Easter in the Tearoom

Coldest Easter for 40years? Not at Mintons!

Belated Easter wishes to all who missed our very warm welcome over the 2 weeks holidays. The entrance to the Tearoom looked a picture with lots of beautiful spring flowers and bulbs and despite the chilly weather the hardy amongst you enjoyed using the tables just outside the door, whilst the children enjoyed the swings in the garden. Thank you James for those!

Inside Mintons we made Easter bunting, after dusting down my sewing machine and we blew and decorated eggs. They look very seasonal hanging up, check them out. The very young had Easter Egg pictures to colour in which kept them happy whilst the adults enjoyed some delicious calories!

We continue to thank you all for your wonderful loyalty and very much look forward to serving you outside in our pretty garden over these coming Spring and Summer months. Pray for sunshine. Doesn't it lift our spirits!

Click on http://www.mintonstearoom.co.uk/holiday-cottage and check out our little cottagein N. Yorks. there are pictures and booking details. Thanks again James, what would we do without you

Birthday Surprise!

In the early hours of February 9th we were woken by a dog barking. Not unusual you may say, but it is for us living at the side of Greasley ChurchYard. When the alarm clock rang as normal at 6.30am it was of course still dark but it was a little lighter as Roger went off to the cash and carry about 7am.Imagine his surprise as he opened the back door and not one but two dogs came running up to him for attention. A ride in the car perhaps, or come into the warm for breakfast?

With lots to do my dear husband left me to it and drove off leaving the dogs looking understandably disappointed! Now naturally the dogs looked to me for help but I am very afraid of dogs, very afraid, and of course they do sense this. Look at the teeth on the big one! I quickly shut the door and tried to work out a plan of action.

Now bearing in mind this was a Saturday morning, and my birthday morning at that I wondered who might be able to help. Of course the Police can't help, also the Council offices were closed and Directory Enquiries didn't have a Dog Warden in our area. To cut a long story short, and you have to be scared of dogs to realise just how harrowing this was to me, two lots of help came at once. Bit like the buses! Our lovely neighbour at Greasley Castle Farm arrived and also a lovely lady Dog Warden from Nuthall. Now this big dog who was quite happy to bear it's teeth at me ran to them as fast as iron filings to a magnet.

So away went 2 very special pedigree dogs to see if they were chipped and away I went to shower and get ready to open Mintons Tea Room. I missed my baking slot that morning and managed to open my Birthday cards about 1pm inbetween customers, but the point of writing this blogg is to ask does anyone recognise these lovely dogs?

I would love to know how the story ended.

Love Judy

xx

It's Catch Up time

Hi, everyone it's catch up time.

Roger and I have had the most wonderful Christmas with family and friends and hope you did too.

All the Christmas services here at St Mary's Greasley were excellent and very well attended. The huge Christmas tree looked beautiful and as always the services held in candlelight held that 'magic' ingredient.

A very happy and healthy New Year to all our customers, many of whom are such special friends. Roger and I returned with our youngest son and his girlfriend to Holland to see the new year in. Oh, my word! Fireworks started at around 9am on the streets with the kids letting off little fire crackers and continued into 2008 well into the morning. It was unbelievable, fantastic and very, very loud. There seemed to be no restrictions. Small, large and enormous fireworks were let off by groups in the streets and hardly a dog barked-they obviously are used to it. Very memorable!

We also visited Delft and Antwerp in Belgium the Christmas markets were still looking lovely. Braziers were burning and families enjoying the ice skating.

For our treat in the sunshine this year we went to The Vulcano Hotel in Adaje, Tenerife and enjoyed a lovely warm week. We highly recommend the hotel for it's food, cleanliness and pleasant staff. I personally much preferred our half board acommodation to the all inclusive holidays of recent years. We benefited from a most calm and civilised rest.

Finally, before we start cooking and baking again we are having a few days at our lovely cottage in Loftus, North Yorkshire.

Minton's Tea Room opens again on wednesday 23rd January, 2008.

Roger, myself and all our staff look forward to seeing you again and hope we meet lots of new faces again this year. Wouldn't it be nice to have a lovely Spring and sunny and warm Summer to enjoy our pretty Tea Garden too!

With lots of love,

from Roger and Judy Martin x

Celebrations at Minton's Tea Room

Happy 14th Birthday Minton's!

How we've grown from the original small menu and just 5 tables to our new and extensive menu. Sometimes 9 tables are not even enough! Thank goodness for lovely sunny autumn days to enjoy eating outside.

Thank you so very, very much to our customers for making these years so successful and enjoyable. Mr.Houseley has come in every day for his lunch-he's like one of the family, bless him. Many, many of you come to Minton's so very regularly that we've established wonderful friendships and we thank you for that is so special.

I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the help of all staff from those early days in 1993 to present day whether they have been able to work for a short period or for many years. Roger and I could not have reached this point without such hard work from all of you.

We will be sharing out a big birthday cake from Thursday onwards this week and will take some photos to show on the blog. So, see you all very soon. If you've not had chance to pop in for a while we look forward to seeing you again. You are still assured of a friendly welcome and attentive service-and you'll be amazed at the new menu.

Cosy Corner

Minton's will keep seating outside just as long as the weather permits - check out our pretty cosy corner. As autumn sets in you hopefully will be sheltered from the wind.

You can have your bread and eat it

Yes, we have homemade bread. Roger gets it baking before he goes shopping each morning. Don't know how he finds the time.
We are serving chunky pieces of our bread with the homemade soup of the day and of course Minton's smells doughlicious

HELP!

Can anyone shed any light on these holes that have appeared in the tea garden this year. Have we something burrowing underground to my famous baking?