A Lesson in Twitter, Lizzie's Shepherd's Hut and Siamese Cats, The Big Curry

Today's blog is all about the importance of supporting local business ...  By the greatest stroke of good fortune we have finally found what we have spent 7 years searching for and only 30 minutes away!   From now on Ian and Will at ClearWeb will be helping us with all of our website requirements.  Not only are they friendly, helpful and immensely capable, but they are pretty much on our doorstep.   Yesterday morning I had a crash-course with Will in the art of Twitter;  once we have our Twitter account up and running, tweeting will be the order of the day, although I have been warned it can be addictive.   If it's good enough for Clarence House to use to announce the engagement of William and Kate, it's good enough for me!

Discussions are continuing about The Spirit of Summer Show in Olympia in May - Lizzie's Shepherd's Hut in Sussex is a really exciting project that, we hope, is going to provide a central theme and the more we all talk about it, the better it gets.  Lizzie and I have a shared affection for Siamese cats which is perfect really as yesterday I agreed with Will that my first "tweet" would be about pets....

Tomorrow night is our Fundraising Big Curry for the Army Benevolent Fund - slightly nerve wracking as there are now 60 people booked!   The ABF do a simply amazing job of providing literature, balloons, placemats and all sorts to support The Big Curry.  With a national target of £450,000 to raise this year, we will do what we can in Cliffords Mesne tomorrow night.  Without the help of friends donating puddings, seedlings from their gardens and gifts of raffle prizes it would have been much harder work.  Sebastian and Jack:  I am really impressed with the fiendish Quiz you have devised!  Here's hoping we can reach our target of £1000 and for anyone who would like to make a donation, here is a link to the main site:   http://www.soldierscharity.org/

Beestations for the Garden, Janey Lee Grace and a very rewarding Mother's Day

The last episode of the most recent "Human Planet" series on BBC was just remarkable, it made me realise just how essential the preservation of bees are to our continued existence.  The aerial views of New York with literally hundreds of bee hives on roof terraces was just wonderful.  The whole movement to keep bees was attributable to just one amazing man and it has made me want to keep bees myself.  In yesterday's Observer newspaper was an article about Jamie Hutchinson who has produced a little Bee Station which can sit in flower beds and provide "a bee re-fuelling and nest site", so here is his website:
http://www.beestation.com/buy.html

Magniwool has been given its own website and brochure now; this unique underblanket incorporating magnetic technology is gaining quite a following and it has just had a little boost after an endorsement by Janey Lee Grace.  Again, a link to her website follows and it has details of an offer relating to Magniwool...
http://www.imperfectlynatural.com/Janey_Loves/bio_protection.htm

This year Mothering Sunday was really rewarding- although it entailed driving all the way to Kent and back, to see my mother have so much enjoyment seeing her eldest grandson was an absolute pleasure.  Now that he is away at university these occasions are few and far between but we all helped her apply for some tickets for next year's Olympics.  Quite how the older generation can be expected to wade their way through these websites remains one of my bugbears.  Never mind, with lots of youngsters to hand, we all egged each other on and got very excited planning tickets for Diving, Athletics, Mountain Biking and Dressage.... 

April "in like a lion, out like a lamb", Cologne and Cotton and another container delivery

"In like a lion, out like a lamb" is the traditional saying for April, I rather like the wool connection, so thought it could be the opener for today's blog. 

We have all been beavering to get a large order of the new Junior Range prepared for Cologne and Cotton, I was hoping to get all of it sent out by the end of this week but, as is the way with these things, discovered yesterday that the print colour on the new boxes is not quite right.  Back to the drawing board and a week's delay....

Yesterday we had our latest container- this time we shared with some local friends who ship vintage/classic cars from New Zealand back to the UK.  It was a first for both of us and quite amazing to see the container opened up and 3 cars suspended from the ceiling!  A very good example of Kiwi ingenuity at its best.  No doubt it would be banned leaving from the UK like that, but it seems to work perfectly.  Even better all the pillows were put inside the cars which helped protect the leather upholstery!  A strange combination, but it all worked. 

To end on a circular note; in yesterday's container was a wonderful load of lovely lambskins, which always prove popular and however many we order, we always seem to run out.  The lovely thing about them is that everyone looks and feels different, which makes them really special gifts.  Speaking of gifts, I wonder if any of my boys will think about "Mother's Day" on Sunday.....

Farewell Traditional Shop Displays, Opposition to Local Supermarket, Sheep Shearing Competitions in Ireland and A Shepherd's Hut in Sussex

It was something of a surprise to find our local butcher's shop window was suddenly full of pre-packed meat in plastic cartons.  No longer was there a traditional mouth-watering display.  Depressingly, he said he felt he had to go down that route in order to compete with supermarkets and that youngsters no longer know how to buy meat, or even what to do with it.   Do we really want our wonderful independent shops to start becoming clones of supermarkets?  Surely supermarkets should be taking their lead from shops like Andy's? I am sure I am not alone in deliberately avoiding buying meat in supermarkets, but to find a top class butcher is now the purveyor of plastic is insanity.  The relentless march of the supermarket is something of an issue round here at the moment with an obscure planning application for a "food store" on the edge of town.  Inevitably precise details are somewhat hard to come by, how strange...

We are on the verge of having our new Pillow boxes; these bespoke boxes are being designed to complement the new duvet boxes.  Originally designed for the Junior Range, they will have a multitude of uses and we feel confident they will look really striking on shop shelves.  Quite where we are going to house 500 boxes is another matter entirely!

We have been asked whether we would like to be at the Irish Wool/Shearing Show at Kilkenny in June- sadly I think it is unlikely, but here is a link for further information, or for those planning on visiting the Emerald Isle....
http://www.sheepshearing2011.ie/welcome.html

For The Spirit of Summer show at Olympia in May, Lizzie and I have had a truly inspirational idea regarding her Shepherd's Hut in Sussex ... the link up with The Campaign for Wool + Shepherds + White Cloud is too good to resist,  more details to be revealed nearer the time!

Spirit of Summer Fair, Olympia, Junior Range featured in Saturday Telegraph and a Little Bit of Local Good News!

With all the effort of printing and sending out our new brochures for both White Cloud and Magniwool now behind us, we are putting together our plans for the year. We will be taking part at The Spirit of Summer Fair in Olympia on 11th May - a link is attached. This is a high-class act and we are pleased to have survived the vetting proceedure and been given some space. I'm planning on taking lots of lambskins, we have more arriving from New Zealand this week and they always prove popular. We are also about to take on some little lamb soaps, mostly with Easter in mind as gifts for customers, but to have along with the lambskins is even better .... http://www.spiritofsummerfair.co.uk/ It was really good to have a mention of our new Junior Range in Saturday's Telegraph. Daisy Bridgewater always writes a really good column with children in mind and this week's article had good sleep as its theme. It was fortunate timing- more Junior Duvets have just arrived and the Junior Underblankets are in a container that gets delivered on Thursday, so a big sigh of relief all round! http://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/8406632/Getting-children-off-to-sleep.html Last but not least, when we lost one of our Jack Russells we joined DogLost which is a wonderful website that not only posts up details of missing dogs, but also those that get reunited with owners. We were lucky and Bertie was found safe and well, but last night my cousin's Patterdale Terrier got stolen from the Birds of Prey Centre outside Newent. He was last seen in the carpark late in the afternoon .... anyway, frantic phone calls and frantic activity on local blogs etc had the desired result; he was handed in to the Dog Pound Cardiff at 2.30 this morning by a family claiming not to have realised he was in their car (!). We all suspect he just became too hot to handle and it was easier to hand him in... hurray, we all like some good news.

