2009 ends with a flourish

Hoteliers may have complained that Christmas was quieter for them than usual but every single B&B has "No Vacancies" signs up tonight and we've been really busy in the shop today. I think, in general, money off sales tend to go on for too long and are now so often that they devalue what stores do for the rest of the year. Therefore, my bold move is to have only one sale a year which starts on Boxing Day and ends tomorrow at 4 pm. After that, our Spring stock will come out and we can look forward to lighter nights and clement weather. There you go, ever the optimist, always looking forward. Happy New Year to everyone.
Louise

Floods, snow and now power failure!

It's busy again in Bowness - lots of people up for New Year's Eve - but fate is once again showing its fickle hand as the power has just gone off in half the village. Our store is actually two shops joined together and, whilst the power is still on in the largest shop (where, thankfully, the till is located), the small shop is in darkness. It's ok, if anyone wants to buy food, a card, a throw or some mugs, we'll hand them a torch! The floods and the snow didn't stop us and we won't be beaten now.....
Louise

The Best of Both Worlds

Back to reality after Christmas: people are braving the cold weather and seem to be coming to the Lakes in droves for the New Year. There's a lovely atmosphere in Bowness today as everyone is full of festive cheer and yesterday we were in Manchester, which was also full of people spending lots at the sales. We were there for the Miley Cyrus concert on the 27th (one of Connie's Christmas presents). If you're not familiar with her music, she's a worldwide superstar, having starred in Disney's Hannah Montana series for the past three years. Miley is only seventeen and is worshipped by millions of 5 to 14 year olds, many of whom who in Manchester in Sunday night. She put on a really good show and we were all hoarse yesterday from singing along (yes, sadly, even Sean and I know the words to all her songs).
Louise

More Dougally Doings

Father Christmas delivered some of our presents early last night and, obviously, we're all on special Dougal watch as none of said presents will bear chewing. However, to our surprise, our barmy pup is not intent on destroying the parcels: his more benign mission in life is to sit on them. Already this morning he has been hauled off his present nest three times. He has been banished outside and the tree is now surrounded by barbed wire: well, not quite, but it doesn't look very festive as anti-Dougal devices include Connie's guitar (in its case), the chewed Next catalogues (see previous blog) and, in fact, anything that came to hand that will do the trick. Will the presents make it through to Christmas Day? Have a Merry Christmas everyone: I'm escaping to the shop for a bit of peace.
Louise

Why, oh why, oh why?

Jules "Disgruntled of Kendal" wants to know why, even though the snow stopped over 24 hours ago, there is no sign of any ploughs or gritters in Kendal, making a journey anywhere on foot or by car extremely difficult. Here is Bowness the roads are clear but the pavements and main car park are still covered with snow and, now the sun is starting to set, we're wondering if we're going to be skating home rather than driving. Anyway, musn't grumble as it sounds like the rest of the country is in the same boat. The owners of the restaurant next door have gone away for Christmas so, when the alarm went off about an hour ago, Jules nipped round with our key to turn it off.  As she reached for the keypad a green vision floated down the stairs......Jules screamed and I thought that she'd been attacked. It turns out that one of the owners' friends was staying there for a few days and was in the middle of applying a face pack (!) when she inadvertently triggered the alarm.
Louise
 

Winter Wonderland?

There was plenty of snow around yesterday and we had the most magical afternoon in Hawkshead where it was a lovely Christmas scene which really got our family into the Christmas spirit. Given that the snow was well predicted and there was snow yesterday, how did we manage to end up with such chaos on out roads again today?

The A592 at fell Foot

When I reached Greenodd on the way to Bowness this morning, I decided that discretion was the better part of valour and turned back as the main road was so bad I had to go and get help (Sean in his Jeep!). The traffic was at a crawl all the way to Newby Bridge in heavy snow and it didn't look as if a gritter or a snow plough had been anywhere near the place. It was the same along the A592, snow and slithering cars all the way. One day the powers that be will get their act together and work out a way to manage days like this, after all it only happens every winter!

Louise

ps the stunning scenes at Bowness made up for all the drama, it looks lovely in the sun and snow - see the photos at stridingedge.net

Lovely customers

A popular seller this year has been our Love the Lakes gift boxes which you can fill with gifts of your own selection from the shop which we then finish off with a big bow and a flourish. Today we had a lady in who browsed for a good half hour before bringing an empty box over to the counter. After enquiring whether she would like to put some items in it, she replied 'Oh, I thought you did that'! Certainly madam, that will be £250 please...

The best moment so far today though is the internet order which we had to query. When I rang the telephone number supplied, a lady replied so I asked for Arthur, the gentleman's name who had placed the order (name changed to protect the innocent!). 'Certainly you can speak to him', she replied, 'but he's our dog'!