Christmas food & Harry

It's strange isn't it how once Halloween is over and done with, the shops decided that its 'time for Christmas'. Our farm shop & garden centre customers have been transformed into Santa's Magical Wonderland, all twinkly lights, ho ho ho's & scrumptious looking hampers, overflowing with the epicurean delights that are Christmas.

I am one who feels Christmas is at Christmas not 6 weeks before, but, we have to prepare and make those festive flavours that plump out our order books at this time of the year. Yes, ice cream is an all year round delicacy, so this year we are making Christmas pudding, cranberry & redcurrant, marzipan and cointreau & orange flavoured ice cream. So far, the Christmas pud & the cranberry are the favourites with our customers. I have noticed that many of the food magazines are featuring Christmas pud ice cream in their festive menus. Good choice!

Returning my previous blog, Harry was amazed at all the responses, he doesn't feel as though he is any different to anyone else, such modesty. Someone asked how we had managed to get Harry motivated, how much push and shove had we given him. The truth is, in fact, we did very little, no not being cruel or neglectful, but explaining that a] this was the problem, b] this is how you can learn to cope and adapt to dyslexia & finally c] we can't make you do this but everything is in place ready for you to try. I know that computer games are slammed by so many 'experts' but we have found playing them in Harry's case, really jumped started his reading and comprehension, because he HAD to read & HAD to understand the on-screen instruction, oh and then there are the benefits to the hand eye co-ordination. He tried. He tried so hard, A's for effort, not so good for exams but you can't win all the time now can you? It's hard with exam results, your friends tell you how well their offspring are doing at school, 'little Freddy has got straight A's', it's normal, parents boast. You just have to let go, ignore little Freddy's results, and smile. Everything is a bonus, you know how much effort it takes to get a D grade, for Harry, he has been spared the pressure of getting good grades in readiness for university, he was able to enjoy his teens.


Well, there you are then, a quick little bit of extra concerning Harry, who has been busy making mango sorbet today. Just don't give up or let them give up, but what ever you do, don't take the fun out of learning by pushing, it's a bit like schooling a young horse, you don't want to present it to a fence beyond it's current ability and over face it, putting it off for ever.

dyslexic child

Today, as usual l am sat in the dining room cum office, catching up on the accounts. As is always the case, l am daydreaming, my excuse for wasting time. I am emailing, chatting on skype, listening to the wireless. I have in front of me, on the floor 6 large piles of A4, bills paid, bills to pay, bank downloads, remittance advices, VAT print outs, it looks very organized. it should be all filed away in the colorful collection of folders shoved onto the shelves. They are not and l am just getting ready to hole punch.................

The internet is wonderful. I can sit here, listening to the wireless and the current item on the Jeremy Vine show on radio 2 is continuing the theme on the best childrens bedtime stories, the choice is down to the final 8 titles.

As a child, in fact even now, l am what you could call a 'book gobbler'. I read, l read obsessively. I have favourite authors and pre-order their new titles. I have books everywhere. On book shelves, next to my bed, in the bathroom, in the spare bedrooms, any flat surface you will find books. Paperbacks, hardbacks staked precariously in large, wobbly piles. Farmer suggests that it might be an idea to open a used book stall in the garage. I don't think so.

I am side tracked, l was going to mention my favourite childhood reads but, well never mind my brain is off on a different tangent. When Harry was born, l would read all about hungry caterpillars and fierce bad mice and wondering hedgehogs. As he got older would buy stories for him to read and enjoy. He preferred story tapes and would be able to recite all the Roald Dahl stories word perfect. By the time he reach 6, his reading was pretty bad, a real struggle, a chore more akin to pulling teeth than something of pleasure. Needless to say, l was concerned. A visit to the village school and discussion with teachers did not exactly allay my worries. To me, and as there is dyslexia in the family, Harry was showing the classic signs.