Wool in Compost, Shady Poor Soil = Wonderful Hellebores in the Garden

"Sustainable wool compost is a great alternative to peat" - this comment was made in an article in Gardening World and it goes on to say:
"The moisture retaining qualities of wool make this compost ideal for those spots where water retention is important. It is also kinder to the environment than peat as it is made using sustainable resources".

Which leads me on to a blog with a bit of a gardening theme now that the weather is so glorious and the days are so much longer. Like every gardener, we have one flower bed which is a bit uninspiring, slightly shady, poor soil and full of stones and it is always the last bed that I feel I want to weed. However, the hellebores seem to thrive, so at this particular moment in time it is looking gorgeous. I spotted in a local plant nursery last weekend a really divine speckled yellow hellebore, but I dithered too long and didn't buy it. Serves me right, because I came home and there in the Saturday Telegraph was an article specifically about Hugh Nunn and his hellebores, featuring, guess what? a speckled yellow- the very same one and of course when I went back, it had been sold. The moral of the story is, of course, that we hardly ever regret what we do buy, it's what we don't buy that niggles away at us...

Going back to the compost theme, it is always something of a miracle that household scraps, chicken pooh, old newspaper, loo rolls and even scraps of wool can go in the top of a compost bin and, about a year later, out of the bottom comes all this lovely rich dark crumbly compost. The most perfect form of recycling. It's not only me that enjoys a trip to the compost bins, the dogs are just as keen, but their motivation is a mouse that has taken up residence and tantalises them, probably knowing full well it is next to impossible for them to catch it!

Little Black Sheep, The Saturday Telegraph and a definite "NO" to local Supermarket development

We love the sheep soaps so much that we have decided to add to the collection- some gorgeous little black sheep soaps are now available. They are so appealing that we have put together a little pack of 2 white and 1 black sheep, all for the same price as normal (£12) and added them to the White Cloud range. I have my eye on some little lamb soaps next, just in time for Easter....

It has been pleasing to find that our forthcoming Junior Range for younger customers is attracting interest in the press and next weekend (26th March) we hope to have some or all of it mentioned on Daisy Bridgewater's page in the Saturday Telegraph. We have been working on this Junior Range for quite some time as we have found that parents are increasingly aware themselves of the benefits of wool and want the same for their children. We have included details in our new Price List and will be publishing a special introductory price within the next few days.

It's not often that smaller companies can say "thanks" to bigger companies, but Boots and other high street stockists have decided, for some bizarre reason, to no longer stock lanolin based creams. Hurray we say, because we have noticed sales of our wonderful Lanolin Intensive Cream rise dramatically!

Mind you, one always has to keep a wary eye open; in our local town of Newent last week there was the start of a petition against the development of a supermarket on the outskirts of town. Up until now we have been fortunate to escape the relentless march of the supermarket, but as we all know, they never ever give up. Newent still has a remarkably intact town centre with lots of independent shops, and long may it continue to flourish; we have 2 butchers, a baker, an ironmongers, a greengrocers, a pet shop, a wonderful 2nd hand exchange clothes shop, a sports shop, a quilting shop, a couple of cafes, 2 banks, a chemist, an antique clock shop, 2 florists, a health food shop, a sweet shop and more hairdressers per capita than anywhere else I know! Combined with a Library, a Post Office, a Doctors Surgery and easy parking we are incredibly fortunate. Some might suggest we live in a time warp, but I for one really love it and the most important thing of all is feeling that we, as individuals, really do matter to these businesses. Oh, I nearly forgot the fish and chip shop and the best Indian takeaway in Gloucestershire ....

Rise in birch pollen anticipated in April and a natural solution for children suffering from allergies

Demand for allergy bedding could rise earlier than normal this year, and hayfever predicted to be particularly bad from mid-April.
Jean Emberlin, Professor at the National Pollen & Aerobiology Research Unit at Worcester University was interviewed by the Daily Express earlier this year and said "we are expecting a high production of birch pollen this year due to natural biological rhythms. Birch pollen levels are not always high, so many people may not realise they are suffering from hayfever, and think they have a cold".
Recent research by Mintel has shown that one in 20 people in the UK use special allergy bedding, with an astonishing 44% suffering from one or more allergy.

Here at White Cloud we have been busy working on and developing a Junior range because not only have we found that parents want to buy quality bedding for their youngsters, but also because there is a discernible rise in incidences of children with allergies. Many allergies are attributable to the presence of the Dust Mite, more specifically the presence of its excretions.
Wool does not provide the damp humid conditions that allow the Dust Mite to flourish, which means that sleeping with wool filled bedding provides not only a natural solution, but an eco-friendly solution.

A Spring Green Blog - Magniwool brochure, soft warm Green Wool Blankets and an irresistible Lime Mousse recipe

Work is continuing apace with a new mini brochure for Magniwool- this unique underblanket is going to have a lot more focus this year, starting with some adverts in magazines such as Saga. It seems a good idea to separate Magniwool from the rest of the White Cloud products, because it needs a little more explanation and it is a brand name of its own. Thank goodness for email- there has been much sent backwards and forwards between us and the designer and to be able to adjust details on screen is even better. We are hoping to have the finished brochure towards the end of this week and then there will be an almighty effort to send both new brochures out to our existing customers.

Today's blog has something of a colour green theme, not only does Magniwool have a particular Pantone Green, but we have decided to focus on a small number of lovely Spring Green blankets as the current Special Offer for Spring. Sadly these are now no longer being made so will not be available in the future. Soft, warm, lovely and colourful these are available in Throw size and Single - gorgeous for sofas and bedrooms, all at a huge 30% discount.

Finally, I am including an irresistible recipe which always works and tastes completely delicious:
Lime Mousse

Put 1/2 cup cold water in a small saucepan and sprinkle over 4tsp gelatine.
Leave for a few minutes to swell. Heat the gelatine and the water, stirring until dissolved, then add 1/2 cup fresh lime juice, 1/4 cup white rum (I use Malibu) and 1 cup plain yoghurt.
Whip 3 egg whites with 1/2 cup sugar until it forms a thick meringue.
Whip 1 cup cream to form soft peaks and then fold the cool gelatine mix into the cream, then add the egg white mixture to carefully combine.
Pour into a large serving dish and sprinkle with lime zest.
Serves 6-8

The method needs reading through to understand it, it is a bit peculiar, but it really does work and is one of our family's firm favourites.

The Big Curry/Army Benevolent Fund Not on The High Street and Spring Sales of Lambskins

Every year the Army Benevolent Fund runs a national fund raising campaign called "The Big Curry" - you can host whatever event you like, but it must be held in April and it must have a curry theme. When all the fund raising literature arrived on the doorstep last week, I instantly forgot all the downsides of trying to extract money from kind friends and started to think much bigger and much bolder. Spurred on by a friend, we have decided we will hire our local village hall and host a Curry Supper on 8th April. Last year we had a "Chilli Challenge" - and this year we are going to include a Quiz as well. If you fancy hosting something yourself: http://www.soldierscharity.org/events-and-campaigns/events/lord-mayors-big-curry-2011

gives an idea of what the event is all about. Our own modest efforts can't really be compared with the Lord Mayor's, but a little corner of West Gloucestershire is aiming high and we are hoping to raise over £1000.

This week we were delighted to have our very first order via Not on the High Street: http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/
This is a really good online store with a huge variety of retailers and products, all of which have passed a careful selection process. Beautifully presented, this is a site we are really pleased to be involved with. They are currently inviting partner retailers to make gift suggestions for the Royal Wedding and our "Romance Pillow" would be our immediate choice- a lovely soft natural wool pillow infused with a fragrance of damask rose.

