TBTE 08.06.2012

Evening Sunshine On The Oyster Pits


We've had a very windswept couple of days here on Mersea and whilst out walking the dog we were treated to a break in the clouds and rain to reveal some evening sunshine. In the foreground all the paraphernalia of the oyster trade and in the background the sailing barge 'Dawn', a scene unchanged for centuries. With more unseasonal high winds and rain forecast my walk along the waterfront in the evening sun was a welcome break from the hectic menu design and planning going on at the Artcafé this week.

Snow Comes To Mersea Island

So the snow arrived just as the forecasters had predicted, it must have been snowing most of the night because we had a covering of about six inches when we awoke this morning. After a cup of tea from the warm confines of our duvet the tartist and I decided the best course of action was to get outside in it (not innit!).



So we decided to go for a bracing walk down to the Artcafé, where else? for a coffee and a bacon sandwich.


The snow was quite deep and powdery







When we arrived at the Artcafé there was already an improvised sled park as quite a lot of people had obviously had the same idea as us and were warming themselves inside.



As we left the café to continue our walk someone came skidding along in a plastic fish box being towed along on a rope by a Landrover. Please believe me when I tell you this is not at all unusual when it snows here on our island, and is often indulged in after the pub when the bruising effects of such a ride can be dulled by one or two 'tinctures'.


The houseboats on Coast Road



We continued our walk along the coast past the sailing barge 'Dawn' who has become something of a fixture these days on our waterfront as she over-winters beside the oyster pits.



Just beyond in the distance can be seen packing marsh island with the iconic Packing Shed standing on its' stilts amidst the ice.



And the sea really has been freezing this past week when temperatures have barely clawed their way over freezing point during the day, and during the night have been well below.



On past the Company Shed just opening up for business as we continued past and on up The Lane.





When we arrived home tingling from the cold the stove was still well alight to dry us and our boots out, we love our stove, especially in weather like this.



And the tartist cooked us a 'cockle' warming chilli con carne, very seventies, but was just what we needed to complete the day.

In Praise of 'Dymo' Tape

Would you believe it, human interface design at the Artcafé ?!. An interesting and pithy piece on theartist's brother & sister in law's blog 'You May Also Like' Who'd would have thought that 'Dymo' tape could be so fascinating?

St. Valentine's Biscuits

Contrary to popular belief St. Valentine was in fact a humble biscuit maker from Mersea Island, so, to celebrate this little known fact our Jenny has made some rather nice homemade biscuits for today. One batch of ginger, one of chocolate and one of shortbread...that's one each, plus one to share for £1.50, lovely with a pot of tea.

The Snow Returns & The Performing Right Society

The view from the Artcafé first thing this morning

As soon as we got to work this morning it started snowing again, only a dusting so far, but very pretty looking out from table 6.

Yesterday I had a phone call from The Performing Right Society, the organisation set up to collect fees on behalf of copyright holders of music, predominantly authors and music publishers. Fair enough, you might think. We've been grudgingly paying our dues since they caught up with us about two years ago, approx. £200 per café, per annum. And yesterday they called to remind us our fee was due for the next 12 months. This fee is apparently due for playing music where the general public is within 'earshot' which obviously includes cafés, shops, hairdressers, garages etc. etc. I can hear you asking what's your problem Jim? well, I have several...

When PRS first make their initial contact they convey themselves as a government style organisation who are collecting monies for all artists broadcast. Failure to do so is met with the threat of legal action. The PRS only collect and distribute money to their own members (who pay a fee to join by the way) by no means all artists. They are not connected to the government. 

Let's assume you are a hairdresser who likes to listen to the BBC on the radio whilst cutting your customer's hair, you are required to pay the PRS. a license fee each year for this. Now, when a song is broadcast, a fee is collected for the writer, performer etc. at the point of broadcast, and presumably a certain percentage of the original purchase price of the media, be it CD or digital download etc. is too. How can it be right that you, the hairdresser, have to pay a fee at the point of reception?...we don't charge our customers twice for their coffee! 

I always pay for the music I download and CD's too, I think it is only right and fair to the artist who's original work I'm enjoying, but this weird blanket license/tax on top is quite frankly 'milking it' and I don't like it. It also takes no account of how many times a particular artist gets a play, I might want to play Mozart all day and no Robbie Williams at all, yet, presumably Mr. Williams still gets a cut, like I say, milking it.

