Sunday 25 September 2016

Here's how it goes kids:

As you know from my previous blogs, I listen to BBC Radio 2 all day, and Jeremy Vine had a 'talkie-bit' about Bloggers on his Friday Show, and I got to thinking, now that we've MOVED from The Funny Farm, and life has 'moved on a tad', I might think about starting to write a totally new blog now?

down on the funny farm, welcometothefunnyfarmthatstidy  proved quite popular around the world (don't ask me why exactly) and it escalated from 30 odd thousand to about 43,000 views now?

For those of you around the globe that fancy reading about my new adventures, sadly without my adorable gardening cat anymore.... (but watch this space for a new one) and the slightly more greying Trousers (ouch! that hurt?) then why not find me writing on our new business facebook site:
thepottingshedwhitchurch or contact us at:
iloveit@thepottingshedwhitchurch.com

We're located in gorgeous, more permanent premises just over the Welsh border in Herefordshire now, very conveniently placed adjacent to Symonds Yat West in the beautiful Wye Valley.
Our new place is historically a 19thC Library and Coffee House, dating back to the late 1890s, and we are soooooo happy here.

We've only been open here since March 1st 2016, and our new business is 'heading in the right direction' - so go take a looksee!

Take Care Now,
Shelley

Tuesday 9 June 2015

TANTRUMS ' n' TIARAS

Well TODAY, in The Potting Shed Garden, there were Territorial Tantrums'n'Tiaras flying all over the place my friends......

A pair of Jackdaws left their 'Billy No Mates' fledgling 'for safe-keeping' with Auntie Wellie in the corner of The Potting Shed Garden, without telling me?

.....which wouldn't have been a problem, had Sooty'n'Sweep not decided to do the same with their two very, very fat blackbird fledglings as well:
One of them in a hanging basket, and the other, on top of 9 Rootrainers of White Lady Runner Beans, for some reason.....

So basically, it all 'kicked off' between the adult Jackdaws that were trying to feed 'Billy', where 'Sooty'n'Sweep' thought they were trying to steal THEIR babies, who I've named Minstrel and Malteser.
xx

Today was just 'an ordinary Tuesday' for Wellie, but for all of THEM, a very frightening day? and I totally 'get that', AND it totally reminded me of the day I introduced my father to a wonderfully funny Christmas Vinyl Record that I've been forever in love with, about Irish Guvnet and his 'Thank You Letters' to his relative for THE ENTIRE 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS Turtle Doves, Lords A Leaping, Partridges in Pear Trees, Maids A Milking, Geese a laying... etc. that she kept sending to him and his wife.......and his mother-in-law's ever-increasing alcohol and drug addiction that followed with the bedlam that her Christmas gifts 'trashed their lives with'.x

I kid you not.  It was a bit like that in The Potting Shed Garden today, without the drugs or alcohol.

The Potting Shed Monmouth, as a business, is looking good my friends, and we're looking forward to showing you photographs of everything that's happening very soon now.

Live Life, Love Life and Hug Life Around The World My Friends.
Be Lovely to each other, and I'll see you here next time.x
Wellie.x






It's been a funny week Children:......

With such lovely Tripadvisor ratings, we had a 'TERRIBLE' Rating the other day, that happened because our customer truly believed that a ONE-STAR-RATING was 'Brilliant'.
Not realising that her 'One-Star' actually meant a 'TERRIBLE' Rating?
So the year that I've worked so hard to build our profile up on Tripadvisor has been potentially 'sullied'.

All of that said, it worries me none, because it was a truly positive comment about us, and her genuine faux pas will be recognised and understood by those that read all of the lovely Tripadvisor comments left for us to read every week.

Sunday 31 May 2015

JUST A HUGE THANK YOU.......

......TO YOU!x

Because each and every one of you, our lovely customers that have left such beautiful  comments about us on Tripadvisor, have elevated us to ............
.........DRUMROLL...........
No. 5 out of 44 establishments in Monmouth this very week, and Wellie is absolutely 'over the moon and back', jumping up and down like a proper looney with genuine pride.

