There’s no other month that cries holidays and warm sunny days like
August but unfortunately this August has been very disappointing weather
wise, lets hope we have an “Indian Summer”.
Once again we have had a very busy time in the shop and café
welcoming and serving lots of customers who have travelled from further
afield. I had the pleasure to chat to one lady from America who told me her
grandmother grew up in Bledington.
New fruits and vegetables are arriving in the next few days and weeks.
Delicious juicy figs are perfect on their own or served with blue cheese,
walnuts in a green salad. Luscious British plums which go well with duck or
goat’s cheese, and not forgetting corn on the cob, griddled on the BBQ with
lots and lots of melted butter and black pepper. September is just days
away so why not buy cooking apples to go with the arrival of blackberries,
arriving on a hedgerow very soon.
I am sure you will have noticed on your visit to the shop one of our garden planters
is bursting with a variety of English herbs. Rosemary, parsley, mint, thyme and chives. Please
do help yourself these are for everyone to
enjoy whether in a salad, a casserole or even in a drink!!
We would like to send our congratulations to two of our young
volunteers. Angus Sherringham who achieved a double merit in business
studies and a distinction in computing. Plus Daniel Logue, who received his
A-level results, achieving four A* grades.
Everyone at Bledington Shop would like to take this opportunity to thank
them for all their hard work volunteering. We wish them all the success in
their next steps. If you know a young person who would like to volunteer in
the shop please do get in touch.

British Summertime has finally arrived, we have already had some amazingly hot summer days. Thankfully in the shop we have air conditioning which is now being generated by our newly installed solar panels, making the shop even more green.

Don’t forget our fruit and vegetables are delivered to us daily from Drinkwaters. It is not packaged in lots of plastic, you can buy what you need, plus it reduces food waste which is very important to us all.

If this amazing weather continues I am sure you might be considering going on a picnic. We have a great selection of yummy treats to take with you from pork pies, scotch eggs and tasty quiches all supplied to us from a local company the “Outdoor Pig Company”. Don’t forget a chilled bottle of Rose. If you need anything else to enhance your picnic just come in and ask, we are always happy to help.

Summertime brings to us lots of yummy fresh fruits, English cherries, apricots and not forgetting strawberries served with lashings of cream all available in the shop.

You may not know we have a fish van that visits the shop every week. Paul has changed his weekly visit to Wednesday from 2.00 – 3.00pm. He has the finest quality fish direct from the Grimsby docks. Why not come and have a look and see what he has available.

I am sure you will all agree the exterior of the shop is looking stunning with the flower planters, one containing summer bedding plants and the other with fresh summer herbs. It has also been enhanced by five hanging baskets. A huge thank you to Alan Jarvis who very generously planted and donated these.

Don’t forget we are holding our

Annual General Meeting on
Wednesday 12 July 6.30pm at the
Village Hall. This will be an opportunity for you all to hear what has been happening this past year and to ask any questions.

Many thanks to those of you who volunteer in the shop and welcome to Jenny and Rosalba who have recently started volunteering. I know that helping in the shop is a great way of giving something back to the village and the local community. If you are interested in volunteering please do pop into the shop and have a chat. Its lots of fun.

I am sure you will agree watching the Coronation of our new King, King Charles III was a magnificent sight and something I will not forget in a very long time. Those of you that visited the shop the week before the Coronation will have been asked to donate a product to our foodbank collection on behalf of the North Cotswolds Foodbank. On behalf of the Trustees of the foodbank we would like to say thank-you for your very generous donations, weighing in at an amazing 54kg. A record amount from Bledington Shop.

Your generous donations also entered you into our “Right Royal Raffle”. Many congratulations to those of you that were successful in winning a Royal Prize.

There are so many beautiful and delicious new fruits and vegetables at their best right now from early salad leaves, such as rocket and lambs lettuce to juicy English strawberries. All available fresh into the shop every day.

As you all know back in March we won the Countryside Alliance Rural Oscars Award 2023 for Best Village Shop in the South West of England. This week I went with Louise Jackson to the House of Lords to attend the Grand Final. Unfortunately we did not win, but we were in the top 3 businesses
out of 15,000 nominated across England, Wales and Scotland which is an amazing achievement. Without our great team of staff and volunteers, incredible customers this would not have been possible. So thank you.

Coming up in June we have many events happening in the village which we are very proud to be supporting. At the beginning of June is the Bledington Music Festival 6 to 8 June. Tickets are still available at the shop. (Cash or cheque only). Plus we have the Bledington Summer Fête on Saturday 10 June.

In the shop we will have lots of cards and presents for Fathers Day Sunday 18 June so please pop into the shop and pick up something special for your father.

Don’t forget, if you are new to the village, or surrounding area volunteering in the shop is the perfect way to meet new friends, introduce yourself to your neighbours plus you are giving something back to our community. For more information about volunteering please do pop in and
ask. I look forward to seeing you all very soon.