We moved school, Harry traveling up to Scarborough everyday and within his 1st week at the new school he had been booked for assessment with the Dyslexic Institute. Dyslexic, Harry was dyslexic, high IQ but disorganized, dancing words & letters chasing each other across the pages, the world seen as a multi-layered 3D adventure. For the duration of his school years, he attended the Dyslexic Institute. He learned to touch type, to organise his time, to learn how to manage his pictorial world in the flat real world.

Harry, is now 21. He runs the ice cream production side of the business. His spelling is still truly unique and he still sorts out problems using the 'picture in the head technique'. He has found a balance, he still hates reams of text, but just gets on with it; he plans out his day so he knows where he is and doesn't get lost. Pretty amazing really, well done Harry, your hard work has paid off!

The picture is totally unrelated to this blog, but it is of the beach.

half term is almost over

Here we are then, closing days of October 2009, half term nearly at an end but, the weather, so very un-Octoberish. Temperatures in the high teens. No frosts or early snow, just blue skies and sunshine. Hells teeth l am not complaining. Mr Moo's has had a good week with visitors, both regulars and newbies paying us a visit, coming for that special treat or for top up on ice cream, any guilt about those calories being erased by a gentle walk down to the beach along the farm walk.

It has been a pretty good summer for our wholesale customers too as holiday makers indulge in this year's trend of 'staycation'. In fact, Hippy Shake in Whitby is looking forward to a major ghoulish weekend, serving up such delicately named flavours as 'blood n guts' and 'bramble stoker'. Whitby, to the uninitiated is not only home to the most exquisite fish & chips but also to Dracula who can been seen most days stalking through the town followed by his acolytes, dressed to impress in layers of black & grey wearing the most incredible gothic footwear that looks more like surgical boots than jimmy choo!

So, there you go. A busy week for everyone, here on the coast. Families enjoying quality time together, a walk along the sea front combined with a bucket & spade day, something simple & fun. Memories are made of this, it may not be the Mediterranean, but the weather has been glorious and the English pound buys so very much more than the Euro!

PS: the first picture is of the new fish restaurant in Leeds, Nash's on Merrion Street.

Blue plastic bags

Today, right at this very minute l am cross, very cross, blurdey MAD to tell the truth. Why oh why do people in cars view the countryside as a free for all rubbish dump? We know from the detritus strewn along the grass verge that it takes from the local MacDonald's to here to eat a Big Mac meal, we have tesco carrier bags stuffed full of picnic waste, carefully tied and then hurled from passing car windows. Why?

So, by this evening, after having attended a nervous persons all time nightmare in the form of an HSE meeting, that l saw a white van. l was enjoying the final leg of the farm walk, dogs walking smartly to heel at this point. This was not any white van but a YEDL one, well, actually a contractor to YEDL. It was pulled in casually just alongside the roadside gate with its back doors pulled wide open, a man rustling about in the back. Nothing suspicious about that, perhaps someone was having a pee or bird spotting? Then l saw it, or rather HIM. He was carrying a blue carrier bag, carefully tied at the top to prevent anything 'spilling 'out in the back of his van. Then, with the skill of a Driffield rugby club player, tossed the bag with amazing accuracy into the hedge bottom in the corner of the footpath.

Well, l am a bit of a rottweiler when roused and l was roused! Marching across with Gordon & Lucy-Piglet in tow, l shouted into the back of the van. He must have had a hearing problem as there was no answer. Bang bang, l rapped on the door. A face appeared looking not exactly pleased. 'What the hell are you doing' l thundered? 'Take your flipping rubbish home with you!' l continued, my voice becoming more 'Cheltenham' by the minute.

He looked even more angry; me a mere woman telling him off? Poor deluded fellow must have thought l was really stupid, he told me this was work things for tomorrow which he would collect in the morning. Farmer drove past in the JCB. ' That's the farmer', l said, not at all sure that this guy was going to back down. l continued, 'rubbish does not biodegrade in hedge bottoms and dustmen do not walk along footpaths collecting trash, l have to do that!'. I stood there, glaring at him. Lucy-Piglet looking fierce. The prat tried again, ' I am coming back tomorrow to fix the electricity pole'. Aha thinks l, that pole there by the bunker belongs to US and is not connected to the mains. My remark was oh so casual, ' & will that be to bring more rubbish to join that bag over there?'.

