Cafe Morello Blog June to August

Friday 29th July 2011 

Its now nearly August and I can't believe its been 3 months since I did this blog! As an update on the April one, I can report that Sam is back after a successful 9 week run of the Lord of the Flies in London. He now has an agent and looking forward to more theatrical work in the future so if you have a part for him you can find him for the summer, working at Cafe Morello.

Jennette is back and fully fit and recovered from her broken arm injury. The sad news is that Fiona has left. She had been with us for several years but decided she needed a change. The good news is that she now has a job at Aviva and still pops in to see us. It was very fortunate for us that Flossie was at the time finishing, for the summer, from the college, so she has stepped up her hours to cover Fiona's absence. The blackbirds have gone for now. They raised three broods but they had a little trauma when, during the second brood, as the little ones were leaving the nest, a well meaning customer thought the small bird had fallen out of the nest, so tried to put it back. This caused all the others to leave the nest and there was chaos as the adult birds swooped, squaked and
attacked, trying to protect their brood.  The little ones did survive and remained in the yard till they were old enough to fly off. But the result of this was that the adults abandoned their regular nesting site, in the ivy by Looses, and went to a site just inside the arch bordering Red Lion Street. They raised another brood there and the little ones, on fledging, did find their way to the top of the yard to mature as normal, but that was the last brood and we have not seen them since.

The hanging baskets were planted up and hung in the yard, the busy lizzies were planted up in the window boxes, the small garden was planted with geraniums and various containers were filled. The poor weather, as summer progressed, has been good for the plants and they developed well and now make a brilliant flash of colour. We entered the Norwich in Bloom competition again this year and I am proud to report that the results are out and we have, once again, been up there with the winners, the judge on the day saying he thought we were a little 'oasis' in the centre of Norwich. We have been awarded a Silver Gilt award and came joint third with John Lewis in the main category! I am particularly pleased that we can even compete with such huge businesses as Marsh who came 1st and John Lewis. 

Wow!! We have had some lovely comments from customers about how much they enjoy the flowers and that's just as satisfying. So if you haven't been to see us for a while, now's the time to come back and enjoy a coffee, outside in our yard surrounded by flowers in Norwich's 'oasis'. Trade was quite slow thru the spring but now the school holidays are upon us trade has picked up and the Cafe is buzzing. Pam has been in a few times and tweaked the menu and presentation a bit to improve, even more, the standard of food presentation. We are proud of what we do at Cafe Morello and are always pleased to receive satisfied comments from our customers. We also take seriously any comments which could help us improve our service and never relax our guard as it is easy for standards to slip unless we work hard and keep 'on the ball'. We are looking forward to a good holiday period and hope you will come in and see us.

The picture was taken this week when Tracey and Andrew together with
bridesmaid Hannah and witness Tracie came in to the Cafe for a wedding
breakfast!!!! Now that's a first.!! They had just got married that morning
and came straight down to us.. So Congratulations to Mr & Mrs Measures and
thank you for choosing to share your happy day with us.

All the best
Steven