Truly, I cannot thank you all enough for your personal support for our little business, and I'm glad that Paul and I are doing something that you love to put us on that special pedestal.

With the lull of the late Winter and Spring having sprung now, the trees all leafy green, with a few Plant Deliveries under my Potting Shed belt to 'kick-start' the growing season, it's COMPLETELY odd that the Summer Plant Sales, and for other local retailers too, just is NOT happening.

There's a completely bonkers bloke in Church Street, and he knows he is, (Hi Phil!x) with his EPIC Fruit'n'Veg Shop (just up from THE best Butchers in Monmouth, in my humble opinion: Le Gourmet - Best Homemade Faggots, 'In The World', and we put them on our Menu during the colder months of the year, to warm the cockles of your heart....)  and he said a rather strange, but perfectly true 'thing' to me last Sunday:

"Shelley: the younger generation want to buy stuff that comes back year after year nowadays"?
And I think he's right.

Things ARE a changing?  Going out to eat/drink is a perfectly acceptable reason to spend money, and that money is COMPLETELY 'gone' then, BUT you had a brilliant time.

VERSUS spending that same amount of money on seasonal prettiness to make your patio/garden look good for the ENTIRE Summer...... doesn't seem to be on the same radar of personal enjoyment?

And it don't matter none to me, because I just make scrumptious plant displays, which enhance The Potting Shed Garden, which helps entice customers in, and creates a more verdant environment for them to spend money eating and drinking, and that money is COMPLETELY 'gone' then, BUT you had a brilliant time.....

Did you see what Wellie did there Children?  = Win/Win Scenario.
Clever Wellie........x

Before I finally climb those stone spiral stairs to Wellie Towers tonight, I must just mention my Potting Shed Birds, because they are becoming SUCH a Potting Shed Attraction in their own special space now?

The Fledglings.  My darling little Fledglings are all over The Potting Shed Garden, and the tweeting and twittering is becoming quite beautifully  DEAFENING now as they learn to 'dust-bath', feed and water themselves.

Sooty & Sweep (my blackbirds) are actively feeding their young with the moist sultanas from the 'yesterday Fruit Scones'.
They're a bit 'pissed off' with The Plain Scones for some reason?!

Rockin' Robin (my robin - doh!) is getting cheekier, and more tame by the day.

And my darling little House Sparrow Babies are tame enough now to take crumbs from my lunchtime sandwich just inches from my WellieBoot-Feet whilst I'm sat in my Rocking Chair in the sunshine.

I must have THE most enviable job in the world, and THE most beautiful office on the planet.
And I thank every Angel that's holding my hand right now.

Thank you so much for reading my blog.
Stay Safe, Keep Warm, and Hug Each Other Lots,
Your Wellie Friend
The Potting Shed Monmouth
x

Thursday 28 May 2015

'BEING THERE'......

......... and ACTUALLY, I've 'SO very stolen that' from one of my customers under the tree in The Potting Shed Garden the other day?
Truly, he's been one of our very favourite customers right from the start of our Potting Shed adventures.
And I know he won't mind.......x

I only mention 'Being There', because he TOTALLY 'hit a chord with me' the very minute he said it.

I've watched that film many, many times, and it always 'moves me'.

It was a truly Epic film, starring, Peter Sellers, and if you've never watched it - you should. and as I was busying myself back and forth with my wheelbarrow t'other day.... from The Potting Shed to Shire Hall, from Shire Hall to The Potting Shed, going about planting tubs, so simply just 'being', and in doing that, totally wrapped up in my own little world, with beautiful and happy thoughts, but those thoughts going 'so much further' than was apparent to anyone else around me, and EVERYONE in Agincourt Square passing by were just LOVING what I was doing for the community, and for the local people, and chatting with me, and asking my advice.

BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show this morning, and that lovely Tibby Happy Monk.  What's NOT to like about spending a small window in your day just 'thinking happy' just looking at the people around you, wishing all of them every good wish in your heart, and just enjoying every leaf, every flower, and embracing what's so very loverly in and around your daily window.

