far far outweighs the pain endured with my case.

One of my little indulgences is to take a little quiet time to just sit down and watch the day as it unfolds before me. I try not to ponder and reflect on what is going on with my awful case, but to simply stop and watch life as it its happening. I have a favourite place I go to do this and its alondside the lake shore at Harrowslack near the car ferry. From there I can see the lake and whats going on on it, the sun rising, the car ferry coming and going, the clouds nestling in and amongst the mountains and today I was thrilled to see several familes of ducks out for a waddle! Sooooooooooooo fluffy and cute, guess who did not have a camera to hand! Well worth a visit if you have a spare few minutes....It reminds me of the Welsh poet William Henry Davies in his poem Leisure he asked "What is this life, full of care, we have no time to stop and stare," he was asking fundamental questions about the ever frantic pace of the world he saw around him... Harrowslack is a good place to stop and stare! Tony on lakeland cam also finds lots of places that look good to stop and stare....

Something else thats interesting to look at today is an exhibition of a local artist, http://www.bryaneccleshall.co.uk/index.html. Brian lives in Sawrey and it looks like he has been very busy creating work for his new exhibition! Keep up the good work Brian!

Something else to look at today is the hound trails that are in Near Sawrey this afternoon, although I am not sure if all this rain makes trailing the aniseed hard for the dogs, if they run in the shop and try ravishing the jar of aniseed balls I will know they are lost!

Hmmmmmmmm....anyway, I hope your all having a relaxing day out there. I learnt a very important lesson about stress last night, staying in with ones head hidden under the covers because the council are trying their damdest to try and break you can be put to the back of your mind if you go to Yvette Pavelyn's Bothy retreat and laugh so much it hurts! Yvette your a star, THANKYOU

The Bonus Ball was won last night by a customer called Denise who lives in Near Sawrey, Well Done Denise

Happy Sunday :-)

Greetings from Sawrey, the rain is just stopping as I type...

I popped to kendal this morning and just as I drove over the brow of the hill on the bypass I saw a caravan been towed towards me in the distance and I saw it turn over! What a mess, driver ok, but the caravan folded like a deck of cards, never seen anything quite like it, then as I was coming back to the car ferry their was a problem with the road works just outside the police station on the hill down to Bowness. There was temporary traffic lights set up and someone had overnight decided to remove one of the sets of traffic lights, Chaos is an understatement, no one knew what to do. I tried to go into the police station to tell them what was going on right outside their station but no one answered the door, so I phoned police control centre and told them how dangerous it was...good deed for the day done.........and all before 8am!

My legal case is still driving me to distraction, I have come to expect bad news on a friday, as they always send me something upsetting on a friday, well they have for as long as this matter has been going on, it makes it impossible for me to get any advice until monday, horrible tactic hey! So yesterday the news comes that despite the full psychiatric assessment they have made me undertake and a full psychiatric report they have had written about me, they have decided they now want site of everything every GP I have had and what ever has ever written or said about me! Quite unbelievable! What this basically means is they want me to undergo another psychiatric assessment and they want to delay matters even more! I have written back to them telling them that this all feels like harassment and cannot and will not tolerate it anymore...I await their next move...

On a lighter note the new owner of sawrey country house came in yesterday and we had a discussion about the old piano that played itself that used to reside in the corner of the restaurant. He told me that it no longer resides there and the main reason was the cost, he told me it was leased for £300 a month! I told him he would be better buying hinself some dancing shoes and putting on some entertainment himself!

Resident chef in the village Glyn from West Vale Country House was invited to be a judge on a satelite tv channel programme this week that was filmed in Kendal, think it was for a food programme on UK TV Channel, fame hey! I will report back when i know the date when it is going to be chown on TV...

Bread News, we have finally found a bread maker who will supply and deliver bread here to the shop! It going to be delivered three times a week from Munx Lakeland bakery from Stavely, we have had some samples and it all looks good!. The sandwiches we have started selling from the lakeland sandwich company are selling well, they will soon be accompanied by some new danish pastries which will be delivered with the bread! YUM YUM

That's all for now folks

I must begin with an apology! When I last blogged I made reference ot the chaps fo the village who are working hard up at the hall getting it ready for the up and coming wedding to be hosted there, I did not however make referece to the ladies of the village who are also up there working hard getting it ready! Sorry ladies! I had not been told that you were up there....Simon has kindly asked me to mention how any help up there will be appreciated by the commitee...