Spring must indeed be in the air- we are noticing an increase in sales of lambskins for new babies! It is always a great pleasure to wrap these and send them off to customers, because we know that they will be loved and snuggled up to for years to come.

Superb Garden Nursery, Winner of £100 Voucher, Junior White Cloud Range

Every few weeks I receive a delightful email from Michael Loftus who not only runs a wonderful nursery in Suffolk, but also happens to be a customer of ours. His gorgeous nursery is a specialist, old fashioned, plantsman's nursery and the catalogue is out of this world. Michael's latest email contains details of a Delphinium Offer and now that we have Spring (if only we had blue skies as well!) it makes me aspire to spend more time in the garden. Take a look at his lovely website and I recommend signing up for the email newsletter:

http://www.woottensplants.co.uk/contact.html

Congratulations to Freda in Kent who has won £100 White Cloud Voucher with Daisy Green Magazine, an online green magazine, full of offers, competitions and eco advice.

All of the work that has gone on in the past few months has, at last come to fruition- the White Cloud website now shows the new box packaging, of which we are hugely proud. Existing customers have been encouraging us for some time to consider developing a Junior Range so that little ones can have their very own "White Cloud".... this, combined with the new "mini brochure" coming off the press this week, makes us feel very positive about the future and we will continue to do our best to defy the gloom and doom frenzy that the British media is so fond of. We are, after all, a nation of small shopkeepers and I think it can often be forgotten that privately owned businesses form the backbone of the British economy.

Signs of Spring - Wild Daffodils, Eggs and a new Mini Brochure

How wonderfully encouraging to think that we have, officially almost reached the end of Winter, and are about to enter Spring. Newent is famous for its wild daffodils and, at last, they are beginning to come into flower in all the local woods. Much smaller than the conventional garden daffodil, these delicate little symbols of Spring used to be a common sight around the edges of local fields and trains used to take handpicked daffodils to Covent Garden flower market. Ledbury/Newent/Dymock forms a triangle on the Gloucestershire/Herefordshire border where these little flowers still flourish.

Another heartening sign of Spring is that our hens have finally decided they might start laying again. I love my little Appenzellers and their little white bantam sized eggs make the the most perfect of boiled eggs. Bantams are real characters- rightly or wrongly I have kept the most handsome of the cockerels, but he is flighty and can easily get his girls skittering about, for no reason at all. Never mind, I shall forgive him because I am hoping for lots of chicks this year. I still haven't managed to find a replacement Friesan bantam after last year's catastrophic fox attack, so, fingers crossed, we shall have some broody hens in a few months time. Hens are so rewarding- they are always busy, always industrious and eat almost everything. Left over spaghetti is their tip-top favourite, and I have to admit sometimes I just cook it for fun, because the end result is so entertaining ...

The new White Cloud "Mini Brochure" is due to be printed this week- most exciting. It looks really very different from our previous one, but it was time for a completely new look which takes into account all of the new White Cloud branding. With a big mail out due to take place later in March, it really does feel like a fresh start and we are feeling optimistic about the year ahead.

Two heads are better than one, Ollie the handsome office cat and Herdwick Wool

After many long hours of filing/sorting paperwork/updating the website/writing to stockists/submitting the VAT return Guy has finally made it to Heathrow on time and is now on his way to NZ. A frantic 2 weeks lies ahead with a lot of business meetings but also a small but welcome chance to catch up with our middle son, who is currently in Auckland. Needless to say, almost the minute his flight took off, us office girls had to work out how to do something on the computer ourselves. Suffice it to say, two heads were better than one and, to my utter surprise, my basic and uninspired suggestion worked! I couldn't believe it, it made it seem as if I knew what to do, when computers and technology are probably at the very bottom of my list of interests. It was literally a case of "needs must"!

Now just to balance things out, because this shouldn't all be about the many capabilities we females can offer, I thought it was time to share a photo of Ollie, our office cat. Life at White Cloud would indeed be the poorer without him. Here he is (in a rare moment of peace and calm) nicely demonstrating his particular penchant for sitting on Beverley's keyboard!! One of the printers and the mouse on my computer also enthral him, but those moments are not quite so easy to capture..

At the recent Spring Fair in Birmingham we thoroughly enjoyed meeting Spencer from Herdy and talking to him about the work that is going on in the Lake District to promote Herdwick wool- their hot water bottle knitting kits are just gorgeous... http://http://www.herdy.co.uk/index.html

Black Sheep Soaps, Art Gallery in France, New Mini Brochure rolling off the production line

A good time was had by all at The Spring Fair last week- amongst other things, we had arranged to meet the supplier of our sheep soaps, who had generously travelled from Austria with an extra box full of soaps just for us. Not only do we now have white sheep soaps, but also a little collection of black sheep soaps... the trouble is, it doesn't quite end there, because on the stand we saw some gorgeous little lamb sized soaps and now I'm thinking we should have those as well. Maybe as little Easter gifts for our customers ....

We have had a delightful correspondence this week with a customer in France, it has been really entertaining. He is a wildlife artist and his website is lovely: http://http://www.gayfordgallery.com/

Our new mini brochure is about to roll off the production line- although smaller and simpler, it has been quite a journey. We first started talking about it in the autumn, but it has been wonderful to have most of the work taken off our hands by Marisa & Kat at Tadpole PR, who have spent hours poring over photographs and text. It will be a huge relief once it is done, because the current brochure is now looking dated, and the general view is that a brochure should only have a shelf life of 2 years anyway.

With all of the duvets, underblankets and pillows now presented in our own White Cloud packaging, this is a timely moment to be acquiring the next brochure, the only trouble is now we have a pillow box under development and it's too late to include it this time round!

Recipe for a cold February afternoon and Shoppingbank.com

Sunday afternoon, a dreary February day and the perfect moment to dig out a cookery book and do something for afternoon tea. I chose to make something called "Scott's Farewell Square" from a wonderfully nostalgic book of NZ recipes called "Ladies, a plate - traditional home baking" and given to me by a dear friend called Karen. The introduction to the recipe reads:

This square contains plenty to sustain a man on a long cold journey; dates, raisins, coconut, walnuts, cocoa, butter, sugar, golden syrup, an egg and even crushed Weetabix. Take it next time you go tramping in memory of the heroic age of Antarctic exploration.

Captain Robert Scott's last expedition sailed from Port Chalmers for Antarctica on the Terra Nova on 29th November 1910. The people of Dunedin had been given a half-day's holiday and thousands turned out to say goodbye.

My grandmother's neighbour in old age was Lady Shackleton and ever since we visited a cemetry in New Zealand to find McNeish's grave with its touching sculpture of his loyal cat, I have had an interest (the family might say an obsession) for collecting books to do with the Antarctic.

Scott's Farewell Square
4oz butter
6oz brown sugar
1 dessertspoon golden syrup
1 egg
6oz flour (I use self raising)
pinch of salt
1tsp baking powder
1 tablespoon cocoa
3oz coconut
2oz walnuts
4 Weetabix crushed
4 oz dates
2 oz raisins

Icing: 1 cup icing sugar, 2 tablespoons cocoa and 1 tablespoon melted butter

Preheat the oven to 375f/190c. Line a shallow tin with baking paper or lightly grease it. Soften the butter.
Cream the butter and sugar until light, then mix in golden syrup and egg, combining everything well.
Sift in the flour, salt and cocoa, mix to combine and then add remaining ingredients, stirring to combine well.
Tip into prepared tin, spread evenly and bake for 15-20 minutes.
Remove from oven and cool on wire rack.