To put it crudely from a PRS. point of view, it is the same music (already paid for), same ears, different room. I don't have much time for researching all the in's and out's but there seems to to be no specific legal definition of a public performance. I'd be curious to know if anyone yet has been successfully 'nicked' for refusing to pay the PRS and it might be well worth an organiseation like the Federation of Small Businesses looking into the legality of these charges. 

I have to add that I, in no way want to deprive musicians and artists of what's due to them (I am one myself) but my instinct tells me that these charges smell fishy.

Theartistandtartist...Evil Geniuses!

Another first for us, Maggie discovered this very complimentary review today whilst googling something else online. It is from an online PDF magazine called 'All The Rage', the article is rather out of date, unfortunately, but it refers to us as 'Evil Geniuses' (love it!) and, we came away with a commendable 8/10 and a couple of buffed up egos.

Mince Pies

This is why we call her the 'tartist'...mince pies in full production. I have to say I never tire of watching her deftly make her superb pastry and the wonderful smell from our kitchen as they bake.
The history of our humble mince pie goes back centuries but the tartist's never last much longer than about five minutes because they're so delicious, especially warmed up with a 'dollop' of clotted cream. She's selling 'em this year for 50p each, or 75p warmed with the 'afore mentioned cream.

For The Love Of Maisy

Our chef in Colchester Matt and his wife Sophie have a beautiful 5 year old daughter called Maisy. She has cerebral palsy, severe epilepsy is visually impaired with learning and developemental delays and she could do with some more equipment and therapy to make life more pleasurable.

We're holding a fundraising event at the Mersea Centre (M.I.C.A.) on Saturday 12th December and James' band 'Skandal' are playing free of charge to help us raise at least £1,000 for Maisy. Please come along, tickets are now on sale at the Artcafé and M.I.C.A. Centre price £10.

The Silly Season

'View Up The Beach' ~ Watercolour

As the silly season reaches its zenith we find ourselves at full stretch. We have people off sick and people away on holiday and the light at the end of our proverbial tunnel seems far distant indeed. So blogging inevitably has taken a back seat recently I'm afraid, but that doesn't in any way mean the artist and the tartist have lost their 'blogging mojo', we've simply been far too busy with our day job.

Now, speaking of the silly season, we've noticed at this time of year how the demeanor of certain sections of the café public changes to what can only be described as impatience. We've tried to understand why this might be, as it seems to us a bit of a puzzle, that people on holiday (I have to admit we sometimes refer to them as the 'bucket and spade brigade') might require their cream tea much faster than anyone else or than at another time of year. We're often asked "how quickly can you do me a cappuccino?...I'm in a bit of a hurry", surely a café is not the ideal place to be when in a hurry. I may just be over-tired and cranky at the moment but I have to confess I sometimes want to say (with my best Basil Fawlty voice) "oh, you were were first were you, sorry madam, I completely forgot the world is about to end in five minutes!" I mean, most sensible people, go to a café to relax, or 'chill' (if under 25) over a coffee and sandwich, and hopefully recharge their battery. This is central to the idea of 'café culture' and I'm pleased to say the majority of our regulars use our café for this reason. At the risk of labouring my point I've filched this beautifully succinct snippet from wikipedia..."Although fast-paced coffee service is available, such as at Starbucks, it is still questionable as to what extent such enterprises truly embody the traditional role of coffeehouses in communities as enhancing the local culture". Well I'll get off my soapbox now, and hope I haven't put you off, we'd still love to see you this silly season, but hey, slow down, it's Summer.

Our Friend Joan

Today we took a break from the heat of the café to join our friend Joan at her 85th birthday party. We first met Joan when the Artcafé was in its infancy about six years ago and she's been a regular customer and we have become firm friends. One of the things we're particularly proud of at the café is that people of all ages (including 85 year olds) feel perfectly comfortable sitting on their own passing the time with a coffee. In fact the tartist and I have witnessed many blossoming friendships and one or two love stories as a result of sitting with a coffee in the Artcafé. This for us is a really important function of a business such as ours, not just the food and drink but providing a meeting place for people of all ages and tastes etc. So, happy birthday Joan from theartistandthetartist!

Summer Café

David Britton a Mersea artist and poet whose book of poems, paintings and articles is on sale at the Artcafé, wrote this lovely poem from the café terrace the other day. The tartist and I were so taken with it we decided to share it here.



Summer Café

A wedge of town-leafiness
Shadows my chosen corner.
And I consider - coffee, and town-doings
And the work of wisdom that I've brought along
- in no particular order -
They circle around each other, nodding and bowing
Smiling, and giving way-
For none of them has natural precedence here
And all of them know
Their hour and season will come
Without a jousting or jostling.