Its half day here at the shop today, I am here catching up on a few bits this afternoon, mother gone to kendal to do some shop bits,
I have only been here for half and hour and already I have sold 4 ice creams and some veg!

We have a poster which has been put up in the shop window today, its advertising the may day fayre in the village, its due to be held on sunday the 27th of May and all are welcome to come and watch the the festivities, going on what I saw last year its a lovely way to spend an afternoon, its very traditional and the children walk from near to far sawrey and then they all dance around the maypole, fingers crossed for sunshine...

Happy Wednesday from Sawrey

Greetings from a very soggy sawrey, its certainly raining and pouring! the campsites were all abandoned this morning and it seems that the village is too....Mother is at hawkshead school embellishing the wall hanging with all of the children as I type...

No one has put there name to the poem as yet, however its amused everyone that has read it! I have put a copy in the window just in case anyone has not seen it!

I put a counter on the bottom of the blog page yesterday so I could get a feel for how many people are reading the blog, I am so pleased to see that since 3pm yesterday afternoon over 40 people have looked at the blog! Amazing!

We have had several new customers in the shop over the past couple of days, they have all moved into Ferry House, next to the car ferry, it seems that all of the apartments have been sold, so we look forward to welcoming them all here at the shop

One customer found a dead badger outside her gate yesterday morning! What with that and a dead snake, I think its all the hot weather that has made them all come out....Guess we must all look out for wildlife and make sure we dont squash it.....

I believe the Braithwaite Hall is getting looking good after the men on the commitee gave it a bit of a make-over ready for the wedding reception that is going to be held int here in a couple of weeks, There is a ceiling of fairy lights I believe, I am sure it will all look lovely....

Thats about all for now folks, Happy Tuesday :-)

Good morning from sawrey, before I begin I must describe the state I am in, I am sat here with tears of laughter rolling down my face! Whoever you are anonymous, the comment that you left on the blog yesterday is FANTASTIC! and very very funny, for those of you who have not seen it in the comments box I will copy it below.....

Have you seen the van with the orange and lemons,
I also believe she has very nice melons,
Tomatoes, apples and strange veg too,
Brought from Manchester straight to you.
Loaded with help from the exotic fruit man,
Who looks on with pride at Annies big van
So let us make use of our wonderful store,
By ringing and ordering, fruit to our door

How good is that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-) :-) :-) THANKYOU whoever you are! its totally tickled me
Its a quiet morning today, everyone on the campsites was packing up ready for home, mother is still working away with the wall hanging for the school which will be finished today fingers crossed....
My little helper Alan came on the round today, he is very good, we popped to see his grandma on the way home and stood outside her kitchen window shouting come and get your banana's, she nearly had a dicky fit!
It must have been quite windy last night, lots of things were blown over this morning, I slept through it all, its been a long week!
Well thats about all for now, I am off to put my poem in a frame :-)

The van is done! I am over the moon with it, it certainly tells people what I am selling! Its gone down really well at the campsites, much better than woman in a white van turning up.... All I need now it a big plastic banana for the roof and my life will be complete! I wish! Anyway, if your up in the lakes and you see me driving around, feel free to stop me and buy some juicy fruit......

The sun seems to have left the building today and its raining, the plants are happy!

There seem to be a few snakes around this week, not sure if its with all the hot weather, but we have had several reports of them in the village, we found one dead one on our drive this morning so I am about to look up what to do if you get bitten by one, I am not the luckiest person in the world when it comes to bites and stings! No sitings of any in the shop tho! Well perhaps the odd trouser snake ;-)

Mother is at home finishing off the project she did with the school children from hawkshead a few weeks ago, she is going in on tuesday to gove it back to them to hang on the wall...

Thats about all for now folks, off to polish me van :-)

Good Morning from far Sawrey. another blue sky morning to start the day..Picture of Benny catching a few rays....