Make chocolate icing, adding a little hot water if necessary. Spread on the cake, sprinkle with coconut and cut into squares when set.

Almost all of Saturday was taken up with condensing and re-writing text for inclusion on ShoppingBank.com which is an online store with a whole host of products, based up in the Lake District. Inexplicably, we find Intensive Cream sells well through Shopping Bank, but it was time to work out why nothing else was doing quite so well. This revealed the proverbial "can of worms" as far as additional effort was required, but we got stuck into it and between us all, have managed to make some progress. Sometimes you just know it is going to have to get worse before it gets better....
http://http//www.shoppingbank.com/sb/index/

Website for lost dogs, Daisy Green Magazine, £100 Voucher and Black Sheep Soaps

Yesterday involved a whole lot of anxiety searching for one of our Jack Russells. The pair of them had done a runner in the morning, nothing particularly unusual but at about 11 am only one of them had come home. The rest of the day was spent searching and calling and getting increasingly anxious. By 6pm I had posted up his details on a truly wonderful site devoted to highlighting lost/found dogs. Started by a lady who had lost her own dog, last year these wonderful people managed to help reunite 15,000 dogs with their owners. They offer the most amazing service, you can post up details, provide a photo and anyone can then post details of sightings etc. Fortunately for us, Bertie had been found near the main road and had been scooped up by the Forest of Dean Dog Warden. We found him none the worse for wear at the Pound, paid our £32.50 and took him home, all of us mightily relieved.
I can't recommend the DogLost website enough, a really great example of the benefits of the world wide web: www.doglost.co.uk

White Cloud is offering a £100 Voucher in time for Valentine's Day with Daisy Green online magazine- just click on this link, register to enter and keep your fingers crossed. "Simples" as they say on the meerkat ads!
http://http://www.daisygreenmagazine.co.uk/category/goodies/

We will be off to The Spring Fair in Birmingham next week- amongst other things to meet the suppliers of the sheep soaps and we have decided to introduce some little black sheep soaps, quirky but fun and I have a hunch that they will be popular. Watch this space as they say ...

Not on the High Street, Bon Voyage to Chris and an update on the Brochure

At last, we now have a presence on Not on the High Street - an online shopping marketplace, jam packed full of lovely things. I have had about 3 months of technological challenges condensed into two weeks trying to understand the ins and outs of posting up information, but, finally we have succeeded and lo and behold a White Cloud shop now features. Worryingly I carefully put all my notes to one side, but now, naturally I can't find them so fingers are tightly crossed that no major changes are needed.

Yesterday we said farewell and bon voyage to our middle son- off on 4 months of travelling to New Zealand and Fiji. For all the heartache and pain of prodding and poking him to get ready there was a very real lump in my throat seeing him set off through Passport Control with a cheery, "I'm okay" sort of wave. The worst bit is knowing that he is somewhere still up in the air and still hours away from his final destination. How different travelling is now, no lovely printed ticket with tear out stubs, no reliance on letters for communication and reverse charge calls. Maybe it is a little too easy now to keep in touch? A little bit of self reliance is not a bad thing.
Anyway, he's off on his adventure and we are madly envious that he is going to lovely warm sunny weather (at least strictly speaking they are now heading for winter, whereas we have spring beckoning!).

Work continues apace to our new brochure, furious amounts of backwards and forwards with photos and texts, oh the wonders of the modern age! We hope to have this printed and ready by mid February and it will be exciting to see our new brand image become part of the brochure. Magniwool is also undergoing a revamp with the intention that each will be a stand alone brochure but able to be sent with the other.

We have decided to refine our range of Lambskins and Sheepskins and will not be reordering the large white sheepskins next time around. Part of the reason is that we never seemed to get the same thing twice, but more importantly we feel we want to concentrate on the others. We have 3 white sheepskins left, and that will then be the end of them- if you think you would like one, please get in touch as soon as possible!

Redefining the White Cloud range, Eco-Chic Competition Winner, New White Cloud Brochure, RSPB National Survey

We have been using this month to reconsider a small number of our products. One casualty is going to be the larger white/cream sheepskins. With a small stock of only four left, if you think you might like one, please let us know! We feel we want to concentrate on the Lambskins for Babies and the larger Yoga Sheepskins, both of which sell well and are beginning to gain a good reputation. We will also be rationalising the Skincare Range- the Face Creams are not being re-ordered (don't worry Natasha or Mrs Pennefather, I have put a special stock to one side for you) and the Gift Boxes will now have a lovely sheep soap instead. The soaps seem to sell well and are very appealing, so we are now also offering these as a pack of 3, wrapped and nestled in wool. Lip Balms have become more and more expensive, so these will not be available as single items any more, but we will continue to include them in the Gift Boxes. Take a look at the Skincare Range to see the latest selection ...

Eco-Chic Organic Double Blanket Competition

Last week the winner of an on-line competition with Eco-Chic was chosen, so Simon Sims of Stourbridge now has a lovely soft organic blanket on its way to him. We had a lot of interest and are likely to run something similar again. http://www.ecochiccollection.co.uk/magazine/

Enormous amounts of work has been going on behind the scenes to replace and update some photography both for the website and for our next brochure. Brochures represent quite a challenge, as the more you have printed, the cheaper they become but, conversely, you need to avoid having them on the shelf for too long. It takes weeks if not months to redesign a brochure, so we have been working on a much reduced brochure, quite a lot less text and more photos. We still attach great importance to being able to supply a brochure, and although lots of businesses see them as a relic from the past, we find that they serve an important purpose and help give credibility to our products. From late February, we hope to have our new version printed and ready to send.

Next weekend is the RSPB National Bird Survey, a chance to take some time and observe what birds might be visiting our gardens. The desperately cold temperatures over Christmas went on for so long that it is feared huge numbers of little birds, in particular, will have perished. That said, we have had lots of Long Tailed Tits feeding in family groups, which we have never noticed before. My favourite of all is the Nuthatch, but whether we see one individual or we have two, I really don't know! To be honest, I buy the suet pellets mostly for him, he is so beautiful. I was delighted last week when one of our boys spotted a Green Woodpecker and could tell me what it was; all those years of subtle effort in trying to interest them seems to have paid off! Just as well as next weekend, our youngest son will have to take on the task of the Survey for me, as the middle one leaves to go on his travels to New Zealand- so Rupert, it's over to you to take on the task! www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch

Reasons to be cheerful, completed White Cloud packaging and working on a January/February Winter email

There's nothing like a walk to lift your spirits and today I came back from a favourite walk in the woods clutching a lovely little collection of twigs of early catkins- I can't believe it, we are beginning to see signs of new life everywhere, even the snowdrops are starting to appear. So, now I have a beautiful glass vase full of catkins sitting on my desk... even better, the days are lengthening by 2 minutes each day, yes, a whole 2 minutes, which in an entire week is almost a quarter of an hour!

At last, we have the finished labels for our Cashmere Duvets- this means that they, along with Wool Duvets and Underblankets can now be sent out in our brand new White Cloud carton. This is the culmination of months of hard work and planning, and it is an absolute joy to see something that has been a project for so long emerge into a fully fledged item that is a piece of art in its own right. We have deliberately stayed true to the wonderful Merino ram set against a backdrop of genuine South Island scenery as we feel he epitomises the quality and heritage of all our products. So, from now on we have a range of products that can be displayed side by side on shop shelves- the next thing demanding attention is the Wool Pillows, for which a box is also planned, but that is still on the drawing board as the saying goes.