He gave up. Leapt over the gate [ impressive] collected the rubbish bag, threw it in the back of the van. I stood on guard just in case he chucked it back when my back was turned and waited purposefully until he drove of.

Farmer, when l told him about the YEDL contract man, asked had l got the van number. Ergh men.

Sir Jimmy and a large ship

So we were delivering ice cream to Cobble Landing this lunch time, when Stu casually mentions in passing that The Queen Mary was sailing close in to Filey at about 1'ish. Quick check of multi-coloured Swatch watch which reads 12.45 followed by hard stare out to sea, 'it's going to be more like 3', replied the amusement arcade chap from next door. The slight crowd thronging the sea front at Filey might be in for a wait.

No such wait in the bracing sea air for us, mon brave. Onward with deliveries, mustn't keep the customer waiting. In Scarborough, Farmer parked up on North Marine Drive with the van window facing North Bay & then scuttled purposefully off to meet with a possible new customer. The cars casually drove along Marine Drive, pedestrians ambled passed as the tide came in, their dogs held firm on leads whilst the waves roared up the beach and then crashed down on the sea walls.

From the first picture, you can see the weather was bright and cheerful although out to sea, to the north, there was a squall bustling towards the land. By about half part two, the roadside car parking began to fill. People emerged clutching binoculars and cameras. wearing woolly hats rammed down hard on their heads. The squall got ever closer, the waves even larger. The weather clamped down, visibility at a minimum.

Suddenly there she was, bow emerging from behind the castle headland. Traffic stopped, people braved the sea spray and rain, cameras flashed as automatic flashes went off. The ship's passengers flashed back in unison. Then, slowly the Queen Mary turned, once past the Sea Life Centre, to head back out to sea, disappearing into the gloom that had by now completely enveloped North Sea.

The last time a large cruise liner came THIS close was a few years back, when local resident, Sir Jimmy Saville Fixed It for himself to embark locally via fishing boat. This time our local celebrity was going to join the cruise in Edinburgh this evening and so had asked Cunard to Fix It for the inhabitants of Scarborough to receive a right royal sail past!

Ideas & days out

From now on in, the ice cream parlour and wholesale becomes a lot less manic, it gives us a well earned break but also, more importantly, a chance to forward plan for the next 12 months.

This summer we ran an competition for our customers to design a new flavour to grace our pots, the response was immense and we are still sifting through the entries looking for that winning entry.

Other interesting things that happen during the Autumn and winter months are 'days out,' or to be more correct, an 'afternoon away''. While most people have days out during the summer months, we have to wait until things quieten down before we can hit the road and visit the many wonderful sights that are to be found here in Yorkshire.

Photos: Fountains Abbey, near Ripon.

Timewasting

This week l don't seem able to settle down and concentrate, l fidget and waffle about, drink coffee, walk the dog, sweep up the leaves and open the shop but l just can't sit down in the office, open up the accounts software program and get cracking on invoices, bills, statements and bank reconciliations. The mind is not engaged. The computer is turned on, the pages from ebay open, emails shoot back & forth but, as the business returns to the seasonal norm perhaps l too am slowing down or am l getting ready to either hibernate or fly south for the winter?



The geese stream across the sky & l watch. Where would l go? I think l might like to visit India and travel around in an elderly car taking in the sights and sounds and smells. Staying overnight in glittering palaces, sipping gin & tonic as the sun sets behind the Himalayas. Riding through the tea plantations as dawn breaks.


Oh hell, you daft bat, stop it. Pull yourself together. You must ring up that customer who hasn't paid for 8 weeks and give them what for................!