I am very pleased to report that the van is in residence at Pandora Signs and is been covered in fruit as I type! They are creative genius's at that place and do some wonderful work! I am going along for the afternoon to help if I can, I am picking up my little friend Alan from school as he wants to help out too! Will take lots of pictures! http://pandorasigns.co.uk/ A customer has just been in who has just been into Hawkshead and she says the van is looking good!!!! I am so looking forward to seeing it!!!

I am sad to report that our customer who was inviolved in the traffic accident the other day has been taken back into hospital overnight, no more news as yet, sending him and his family all our love and get well wishes

We have started selling sandwiches once again here in the shop, we are getting them from a company called lakeland sandwich comany near kendal, the range includes, salami and cream cheese, roast ham and colslaw, fruity lancashire and roast ham and gouda cheese, they are proving to be great sellers to the shop..

We had a man in the shop yesterday who has come to the village to do some reseach in the area, his surname is Sawrey! He did not know that the village existed for a long time, he has consulted with geneologists and is spending some time doing his family history around the area...

As I type there is gridlock in sawrey, the road has been dug up by engineers and a horse and horse-rider are waiting to get by..

You never know, you might soon be able to fly into sawrey if reports gazette are true! Sea planes on the lake! Hmmmmmm

Hmmm anyway I better fly off and go see the van!

Greetings from far sawrey.... Apologies for my absence, I have been up in carlisle representing myself with regards to my legal case, its been quite a week, the kind that could not be made up... upon reflection I wish I had blogged events of this this from the onset as it is all quite unbelievable......to summise there has been two cases, the first I won which was in relation to the harassment I endured as a consequence to whistle-blowing, the second which was last week was me claiming constructive dismissal as a result of getting assaulted at work by a collegue whom I had whistle-blown about and the follwing suspension procedure which was adopted in relation to me and which lasted 7months, which was the reason I resigned, claiming constructive dismissal.

So the hearing began last week, I was cross examined for a day and a half by a barrister whos actions I define as a sledgehammer approach to cracking a nut, I survived that and then I had to cross examine three of the county councils top people, the head of cumbria care, the head of personnel and the senior investigating officer who was comissioned to investigate it all for 7months.....

1st up, the investigating officer, who spent her 7months career with the council investigating all of this, she had produced a witness statement saying some very derogertory things about me......cross examination should have cleared it all up, but guess what, she was not there, she had chosen not to come to the hearing as it was all too stressful for her and she did not want to expose herself to such stress!!!

2nd up was the head of cumbria care, who in her witness statement had said she took full responsibility for the process adopted in relation to my suspension and disciplinary investigation......under cross examination by me it turns out she was responsible, but only for the first few weeks, then her responsibility ended! Quite unbelievable! so, asked the panal and me, who was responsible for the 7month suspension I endured for being assaulted at work, answer...."NO-ONE"! Marvellous ..........not!

3rd witness up was the head of personnel, I asked her under cross examination, someone must have been responsible for making the decision to send me to a disciplinary hearing 7months after I was suspended, oh yes was the reply, I showed the file to a manager and he decided, which manager she was asked,...............are you ready for this..................."the head of waste management" made the decision!!!!!!!!!!! "THE BIN MANAGER" I said! Yes was the reply,

So thats last week in a nutshell, as you can imagine, the judgement was deferred and I have been left reeling from it all.........

Back in sawrey the weather has been glorious! blue sky days and warm balmy evenings.....the air ambulance, 2 fire engines and a police care were called to the village yesterday when one of our residents had a road traffic accident. I am pleased to report he his back home today and sucking on some blackcurrent and licquorice sweets he sent his son in for earlier this morning.......GET WELL SOON Norman....

Veg market day has been moved to thursday as customers have suggested its a better day for them rather than wednesday, so its off to manchester tonight... I am going to send emails out to customers who would like a list of the fresh fruit and vegetables that we got from manchester, if any of you would like to recive this weekly email, please drop me a line and I will send you one.

There is a meeting in near sawrey tonight, its been set up by the national trust to talk about the impact of the film on the village and to meet the new people who are renting the sawrey country house hotel from the national trust, they recently purchased the hotel...

SO folks thats about all for now, hopefully things will get back to normal now

Happy Wednesday from Sawrey