The focus this week has been preparing for a January/February email newsletter which is in incubation as I write. With a focus on Winter warmth and Valentine's Day we are hoping it will be the first of our bi-monthly emails sent out with links to the facebook page and offers to our existing customers. When it arrives, we hope you really enjoy it and consider passing it on to an interested friend.

It was amusing to read in the newspaper recently of a couple who have invented "Cosy Cool" which is a duvet with the option of adding layers- I have to admit, a small part of me thought "hang on a minute, we offer something like this already" but their story is a good one ...

Happy Four Legged Customers, A Good Read and Why Everyone Should Insure With NFU

Two happy little customers, probably the smallest we ever had, enjoying their Christmas present! Minnie and Maisie live in Scotland with the Ferrell family who have written and said "the lambswool mat has been a big hit with them this winter" ...

I have just finished reading a most fantastic book, we first saw it as a film which was beautifully directed by Peter Jackson and, having now read the book, I think it is the most successful translation from book to film I have seen. Called "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold it is the story of Susie Salmon. From the very first opening line where we learn that she was murdered at 14 by someone she knew, it is captivating. At times it is difficult to follow the thread, but persistence pays off. The insight it offers into the suffering of a family following such a dreadful incident is so beautifully written that you can't help but turn the pages as you long to know the outcome. It was so good that I'm now feeling slightly lost that I have finished it.

Well good family news all round, our youngest son did well in his mock GCSEs, our middle son has booked his flight to New Zealand and is starting to pick up the pace and get excited and our eldest son has found a replacement bike! His own bike got stolen in Newcastle by some toe-rags on the last day of term who had the cheek to cut the chain and snatch it from the car bike rack. It was a really depressing experience for him and meant he had no bike at all over the Christmas holidays. Fortunately the NFU, as usual, came to the rescue and have agreed to pay a cheque to replace it. For anyone casting around for help with insurance, I can't recommend the NFU enough- helpful, friendly, normal offices, no call centres, staff that know you by name and able to help with everything from car insurance to holidays- they even organise our business insurance for us.

Wool Pillows to France, Store Room Spring Clean, Booking for Burghley Horse Trials and Magniwool Activity

Today's photo shows 450 pillows packed and ready to make their onward journey to a customer of ours in France; this was the culmination of a manic day's work last week when our container arrived. If only we had such a huge space ourselves, but the pillows got wrapped and packed at Box Clever who are one of our packaging suppliers in the Forest of Dean.

Well, most things seem to be settling back down after the Christmas period- in some ways it is a relief to be back in a more normal routine, although driving to meet a school bus at 7.25 most mornings is definitely not one of the more pleasing aspects!

January has allowed for a spectacular tidy-up and clear up in our two store rooms. Although it entailed braving subzero and Arctic temperatures, the end result is very pleasing and we now have store spaces that look pristine and beautifully tidy; most rewarding. A most productive early Spring clean! The process unearthed all sorts of oddments and we have put them on http://www.whitecloud.co.uk/acatalog/special_offers.html . A case of first come first served ...

January is also the month when we sit and plan our activity for the forthcoming year. Burghley Horse Trials is now booked for early September- this is a good thing as we had several customers comment that they had missed us being there in 2010 and only today we had an email from a customer in Holland who bought from us at Burghley 2009 and wants to purchase more lanolin creams ... sadly for her and us we don't yet have an outlet in Holland!

Now that we have some designated help for Magniwool sales, we are working on a new brochure specifically for Magniwool and are looking at publications where it might best fit in. A recent article in The Lady discussing the benefits of magnet therapy for pets has been a good thing and one of my New Year intentions is to write with some experiences that customers of ours have related to us.

New stock, new ideas for the White Cloud range and yet another visit to the vets

A positive start to 2011- the container that got snowed in and stuck at Southampton over Christmas finally got delivered on Tuesday! A mad frenzy of unpacking and repacking went on within a short space of time which meant all our back orders could get sent out and it seems, fingers crossed, that most of the parcels have now found their owners. The majority of the container was filled with 450 pillows destined for the South of France, so not only did we have to unpack our own products in record time, but we also had to prepare and palletise an awful lot of pillows ready for shipping today. Now that we have an English friend living in the South of France able and willing to translate on our behalf it will make business transactions with the French much, much easier.

This week has entailed the inevitable January stock take and, as a result, there are a selection of really good bargains now posted on the website:- special_offers all are either ex-show, photography or discontinued items and are one-off specials. All are competitively priced, so if there is something in particular that you have had your eye on, check out the Special Offers page...

We have spent the Christmas holidays mulling over some new possibilities for the White Cloud range; by a strange but wonderful coincidence we have come across a wool co-operative in Banks Peninsula. This is a very special and historic part of New Zealand that was badly affected by the Christchurch earthquake but for us it holds a particular significance as one of my cousins lives there and, being both a New Zealander and a farmer herself, she knows most of the folks involved in the co-operative. The wool quality is gorgeous and we have seen some of the finished results, so 2011 may well see us bringing and adding some new lines to our range. Watch this space as they say ...

The festive period was not without its moments; one of our Jack Russells (or "Jack Rascals" as a friend calls them) found some lovely chocolates on the kitchen table made, lovingly, by one of my brothers and sent with great pride from Cornwall. Bella decided to help herself without anyone noticing and at about 11.30pm we got a frantic phone call from home. The long and short of it is that Bella had to be whizzed to the local vet at midnight by the boys and she was one ill little dog. It was a nasty introduction to the responsibilities of having pets for our sons, but to give them credit, they had found symptoms on the internet and acted very promptly. Thank you to our nice kind vet, who knows this particular little dog very well, having wired up her jaw 18 months ago (almost his first task on arrival at the practise), has extricated another tooth after another badger incident and has now cared for her overnight and saved her life. She is one lucky little dog- all we have to do is wait for the forthcoming vets bill!

Christmas Mincemeat Muffins, new White Cloud packaging and The Royal Tournament

My recipe for December:

Christmas Mincemeat Sultana Muffins
(This is a yummy New Zealand recipe, makes about 12 standard size muffins)

10 oz self raising flour
Half tsp bicarbonate of soda
Half tsp salt
3 oz fine granulated sugar
1 egg
8 fl oz milk
About 12 oz mincemeat
3 fl oz vegetable oil or 3 oz melted butter
3 oz sultanas
Icing sugar for dusting

Prepare muffin tins and preheat oven to 375-400 degrees f (or 190-200 degrees c)
Sift together into a large bowl; flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and sugar
In a separate bowl beat egg with fork, stir in milk, mincemeat and oil/melted butter
Pour all liquid ingredients into dry mixture and stir until just combined, adding the sultanas during final strokes. The batter will be lumpy but no dry flour should be visible. Do not over-stir.
Fill muffin cups three quarters full and bake for 20-25 minutes until tops are lightly browned and spring back when pressed. Allow to cool for easier removal and dust with icing sugar.

Big excitement today- our very first parcels complete with new packaging went out today- a trade order going to Home Store in Galway (thank you Eric!). We have been using our new cartons for about a month but we now have labels to match- so all duvets, all underblankets and all pillows now have White Cloud packaging. Also today we sent 30 coloured wool throws to Robeys in Derbyshire, these have all been stitched and finished with the new blanket stitch machine. As Sue says "we have the technology ... we can do anything now"!

To finish on a personal note, we took two of our boys to see the Royal Tournament at Earls Court on Sunday- it was a really inspiring spectacle and showed off the very best of the best. Our eldest son is destined for the army and I am sure all of us in the audience were left feeling immensely proud to be British and very grateful for all that is done on our behalf. We enjoyed lots of pomp and lots of ceremony and the re-enactment of an incident in Helmand gave a very real impression of the noise, the anxiety and the bravery that goes on every single day. Well done to the organisers for reviving the Tournament, it was last done in 1999 so hopefully the next generation will now have a chance to see what we all saw when we were young ...