Being part of a TRUE community, rather than a virtual one, chatting to people that you bump into on a daily basis in a town where you could so easily be lonely, a stranger or a tourist, I think, is a bit special.

So, Just 'Be There' where you're needed and wanted, if you can.

Until next time,
Wellie.
x






Monday 25 May 2015

WOO HOO!.....

... and I'm saying that, so hugely proudly, because I had a VERY exciting Bank Holiday Saturday Children.

Not only was it THE best day that The Potting Shed Monmouth has had since its inception just over a year ago in terms of 'trading', but a rather lovely lady walked into The Potting Shed Garden with a camera, asked if 'all of this was ME'? and then took both of my hands in hers', looked into my eyes, and told me in no uncertain terms, that one of our customers has nominated us to be included in a new Food Guide for Wales.

And seriously, I would like that person, really, truly, please, to make themselves known to me, whoever you are, so that I can thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I think I must of 'died and gone to heaven' momentarily, because she told me that my 'reaction' was 'just brilliant', and as she left to photograph another local, and very well-deserved nomination to give me time to 'compose ourselves', I could be heard down The Barton going 'WOO HOO!', 'WOO HOO!', 'WOO HOO!'.,,,and 'punching the air' like I absolutely meant it....
What a LOVELY thing to happen to The Potting Shed after only a year of trading.....x

Thankfully, when she returned, the kitchen was in full-swing, and Paul's brilliance totally shone for A Foodie Photographic Shoot to be epically proud of, and in all honesty, the very REASON we're on that map, is because of him.







Today, I Are MOSTLY............'Going For Gold'?

GOLD, on a number of....But it's NOT Chelsea, Children! ...
I'm looking through the MONMOUTH Shire Hall & Tourist Information 'WINDOW'? and make it ANY shape of window that fits your world today.

I had a phonecall today, enquiring about the planting up of their 'Seasonal Display Tubs', and when that was 'likely to happen'?
Truly, I am soooo looking forward to doing it this year.

Last year, I offered to rectify the 'alleged' poorly-planted displays outside of Shire Hall that had come under such HUGE criticism on their doorstep, from Tourists, General Public, and Local Residents alike, because (allegedly), the feedback was: "It looked like a 4-year old CHILD had done it"?

Unfortunately, the Powers That Be Who Planted Them, started planting at 'the bottom end of town' by The Public Toilets, continued on up through the town, until they got to Shire Hall/Tourist Information Centre, that encompasses every historical BEING of Monmouth, and then just 'ran out of plants'.....

If that were Me, I'd be tempted to START at the top of town with the very important Tourist Information Centre, and 'run out' by the time I got to The Public Toilets?

AND....for some strange reason, the tourist coaches are encouraged to 'drop Tourists into Monmouth' by The Public Toilets at the bottom end of town.

Many of them, elderly or infirm, with insufficient time or stamina to reach the top end of town, where some of the most gorgeous small businesses are, run out of energy, are desperate for a cup of tea, with insufficient time to enjoy it before having to return to their coach at the bottom end of town by the public toilets......

So perhaps I could send out a very heartfelt and public plea, asking every upstanding Coach Driver travelling to Monmouth, to drop your lovely passengers IN FRONT OF SHIRE HALL, at the top end of town, let them explore to their hearts' content, and tell them 'to meet you down the bottom end of town' when they're ready to join the coach once again?

AND I must just say out loud, that I sooooo LOVED the Coach Driver the other week that a customer told us about that said to them:
"Go down that alleyway there - you must go to The Potting Shed, because it's a cracking little place, and you won't be disappointed?".
BLESS YOU MY FRIEND.x

And Coach Drivers Visiting Monmouth, please take note:
The Potting Shed WILL feed and water you every time you come to Monmouth with new customers for us, but only with prior notice, as you will appreciate!

I have some rather exciting news for you in my next blog update, and from 'then on in' we're going to have some lovely photos for you all to look at.

Bless you all for your patience with me across your continents.
And thank you for reading my blog once again,
Shelley.
x