Company News
30th April 2021
Onwards and upwards – final countdown. Now I’ve got an ‘ear-worm’ but I can’t remember what show it was from! So irritating. I hope I haven’t infected too many of you with that particular tune. So here we go – final month to retirement! The site-wide discount will go up to 25% tomorrow and you have a month before the site stops taking orders on 1st June 2021. I can’t go below 25% because that is pretty much cost price. I have always set my profit margins low to give all my clients the best price I can. For me, it’s always been about the service and the range and not about the money despite what you might have heard from certain people. ...
1st April Retirement Stage 3 (of 4)
Happy Easter to you all. March has been a funny month and I somehow lost a week along the way. Whether that was a three day migraine followed by a couple of down days after my vaccination or something else I really don’t know but, suddenly, it is April! March saw the welcome return of deer to my garden. They didn’t visit last year because there had been some fence repairs done but obviously they have undone it again. I know Muntjac are destructive and considered a pest in many areas but they give me a feeling of living in the country again whilst still having the convenience of living in a town. They also do a bit of pruning for me and seem to like the dead bits so that’s OK. So far they have left the hyacinths alone so they are looking amazing. My pink primroses are flowering this year too. They are more delicate than the yellow ones and I am pleased they have survived. A lot of the garden is a sea of yellow Celandines with Violets coming through ready to take over when they finish. The Periwinkle obviously liked it’s hair cut last year because that is scrambling over the wall nicely with more flowers than ever before and the Narcissi in the front garden are taller and brighter as well. Will mankind learn to leave the planet alone to recover? Somehow I doubt it. ...
1st March 2021 Retirement Stage 2
The sun is shining today with the promise of spring. The primroses and miniature daffodils are blooming in the garden, there are lots of buds on everything else and baby birds everywhere. Vaccines are being rolled out and I’ve been working hard behind the scenes. The last requisition from the warehouse has arrived and been dispatched to you and the remainder has been packed, filed away and loaded into the webshop, mainly seeds and Delica but also Tila and a few other odds and sods. I’m feeling much more in control now and am beginning to see the wood for the trees! I have also removed a lot of the sold out items from the webshop to make it easier to see what remains. I’m not promising the stock control doesn’t have any mistakes and like the brood of baby long-tailed tits flitting around the garden, it’s difficult to get an accurate count! It might have been 8 or 10 babies. They can have up to 14 in a nest so tiny that the parents only fit by folding their tails up over their heads and they are always the earliest in the year to arrive in my garden. ...
May 2021 Be Better Than 2020
Happy New Year to you all! Whilst I enjoy being in lockdown I am aware that many of you don’t so I’ll just say – may 2021 be better than 2020 for you. Vaccines are being rolled out so there is light at the end of the tunnel and the sun is shining today. Who knows, by the end of the summer I may be able to start Charisma Beaders again. Something to look forward to. ...
Where Did The Summer Go?
Looking back I realise I haven’t done a newsletter since 10th July. Where did the summer go? I’ve been ‘shielded’ for nearly six months now. When did we change from isolated to shielded? Who decides these names? Rhetorical questions folks. As far as I’m concerned nothing has changed, the virus is still out there gradually spreading through the population. The danger is still there and it will still kill me so I am still using Whistl, it is neither 1st class nor 2nd class, it is what it is and your beads will take time to arrive. The easing of lock-down has been a national economic necessity and lock-down just slowed the progression of the virus to a manageable level for the NHS. I seem to be ever busier, hence the lack of letters, and I don’t have time for funny stories on this occasion I’m afraid. This is just a quickie to let you know that I have booked two more breaks into the diary. It seems a bit quick, I know, but my last break at the beginning of August was a bit of a farce. ...
Website Update
We have updated our website with some bug fixes and improvement on speed. We have done the usual rounds of testing but bugs can still slip by us. ...