Angus and pet beds, snow, ice and car damage, Inglish as she is spoke, new brochure discussion

This handsome fellow is Angus - he is one of our canine customers, but not content with his own pet bed, he has sneaked upstairs to his "Mum's" bedroom, and as she says, he has even closed his eyes because he knows he shouldn't be on their lovely wool underblanket; by pretending to be asleep he was hoping he wouldn't get spotted...

Freezing cold weather, what seems like perma-frost and such short days- thank goodness we only have 21 days to go before it is the shortest day of the year. Everything is so dark and cold, no wonder so many people get affected by SAD in the far northern hemisphere.

Our own cause for mild depression this morning was caused by a minor but inevitable slide, in the car, straight into the metal cattlegrid gatepost! It was all in the cause of trying to get our youngest son to school, and our middle son off to work, but it didn't go quite to plan. Although our drive looks innocuous for most of the year, it always catches folks out as it becomes a skating rink in ice and snow and has enough tricky bends/hills/corners to please Colin Macrae ... we are planning on leaving the bigger car at the end of the drive tonight and walking on foot between it and the house. Once again it looks like the ante-diluvian Landrover might come out of its annual mothballs and be put back into service.

Having mentioned our youngest son, he came home from school last week with a wonderful anecdote from his tutor, who had overheard this in a shop in Gloucester: (teenage girl speaking to dad) "it's not uuhh, it's wot" !! It has kept us smiling for days ...

Finally, off tomorrow on a trip north of Ludlow to have a rendezvous with Marisa from Tadpole PR - planning on meeting at the Food Centre, ostensibly to discuss our new brochure, but really to sneak in a nice coffee together and then go shopping in the very upmarket "Farm Shop". It is much grander than any other farm shops I know, but once in a while it makes for a very nice visit.

Next blog- a recipe for absolutely delicious Christmas mincemeat muffins ....

Another visit to the vets, pet bed for guinea pigs and Hus & Hem in Ledbury

Well, Monday morning got off to a bad start with an emergency dash to the vets with Bella who is rapidly gaining a bit of a local reputation for badger encounters! Bella is an extremely typical example of a Jack Russell who thinks she is a Great Dane. She is tiny but incredibly wilful and thoroughly disobedient. If she could go off hunting all day, she would and despite having to have her jaw wired up after a badger exploit a year ago, as of today she is now minus an eye tooth and looking a bit less beautiful. This is one of the consequences of having a pair of Jack Russells together- don't ever do it, would be my advice, if asked!

We can now add guinea pigs to our list of happy customers- I don't think we have ever sold anything to guinea pigs before, but a little red pet bed is on its way to a pair of them living up in Scotland and we are looking forward to some family photos ...

Sally and I packed up our wares and had a stall at a local charity event in Ledbury last Thursday. We had a spare half hour before it all started so we mooched around Ledbury and visited a gorgeous Scandanavian shop called Hus & Hem , full of lovely stylish things (Jill, I want that orange blanket, but I have been told by my co-director I can't have it!) and I bought a really endearing little sheep to grace our stall. We had at least two people asking if they could buy him at the Charity Event and I had say absolutely not, I have only just got him myself. Made in Germany, he has a cute quizzical expression and he has now found a special little spot in the office. Perhaps we should consider having some for sale ourselves ....

Pet Plan Magazine, Blanket Stitch machine and Period Living Competition Winner

We have been absolutely delighted with the response to a mention in the recent Pet Plan magazine offering subscribers 15% discount on our wool pet beds. Even better, some customers have come back and ordered more which all helps keep Sue in gainful employment and goes to show that the British really do love their cats and dogs.

Great excitement at the end of last week- after some considerable searching we have found ourselves a Blanket Stitch sewing machine. After looking near and far, by amazing good luck we found one just outside Ledbury and only 20 minutes away! (Always best to shop locally!) It was delivered on Friday afternoon and has now got a new home. It means we can now do special sizes in the Contemporary Classic blanket range, and also the striped Dream range. Even I, the worst needleworker in the world, am inclined to teach myself as it looks so much fun .. All we have to do now is track down the correct wool yarn to go with the existing natural stitch colour and we can do whatever might be required.

I tackled a Jamie Oliver recipe for Friday evening and came to the conclusion that it was a casualty of his early success and hadn't been "road tested"! it sounded really simple (leg of lamb slow cooked along with a mass of vegetables and a bottle of wine) but the only pan I could find that was big enough to do everything was my jam preserving pan, (but then I remembered it was too big to go in the oven!) It ended up sitting on top of the woodburner, covered with foil which seemed to work!) However, desperate measures were called for because it tasted insipid and bland; in went Puy lentils, a jar of Cranberry sauce, a jar of blackberry jam and things started to improve. Mind you it had already been quite an eventful culinary episode as Olly had to be wrestled and parted from the leg of lamb whilst it was initially defrosting! Never mind, great end result and it was really good to find that it was not in the slightest bit fatty or greasy and the meat was really tender. In essence:

Braise a leg of lamb in a large casserole. Lift it out, braise masses of cut up and cubed vegetables- swede, parsnips, carrots, onions (I also added some small potatoes).
Brown everything and then add the lamb back to the casserole. Pour over a bottle of white wine and throw in some herbs. Add a little water as time goes on, but cook for approximately 5 hours in a slow oven.

Finally, congratulations to Susan Herald who has won a King size Winter Wool Duvet after entering a competition through Period Living Magazine ....

Deco Affair Photos

Here is the link to the photos from the Deco Affair.

Hair of the Dog, Flapjacks, Period House magazine, and a happy customer in Oxford

A lovely new high class pet shop is opening soon at 4-8 Highgate High Street in London called "Hair of the Dog". Sophie, we wish you all the very best and thank you for keeping Sue in employment! All of our pet beds are made to order by Sue who remains remarkably tolerant of her house being filled with wool fluff and gingham off cuts ...

Last night I decided to make a tried and trusted Banana Cake for a meeting we held in the office today, but the moral of the story could be "don't let a 15 year old son loose on a recipe book". 2 teaspoons of baking soda mysteriously translated themselves into 2 tablespoons! I should have had my suspicions when it came to washing up the measuring jug and finding soda sediment at the bottom ... naturally it necessitated some urgent rethinking and I resorted to another favourite which always works perfectly:

Flapjack (otherwise called Whole Oat Crunchies by Delia Smith!)
Makes 12 (never enough, I always double the recipe)

4.5 oz porridge oats
3 oz demerara sugar (can use golden caster for less granular result)
4 oz butter (if doubling the recipe I only use 7 oz)

Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 5 or 190 degrees centigrade

Well grease a large shallow baking tin

Weigh out oats and sugar, place in a mixing bowl and mix together evenly. Gently melt the butter in a saucepan, only just melt it and do not allow to go brown.
Pour the butter into the oats mixture and mix together to blend well.
Fill the baking tin and use a knife to flatten evenly.
Bake on centre shelf of hot oven for 12-15 minutes until a pale gold colour.
Remove the tin from the oven and cut into slices while still warm. Allow to cool in the tin until cold and crisp.

Period House magazine is currently running a competition to win a King Size winter weight White Cloud duvet- part of Kat and Marisa's task in life is to help us find magazines where we fit in well. We trust their judgement 100% and it is really pleasing to find that all their hard work is now beginning to pay off. At the Cheltenham Gift Fair last weekend a number of customers came up to our stand to say they had heard of us, what a lovely name, what a great story behind the business and that they knew about wool staying warm in winter and cool in summer. Hurray, job done girls, you work really hard on our behalf and we really are indebted to you.

