Easter weekend

Oh My Goodness.......... WHAT a weekend!!!!! I don't quite know where to start really - I feel quite shell shocked by the whole experience! As do my feet, legs, back etc etc....

I know - I'll start where I left off on the last post - our chickens! I'm glad to report that following the whole Great Escape / wing clipping experience they have at last settled down. All are developing their own characters, all have grown quite a lot in a short space of time - and SOH was right (I have to say as usual!) in that they would be a huge draw for the pub, I've even had feeding time with customers children throwing small handfuls of seed to them. Not quite got round to charging them for the privilige!! Joke (I think)!! But now this weekend is over I'll try to take some photo's and get them named.

Back to our first Easter weekend in Salcombe. We have learnt that when tourism hits here - boy it really hits! The weekend has been absolutely stunningly gorgeous - the sun shone from Friday right through to this lunchtime, with the sky gradually losing it's beautiful azure blue colour to become grey, cold and now rain! But we have been so lucky - the estuary was packed with boats of all shapes and sizes, our garden was also packed most of the time as well and we received many, many comments on how good the garden and the pub were looking...... our new menu's have been very well received and on one of the days (can't remember which as it's all a bit of a blur now!) we did almost 250 covers! James and his team turned out some amazing food - and Glo and the bar staff coped admirably. Incredible! As for drink - well lets just say that we'll be glad to see the dray (beer delivery) tomorrow! The only thing we ran out of totally though were straw's - so SOH got our beer order just about right..... We also met some incredibly nice people as well, especially some who are our nearest neighbours - albeit 2nd home owners so not here all the time - but I think we made some great new friends.

Rugby 7's also hit yesterday in Salcombe - that's a huge annual rugby tournament here. On advice from other landlords we virtually stripped and locked down the pub after 8.30 in the evening and I have to say that we got off lightly both in terms of teams coming in to our pub and bad behaviour. The Salcombe rugby boys came in - but they are a joy to have in, they sing a song or three and one of them usually to some hapless female - aka me, but this weekend, visitors received that (dubious) pleasure. I had a few words with a couple from a visiting team - bit too much drink, showing off in front of girls and foul language. So I politely but firmly told them we were a family pub and that bad language wasn't tolerated......they left shortly after... phew! A couple of the other pubs didn't do so well though - with a few nasty fights and Police called - I'm really pleased I didn't have to clean those pubs this morning!!

Going back a couple of days, Good Friday bought another unique experience for me. My new found faith saw me attending my church - Holy Trinity, Salcombe - with a 'Walk of Faith' through Salcombe. One of the congregation carried a huge wooden cross to various points around the town and we sang hymns and had prayers and readings. I was asked if I would like to deliver a reading, and I did this at the over 60's club up at the end of town but right on the waters edge. I found the whole experience incredibly moving, especially as it was about a disciple saying to Mary ' I am your Son' ......at that moment I experienced a rush of homesickness for my own darling son Paul who I see so little of nowadays since we moved here, and I had real trouble not getting emotional - then the sun just burst through a cloud bringing the sea and the landscape to life and I felt strangely uplifted and ok again..... Then finally up the hill to church for the end of the service where Father Daniel sang unaccompanied and the hairs on the back of my neck just stood to attention! And again, that feeling I've had before since we've been here of at last being part of a real loving and caring community - and a reminder that we're not just here to make money!!

So to tonight, you can see by car park spaces and the lack of boats that lots of the tourists are heading home, and now the weather has turned we will almost certainly see people going home sooner rather than later! So me and my feet are off for a sit down and a bit of relaxation..............