I stir the voices from the street
Into my coffee.
And the lime leaves out there
Sweetened with air and light
These too go in.
And the roast coffee aroma
Is the first sentence
In my now opened book.

And I consider, that all the wisdom of philosophy
Might be for the sake
Of this, another morning of huge gratefulness
This light and equable noise
This aroma from a high place.

I find in my book
Some sentiments perhaps too harsh, too bitter.
Coffee and sunshine mellow them -
Coffee and sunshine the wise tutors
The completers of schooling, of being.

For perhaps one work of wisdom is done
When one can lean back and smile
In the good place-the café where one needs to be alone
But needs the others there to make that possible.

Such joy within our grasp can make us tremble.
And yes philosophy has done its work
When at the back of our most peaceful smile
A greater, then a greater smile, assemble.

David Britton ~ June 2009

Easter

Our busiest weekend of the year is upon us and the lion share of the catering work as usual falls upon the tartist. In addition to this we've had a fair amount of upheaval to contend with lately and I have to say she's coping admirably, I'm so proud of her. So yesterday after a really busy day's business and after we'd done most of the clearing up and prep. for today we took a short stroll over the road to the church for some moments contemplation...it comes in handy being opposite such a place at times. I have to add we also avail ourselves of the public house opposite in equal measure, for a tray of drinks, after a busy shift too but yesterday we were thirsty for some quiet time.



So with chocolate eggs at the ready we began our easter Sunday at the artcafé this morning.

The Return Of The Milkshake

Some may argue that the milkshake never went away, but for a time recently it has been somewhat eclipsed by those smoothie type drinks and we've seen more than a handful of smoothie/juice bar businesses come and go in the time we've been at the Artcafé. For what it's worth we flirted a bit with the smoothie idea a while ago and quite enjoyed drinking/eating(?) them. After a time I (theartist) began to experience quite a bit of indigestion and heartburn after consuming them, this raises the eating, drinking question. Of course I'm not a dietician, if I were this blog would be the 'dieticianandthetartist', but to me the ingredients in most smoothies, unlike milk, were never meant to be drunk at all. Bananas, strawberries, blueberries, mangoes, all these basic smoothie ingredients are surely supposed to be chewed first in order for the natural breakdown of nutrients that occurs in the mouth to happen, and only then does mother nature intend us to swallow. Surely to drink these straight to the stomach is simply asking for trouble? Which is why I no longer have them and the accompanying discomfort.

Now this brings me on to the good old fashioned milkshake. Some may reasonably question the idea of drinking the milk of other mammals, especially for our entire adult life but at the very least, milk, unlike straberries etc. is designed to be a drink. We were approached by Shaken Udder, a local producer recently to sell their milkshakes, so we've been giving them them a go and I for one really think they're delicious. They currently make four flavours, Strawberry, Banana, Chocolate and Strawberry Cheesecake which believe it or not really tastes like a Strawberry cheesecake, genius. As well as having a good product the Shaken Udder people are on our doorstep in Tolleshunt Major so they haven't clocked up hundreds of 'food miles' to bring us their shakes, so next time you drop in and don't really fancy a tea or a coffee, consider a yummy milkshake!

Driftwood and Ceramics

One of the treats of doing what we do (artism & tartism) is receiving work from a new artist to exhibit in our place. Today I did just that and the basket of goodies in bubblewrap sits beside me as I type waiting to be installed later this afternoon. Jane James is an artist who studied at the school of art here in Colchester and lived in the area until moving with her family to the island of Jersey in 2007. Jane's work like the majority of our other artists' is inspired by living on the coast and I think it is guaranteed to brighten your day! She works in driftwood and ceramic and makes a range of hand painted pieces with speciality glazes that produce a magical lustre to capture the colours of the sea.

Cleanest & Greenest?...I Don't Think So.

As a business the tartist and I (unlike domestic households) have to pay for our refuse collection in addition to our already substantial business rates. Now, we have an 1,100 litre wheelie bin at both of our cafés these cost us £10.90 per week to empty plus £3.30 hire charge. This equates to £738.40 per café, per annum. In addition to this we are required to sign a 'duty of care certificate' (usually just an A4 photocopy) and for this we get charged £30.90 per premises. A total cost of £1,538.60 per year... I guess what we're doing in effect is purchasing 1,100 litres of landfill per week for each café.