This leads me on nicely to a really heartfelt email we received from a special Italian customer in Oxford, for whom we have just made a huge special order pet bed, made specifically to sit along the length of her sofa. It was sent yesterday and it looked wonderful, here is part of the email she wrote at the end of last week:

"I'll tell you something, in praise of your website and company. Just before contacting you about the duvet and ordering from White Cloud, I found exactly the same was being sold for £151 from a big on-line retailer. But it has been like going to a nice shop run by a family to touch and look at the material and ask some kind assistants all the information about the product and then go off to another shop to buy it for less. It didn't seem right".

New gingham for dog beds, exasperation with big brother and the Cheltenham Christmas Gift Fair

What fun we had on Monday morning! SagePay decided, in its infinite wisdom, that it was going to "upgrade" all of its payment arrangements and we, along with millions of other customers, were left wondering what the hell was going on when we couldn't log in, access payments or reconcile accounts. Our increasing frustration and feelings of bewilderment came to a head when a regular customer wrote, by email, to say she couldn't put through a payment and please could I telephone her. Fortunately we managed to help Natasha but goodness knows how many other customers were deterred by the utter ineptitude of the whole thing. Maybe it's because I have passed the magic 50 milestone, but I feel increasingly at the mercy of larger organisations imposing "stuff"- most of which has not been requested and has been imposed for their "security" and our inconvenience.

More fun and games yesterday when we discovered that Guy's private Barclaycard had been used fraudlently and various unauthorised transactions had gone through. Oh the joys, but in this case, we had to eat humble pie and acknowledge that actually the whole thing was dealt with very well and we were grateful to have been watched over by "big brother" ...

On a much more enjoyable note, we now have gorgeous new French navy/biscuit gingham for our dog bed material and we all think it is exactly what we have been searching for over the last three years. I have bought as much stock as we can afford, because experience tells me that as soon as you like something, it becomes discontinued! Anyway, the very first dog bed to be made with it was for Rosemary in the Isle of Wight who wanted an extra, extra large, so that it would fit inside Hugo's basket and go all the way up the sides. Sue diligently sewed on Sunday and off it went on Monday, looking really fantastic.

Friday and Saturday this week are taken up with the Cheltenham Christmas Gift Fair at the Racecourse- we don't often do Shows these days, so I am looking forward to it, but quite how we are going to transport all the things that are currently sitting waiting to go, remains to be seen.
We have made lots of gorgeous little cellophane wrapped sheep soap gifts and I am hopeful they will be really popular. We love these little soaps and they are now a permanent fixture on our stock list- made with shea butter, almond oil and sheep milk they are very appealing.

Sweet Apple & Ginger Chutney and Sheep Soaps and The Campaign for Wool

Here is a delicious recipe that I first saved from the newspaper whilst we were on holiday this summer- I don't know where it went, but when we came home it was missing. I knew I wanted to use this recipe for this year's Christmas presents, and luckily happened to mention it to a fellow chutney enthusiast! Mrs Musgrave in Ireland duly came to the rescue and photocopied it for me, having seen the same article... having finally managed to make the chutney on Saturday morning, I can definitely confirm it was worth waiting for!
In the words of the recipe "This makes a beautiful peachy-coloured preserve, neither too sweet nor too acid, with a gentle kick from the ginger".

Sweet Apple and Ginger Chutney
Makes a generous 2 pints (I doubled it to make about 10-12 jars)

3lb British dessert apples
1lb onions
4oz crystallised ginger
2 cloves garlic
1.5lb granulated sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 pint vinegar (I used White Wine vinegar)

Peel, core and chop the apples into peanut sized pieces. Chop the onions to the same size. Finely chop the crystallised ginger and mince the garlic.
Place all the ingredients in a large pan and heat gently, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Bring to the boil. Cook until the mixture is so thick that, when you draw a spoon across the bottom of the pan, you can see the base for a full second before the chutney covers it again.
Carefully fill the chutney into hot, clean jars and top with a disc of waxed paper. Cover with lids or clear seals and store in a cool dark place.

Last week was very worthwhile- We have spent quite some time trying to find some Sheep Soaps for Christmas and, at last, on Friday a consignment duly arrived all the way from Austria. We now have a gorgeous big box full of chunky sheep shaped soaps that we can add to our product range in time for Christmas. With a likely price of £3.50 each, we hope they will be a perfect little gift for everyone. Within the next two weeks, Sally and I will be wrapping and packing some to be ready for the Cheltenham Gift Fair which is on 28th and 29th October. We may even wrap them and pack them in wool, which links in nicely to:

Wool Week was very well supported and we were very pleased to be invited to an event in London where we were given a gorgeous pop-up display by the Wool Campaign to help spread the wider word about the benefits of wool. As suppliers of licensed Woolmark products, we are proud to sell the highest quality wool from a particular specialist licensed manufacturer. Sadly this is not the case with many competitive wool products on the market and we were really pleased to have our commitment to genuine quality noticed and acknowledged.

Singing the praises of our local suppliers and why they are so good to use

An absolutely fabulous autumn afternoon, everything looking beautiful and not a cloud in the sky ... Box Clever have just delivered the next consignment of cardboard boxes for us and they make everything so easy that I decided they would be the theme of this particular blog. Box Clever are based in Mitcheldean (The Forest of Dean) and they are endlessly accommodating and helpful. They make all our packaging for us, all bespoke sizes and, in my opinion, even better, they take away all our waste cardboard. Steve and Julie (not forgetting Rob!) make our lives at White Cloud very straight forward and they never let us down. It is what makes using local suppliers so worthwhile.

This is an opportunity to also mention Perpetua Press in Newent- Ed, you are wonderful at interpreting all of our ideas and transforming them into reality. This can be anything from stickers for the Yellow Eyed Penguin Trust, to size labels for cartons, to Pillow Tags for our French customers. We have also been working together on new Cashmere labels for our new White Cloud boxes which are nearly in the pipeline and will be with us by mid November. Ed, the service you offer goes beyond the call of duty- you have even been known to drive to bring us artwork out to us if deadlines are running tight. I think that is what makes for great customer service and we feel extremely fortunate to have such great local businesses to help us.

Sue- you are getting a special mention in dispatches and it is definitely a case of "last but not least". You have coped single-handed with manufacturing an exceptional order of pet beds this weekend for Achica customers and somehow you managed to make about 18 without any fuss at all. Despite running out of material on Friday and then piping cord, between us we managed, and it means we have fulfilled our order book- a tricky thing to do when we didn't know how many we were going to sell! You are an integral part of the business and your Invoice has gone straight to the top of the pile...

Period House Competition, Welcome to Sally and Pipers Farm exemplary service for hungry students

Audrey Feltham in Shropshire and Robert Woodcroft in Dunstable are the winners of a competition run by Period House to win 2 single Autumn weight wool duvets- both seem to be delighted to have won; it's always rewarding when deserving people win prizes!

This has been a busy week- we have found a wonderful person called Sally to help us organise gift fairs and shows... in the early days we tried to do everything ourselves, but soon came to realise that it was/is almost impossible to be away from the office and do a good job of running the business. Over the years we have turned down a lot of opportunities to do Christmas gift fairs, but, hallelujah, I think Sally is just the person we need. She loves selling, she loves people and, even better, she doesn't seem to mind considering doing anything. Our first venture together will be The Cheltenham Christmas Gift Fair on 28th/29th October. Two minds are definitely better than one, and already we are talking about doing little Christmas "puddings" with soaps wrapped in wool, tied up with ribbon with White Cloud gift tags... Thank goodness for Sally, she has been worth waiting 5 years to find!

