Last week’s fantastic weather now seems but a distant memory with the greyness that we’ve had since then, but it certainly brought everyone out to enjoy our fantastic setting. Although we were brought back down to earth after Monday’s torrential rain when we realised that not only do we have to keep an eye on the flood risk presented by the river, if we get a sufficient amount of water coming down the hill behind us then we can get flooded from the back of the bar as well! Ma was seen to crush the wonderful Mike Pope with a grateful hug after he sacrificed his half-day off to help us clear up (actually, he did virtually all of it!), and our thanks also go to Hollie and Leah for coming in early to help sort things out.
So we’ve certainly had a busy few weeks since the last newsletter, and we’ve got plenty more to come...
Top of the Locks
Last Sunday not only brought us some great sunshine, but also a group of strolling players who dub themselves The Raggle Taggle Band (if you’d seen the state of their table afterwards, you’d know why). They drifted downstream from Hanham and include Trevor the Lockeeper among their number (but we let them play anyway...). They regaled the busy gardens with a couple of hours of Irish, folk, country and general good time music, and got so carried away that they almost overran and disrupted the staff party, er, I mean staff training, but more of that later...
Happily, they have agreed to play for us on a few other Sundays between now and the end of the season, namely:
Sun 10 August
Sun 7 Sept
Sun 14 Sept (which also happens to be the last day of our beer festival)
So if you were one of the persistent buggers hanging around on Sunday evening as we tried to crowbar your glass out of your hand, you’ll be able to catch them again on those dates (assuming, that is, that next time they can all get in a boat that actually works, not like the Beeses boat, ooh no, that one’s 100% reliable...).
Staff training
Last Sunday also saw our first staff training event of the year, during which Ma Beese gave a variety of presentations, including staking a claim to a table; elbowing your way to the front of the bar; and the art of ordering two drinks each for twenty people. She was a little frustrated that her audio/visual aids were restricted to hollerin’ and gesticulatin’, but no-one else thought that this was to the detriment of her communication skills, and her presenter feedback was commendable. The comments of the staff and other patrons of the Old Duke were sadly unrecorded...
Our thanks must also go to Ben, Andreas and the rest of the Redshank crew who took us into Bristol city centre after we flagged them down as they returned from a day trip to Bath (they claimed to be working, but it all looked a little too easy for Ma to be convinced).
Captain Barnacle
Last week also saw the visit of Captain Barnacle. This was a bit of an experiment for us, so it was rather pleasing to see more than fifty children turn up, many of them in pirate costume, to be entertained for a full two hours. With enough jokes in there to keep the adults entertained as well, this is definitely something we’ll be doing again next year.
Menews
Those of you who received our last newsletter will recall that we had dressed crab on as a special in June. We had them in again last weekend, and they’ve been scuttling on to your plates at such a rate that we’ve decided to make them a regular item on our menus (menus...menews...geddit? Oh, I don’t know why I bother). So the full skinny is that we’ll have Cornish crab that is handpicked and dressed on Thursdays for us by our meat and fish suppliers Taste, and available for you every weekend, so get ‘em while they’re, er, cold. Or something.
Local news
Our hearty congratulations go to the Friends of Troopers Hill who have won a Green Flag award for the second year in a row for their efforts in maintaining one of Bristol’s few Local Nature Reserves. As they acknowledge on their web site, it was very much a team effort with involvement by the local community and staff from Bristol City Council, but Ma and Pa are both very happy particularly for Rob and Susan, who are regulars at Beeses and who have been very supportive of our own efforts here ever since we arrived. So if you haven’t yet seen the view of the city from the top of Troopers Hill, do yourselves a favour and go marching up the hill...and then march down again to Beeses, which is but a fifteen minute stroll from there!
We’re nearly there...
OK, just a few more things to say. Firstly, Friday 15 August sees the return of Straight Shooter who will be shaking your foundations once again. Their last gig was accompanied by thunder and lightning, although that didn’t seem to deter the hordes of rock fans that came for a dose of rock on the riverbank. To make it even more of a special event we’re naming that day Butcombe Day. In conjunction with the Butcombe Brewery, we’ll be selling their Bitter at the bargain price of £2.00 a pint, and you can use that to wash down one of their Butcombe organic sausage hot dogs which you can get for just a quid. Just the ticket for some meaty rock’n’roll!
Twelfthly, we’re now beginning to firm things up for our third beer festival on 12 - 14 September, and can confidently say that we will be selling beer on that weekend. Oh, OK, well we’re still firming up the line-up of ales and ciders, and for your entertainment we’ll be having the pick of our regular open mic performers, including the fantastic H Club male voice choir, and Gypie Mayo & Pete Gage, both ex-Dr. Feelgood, will be headlining on the Saturday night. We’ll have more news on tickets and everything else very soon...
Ok, that’s yer lot for now. Pa’s on nature watch after rescuing a magpie this morning that had become entangled at the fishing line/tree branch interface, although Ma thinks that his interest in birds has a slightly different twist to it...see you next time.
Lurve
Ma and Pa Beese
Beeses Bar & Tea Gardens
www.beeses.co.uk
www.myspace.com/beeses
Tel: 0117 977 7412