September has been a very busy month for weddings and our staff have coped magnificently with day after day of early mornings and late nights. This, coupled with a ten day family holiday in Sicily for me, is the reason for this being the only post in September.
September also is half way through our financial year, so time to take stock and see how the business is going. Good news in that we are a good 20% up on last year – mind you, last year……the least said about that the better. However, the real benefit of the recession has been to teach us to focus on our costs, and the lasting legacy of this will be with us for a number of years to come.
Good news on the farm too with another 13 piglets born and, all the rain has spurred the grass to grow, so we now have lush green paddocks again.
For my pro bono activities with the Oxfordshire Economic Partnership, the news has not been so good as all our funding has been from Government, both Local and Central, and the announced cutbacks have severely affected future plans to support the economy of Oxfordshire. Sad really after so many people have put so much effort over recent years into this organisation to see it change so radically. Survive it will in one form or another yet to be decided, and that is great.
Appropos of not a lot really, I thought I would include the above photograph of Kaspar, our Maine Coon cat, in all his magnificence.
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We have a maine coon here too, by the name of Merlin!
We have been enchanted by the breed Tom. you too?
Our old cat Ollie was a Maine Coon. They’re beautiful cats! People couldn’t get over the size of him. He was a complete wuss though!