The Tourists Are Here

Thanks for all the comments and support on Facebook, everyone - it really helps to know you're all behind us in this scary and exciting adventure! (Don't forget, you can write comments on this blog too.)

It's getting warmer now, and Scotland is coming back to life after the worst winter anyone can remember up here. I was here back in December doing some location scouting and almost ran out of diesel four times, because garages were either completely closed or would only let me buy £5 of fuel.  They hadn't had a delivery for weeks because of the weather.

But it's wonderful to see the country start to bloom again. Every day you notice a new change.  We have hundreds of frogs in the pond, crawling all over each other.  There's a part of the garden where the buzzing of the bees is worryingly loud for early April. And already it is bloody impossible to get parked in Aberfoyle on a weekend, amidst the throngs of folks who are seemingly obsessed with wool and the procurement thereof! I never cease to be surprised at what attracts people on a daytrip to the countryside. I reckon I could advertise that the ash from our fireplace was actually Robert Burns' cremated remains and get 200 people through our front room every day.

Meanwhile, I've been continuing the cafe stuff.  I'll be meeting with several banks soon to discuss our budget for the business and our home purchase/build. Leasing appropriate retail property costs anything up to £50,000 per year where we're looking, so if possible we may want to buy the place instead. (It's actually more complicated than that, but I'm keeping it light!)  Also need to find a property surveyor, solicitor, accountant etc etc. Apparently it's best to have these lined up before finding the perfect site for cafe.

And on the fun side, more coffee and cakes.  This coffee lark is so complicated.  I want our coffeehouse cafe to achieve a reputation for the best coffee north of the Edinburgh/Glasgow line - to be THE place to go for an amazing cup of the hot stuff - so this barista training is serious business. At some point I'd like either myself or one or our staff to be good enough to enter the UK Barista Championships. It's a massive challenge and perhaps too high a target to aim for, but even if we don't make it just the process of trying to will make us a damn site better than 90% of cafes.

Cakes - I piped my first cuppies today. Frosting needs tweaking, and I overfilled the casings with cake mix, but these are minor teething troubles. What do you think?