Until recently (approx. 18 months ago) all our cardboard was collected along with the other businesses in Church Road from the kerbside each Tuesday morning. As for all our glass bottles, I was dutifully carrying several boxes of these to our local re-cycling point each week until we opened our second café and it became too much for me to handle.

Now, around this time (Jan. 2007) we were informed with a letter from Colchester Borough Council that our cardboard would be an 'additional' collection at £556.20 per year, completely knocking our cardboard re-cycling on the head so to speak. When we enquired about glass bottle/can re-cycling we were simply astounded by the reply...there is no facility for re-cycling bottles and cans from businesses by Colchester Borough Council. Even if we wanted to pay handsomely for this service they simply wont do it! We are are relatively small business in the scheme of things so, imagine all the pubs, clubs, cafés etc. around the Colchester Borough having paid for their 1.100 ltrs and having nowhere to put their bottles and cans. What would you do? My guess is like us, having paid such a premium for the wheelie bin, you'd stick the bottles and cans in with the rest.
In the end when it comes to running a business it simply makes economic sense to fill up the bin doesn't it?

As a householder I've been an enthusiastic re-cycler for years and I suspect like me, most other householders who do their bit each week at the kerbside will be horrified to learn that Colchester Borough Council's setup for re-cycling is so lamentably inadequate at present. We could all be forgiven for thinking 'where is the point?'

It seems ironic to me that on many of the lorries the slogan reads 'cleanest and greenest' and I suppose what I would like to see is adequate collection of re-cyclable materials from Colchester's businesses by the Borough Council because the present setup is causing tonnes and tonnes to go unecessarily to land-fill, which according to 'The draft joint municipal waste management strategy for Essex 2007 - 2032' will be full up by 2017!

Waste management is an enormous business and it seems strange to me that our council simply can't or won't do what the private firms do quite profitably.

A Great British Weekend

Here we go again, flirting with the media. In fact I'd forgotten all about my chat with Stephen Emms who writes for the times at the artcafé just before Christmas last year. Then today the piece was published, I can't seem to get a link to it so I've cut and pasted it as I think it paints a pretty good impression of our salty little island.

Brrrrrrr! 2009

We awoke this morning to a dusting of the powdery white stuff, no the artist and the tartist haven't taken up class 'A' drugs but the fact is since the start of 2009 the temperature outside has hardly risen above freezing point, then early this morning we received a bit of a snow flurry.


A 'Winter Wonderland'.



The Studio in the 7am gloom.




View from the Artcafé this morning.

Jack Frost & The Fighting Parson

The tartist and I were up early yesterday to be ready for an 8.00am start. Once a month we host a breakfast club at the artcafe and when I started the car the thermometer was reading -4°c and as daylight arrived everywhere was frosted white. Once we'd cleared the breakfast things I took a little stroll around for ten minutes with my camera the frost was thawing fast but I managed a few 'snaps' to share...


A couple of hardy souls enjoy a coffee outside


Leaves in the churchyard


Butchers and Church


Inscription on the churchgates ~ Charles Pierrepont Edwards M.C. Vicar 1898 -1946

I managed to glean this little tidbit of information about the vicar commemorated on the gates from the West Mersea town council website.

Rev. C. Pierrepont Edwards
Sometimes known as The Fighting Parson. Whilst serving as a Curate in London's East End, Pierrepont was always ready to settle a dispute with his fists if necessary. He served with the Essex Yeomanry in the Boer War and during the 1st World War became chaplain to the 5th Essex Infantry Brigade. The Reverend was awarded the Military Cross for his gallant efforts rescueing the wounded at Gallipoli. After the war he returned to one of his jobs - that of Clerk to West Mersea Parish Council.

Sounds to me like quite a character.

Icy Blast Anyone?

View of the church from the Artcafe this morning


We awoke this morning to our first flurry of snow this winter here on the east coast and my brisk walk to the cafe was with woolly hat and scarf, hunched shoulders and hands firmly in pockets. Although the snow didn't amount to much the wind for a while was very cold. I must confess I was hoping we'd see a bit more than the fine sprinkling we received, in order that I might gather material for some winter paintings, however I have a feeling we may be at the start of a particularly cold one this year...we'll have to wait and see. Things look so very different when we have snow that covers everything and stays a while so in the absence of any real snow today here's a pastel of St. Peter's Well I did a couple of winters ago.

We've been 'Friday Interviewed'

This morning the tartist and I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Juliet for her regular Friday interview and what a pleasure it was to be drinking coffee, talking food and art and also to meet Jonathan who has taken some excellent pictures for the piece.