State of the Nation - shop & home
Approaching Samhain (Halloween of you must), we start to draw breath and plan for the harshness of winter, both the weather, and in our case the seasonal shop trade downturn.
Long, beng an annual statement of where I am and where I want to be - personal and business - so skip if you -
A) have a very short attention span
B) want cat pictures
C) are looking for the more usual NFL smacktalk.
Shopwise, The Cat & Cauldron is a highly seasonal business, and in the winter we need to sell more actively (Facebook promotions, website deals, etc), and we also take time out to recuperate and stock making. In the darker half of the year we actually CLOSE the shop on Thursdays, and on Cheltenham Race days (Liz says this is for my mental health, and she's probably right!).
Trade does start to tail off from mid-September, but this autumn, with the outstanding warm weather, and the cost of fuel FINALLY coming down a little bit, people are definitely venturing out more, and shop visitors seem to be browsing more attentively. It is still shirt-sleeve and open door weather at the Cat & Cauldron!
Homewise, we inherited family earlier in the year, as Liz's father declined in health to the point where mother was not able to cope, so they moved in, and dad has since been more or less permanent hospitalized, so we are living day to day with that. Mother has adapted to country life remarkably well after 55 years in suburban Gloucester (she was born a country girl), but she has adopted at least two of the cats, feeds the horse, and does more gardening (at age 87), than Liz & I manage combined. We are slowly emptying the old house ready to sell in the New Year, so she now has more than half her lifetime collection of books around her, many of which she is passing on to me, 'because I thought it might be interesting, dear'. Of course that started as a little trickle, but I made the mistake of being very enthusiastic with such an eclectic collection, so it is now about 6-10 books a day as she comes to terms with the fact that there is never going to be enough space in the flat for all hers.....
On the personal front I have begun to think about what 'retirement' holds - I have no pension, and thus no prospect of retiring unless I can find something to replace the 70 hour week of the shop. I've been looking more closely at bookbinding, which would keep mind and body occupied, provide a useful and valuable service to 'my' community, and also help conserve the now several hundred books we have which have suffered in their lives.
I am also considering (and at this stage ONLY CONSIDERING), resurrecting my OBOD Bardic Review, to see if another tutor might take a different stance than the American lady I never met, who rejected my review. At the time I had throat cancer and did not have the inclination to write another word. I still don't (see WHY I SHOULD write another word), but another set of eyes may help reach a compromise.....
Told you it was lon.
Later
T
Long, beng an annual statement of where I am and where I want to be - personal and business - so skip if you -
A) have a very short attention span
B) want cat pictures
C) are looking for the more usual NFL smacktalk.
Shopwise, The Cat & Cauldron is a highly seasonal business, and in the winter we need to sell more actively (Facebook promotions, website deals, etc), and we also take time out to recuperate and stock making. In the darker half of the year we actually CLOSE the shop on Thursdays, and on Cheltenham Race days (Liz says this is for my mental health, and she's probably right!).
Trade does start to tail off from mid-September, but this autumn, with the outstanding warm weather, and the cost of fuel FINALLY coming down a little bit, people are definitely venturing out more, and shop visitors seem to be browsing more attentively. It is still shirt-sleeve and open door weather at the Cat & Cauldron!
Homewise, we inherited family earlier in the year, as Liz's father declined in health to the point where mother was not able to cope, so they moved in, and dad has since been more or less permanent hospitalized, so we are living day to day with that. Mother has adapted to country life remarkably well after 55 years in suburban Gloucester (she was born a country girl), but she has adopted at least two of the cats, feeds the horse, and does more gardening (at age 87), than Liz & I manage combined. We are slowly emptying the old house ready to sell in the New Year, so she now has more than half her lifetime collection of books around her, many of which she is passing on to me, 'because I thought it might be interesting, dear'. Of course that started as a little trickle, but I made the mistake of being very enthusiastic with such an eclectic collection, so it is now about 6-10 books a day as she comes to terms with the fact that there is never going to be enough space in the flat for all hers.....
On the personal front I have begun to think about what 'retirement' holds - I have no pension, and thus no prospect of retiring unless I can find something to replace the 70 hour week of the shop. I've been looking more closely at bookbinding, which would keep mind and body occupied, provide a useful and valuable service to 'my' community, and also help conserve the now several hundred books we have which have suffered in their lives.
I am also considering (and at this stage ONLY CONSIDERING), resurrecting my OBOD Bardic Review, to see if another tutor might take a different stance than the American lady I never met, who rejected my review. At the time I had throat cancer and did not have the inclination to write another word. I still don't (see WHY I SHOULD write another word), but another set of eyes may help reach a compromise.....
Told you it was lon.
Later
T