Finally, with our eldest son back at University in cold, dark Newcastle we started to think about resuming food parcels this week. Friends of ours run a wonderful mail order meat business in Devon and we decided to hand the whole problem over to them- the task was to feed 4 seriously hungry, active Army students (sorry Dave, I know you are RAF sponsored). Henrietta had carte blanche to choose what she thought best; we parted with some money and the very next day a food parcel had arrived on the doorstep. You can't ask for better service than that! Highly recommended: www.pipersfarm.co.uk

Back to full health after a rigmarole at the Vets

As some of you know, Olly is a gorgeous Siamese cat who was my 50th birthday present, and he joined the household about 2 months ago- he is featuring on this particular blog because ....

On Monday morning he seemed to be spluttering- it wasn't often and it wasn't bad but it seemed as if something had got caught in his throat. Off we trotted to the vets and we all agreed that he needed keeping any eye on and IF there was something that couldn't be got out easily, he would have to go off to Dursley for specialist endoscopy..... £ signs started to flash .... and we would come back on Tuesday.

By Tuesday the spluttering had become coughing, almost as if whatever it was had travelled a bit further down so we booked him in for surgery on Wednesday morning. Later on Tuesday I found a chewed up cockerel feather, just the sort of thing that might have gone down the wrong way. We rolled up for surgery today and all agreed that the spluttering was a bit odd, but perhaps it was better to just have him at the vets for the morning and see what the general consensus of opinion might be. I collected him at lunch time and booked him in for a definite examination Thursday morning, with the unsettling knowledge that if it was complicated, he would have to go for more specialist help.... £ signs again!

Anyway, to cut a long story short, he sat in the kitchen this evening and had a really bad coughing fit, he was pawing at his nose and getting desperate. Chris, our eagle-eyed middle son, spotted a tiny something coming out of his nose- we decided between us we would start to pull gently and eventually out came .... an enormously long piece of grass! As long as about 6" it had got stuck up his nose and down his throat, no wonder the poor cat was struggling- wow, I am overjoyed- it looks like we have saved ourselves hundreds of pounds ! "Great success" as the boys would say (in a Borat accent!). Best of all, we have Olly back to full health and terrorising the household - just what he does best ...

Shopping opportunities with Achica, The Lady & Amazon

Lots of things seem to have come to fruition this week; we have been invited to offer products on Achica - this is an American business concept that is launching in the UK. Members sign up and join and are given exclusive access to regular offers from top brand names for a period of 48 hours only. We have suggested a selection of products and these will be made available to members in early October. I recommend signing up, there is nothing to lose and it is free!

We signed off a full page ad in The Lady magazine today- as you probably know, Rachel Johnson (sister of Boris) is the new editor and the magazine has undergone a huge update. It costs a very reasonable £1.80 and is printed weekly. I've always had a soft spot for The Lady, it has wonderful, varied and quirky ads combined with a lovely tempting selection of holiday cottages. The next issue is being sent to subscribers this Saturday and will be on shelves Tuesday 28th. We are offering readers 20% discount on Magniwool and 15% discount on other products. This particular offer will close on 29th October. Signing off the artwork was not without stress; the first time I saw the proposals was this morning and it all had to be agreed by 12.00 as it was going to print the same afternoon! Fortunately the gorgeous Bev was on hand to help deal with the complexities of finding images in the right format because computer wizardry is just not my thing ...

This week has also seen the launch of Magniwool and some other products, especially blankets, on Amazon. White Cloud has a shop of its own and we decided to include lesser known items, such as the dog beds and the lovely skincare presentation boxes. The Intensive Cream, in particular, sells consistently well and it was a great delight to find 72 pots hidden, separated from the rest of their mates, in the store room.

Time to call it a day- yesterday involved driving up to Newcastle and back again! I took our eldest son back to University- he and 3 close friends are all sharing a house this year. Oh the joys of student accommodation... a distinctly grotty terraced house which was definitely not presented to its best advantage. Disgraceful really, given that they have all paid a deposit of £650 already. Never mind; 4 Army/RAF students fronting up to the landlord and the letting agent tomorrow could be interesting, as there is no way these young men will put up with being pushed around ...

Woolly Jumper and the quest for Sheep Soap

Good news and bad news!
First the good news: at the end of last week I picked up a gorgeous hand knitted cardigan- made locally for me by a friend who knits with Gothland wool from a flock of sheep living on May Hill. This particular wool is a soft grey with subtle brown flecks and the brief was a cardigan, not frilly, but quite plain able to be worn with anything. Ann has done a wonderful job and made a classic cardigan with a chunky zip and upright collar with lovely detailing. It has rapidly moved up the stakes to "favourite jumper"- everything else has been relegated! It will be particularly appropriate during National Wool Week 11th-17th October!

The bad news: At the weekend in a local emporium I saw some lovely sheep shaped wool soaps and thought they would make perfect gifts for special customers. Unfortunately afore mentioned emporium was not prepared to divulge where the soaps came from so I am now spending a ridiculous amount of time searching on the internet, to no avail. However, being a determined Leo I am unable to take no for an answer and will continue to look as I think these will make great gifts from us for Christmas and I'd also like to take them to the Cheltenham Gift Fair in October... if anyone has any helpful suggestions, please do let us know ...

All in a week's work

Running your own business is never dull! During the past week we have discussed what will provide as give-away gifts at The Deco Affair in London on 14th October. Good thing we decided on small square pouches of wool filled with aromatic sachets as I now realise that 11th-17th October has been designated Wool Week! It will be good to have some representation at an event that will showcase small and special companies to interested designers and decorators.

Last weekend we were invited to supply a cosy wool underblanket and some wool pillows at very short notice to a very special local historic house. There was a meeting of Trustees and one elderly lady refused to stay unless something was done to improve her bed! We suggested what we thought would help and then hand delivered the underblanket and pillows. We all agreed that nothing would be said to the lady in question but it would remain a lovely and unexpected surprise for Saturday evening. It seems it was a huge success and very favourably received. Opportunities to exceed expectation are always worth taking!

Hurray! We have had confirmation from our French trade customers that our products have passed their strict fire testing and it means that from this week, starting with pillows, they will be launched in five of their shops. We have devoted a lot of time to attention and detail; this has included developing small labels in French to be attached to the pillows and we are enjoying seeing this particular relationship come to fruition.

A level results, Student Finance rant and thank goodness for a holiday

A great result! Following on from our previous post, we are incredibly relieved to be able to say that our middle son achieved 3 As in his A levels. We got the news the day of my 50th birthday and were sitting in a cafe in Gloucester nervously awaiting a telephone call. When he rang to say what he had got, I have to admit I burst into tears- it was the most enormous relief. Interestingly the boys at his school seem to have done particularly well this year and nearly all of them achieved the results, and therefore the places, that they really wanted.

On the subject of university- we have been experiencing the unique joy that is Student Finance- our eldest son is already at Newcastle University and about to start his second year. Forms were filled in especially early (June) and we thought no more of it. Being a diligent sort of young man he rang to check up last week, only to find that a vital bit of info was missing and nothing had been progressed. I know this sounds like a rant, but how is the "customer" supposed to know there is a problem? It must be reaching the advanced age of 50 but I find myself getting easily infuriated and long for the "good old days" when customer service really did mean exactly that. Anyway, the long and short of it is that Sebastian is now part of the backlog and back at the bottom of the queue... aargh!!!

All in all, a holiday is a very welcome proposition and we are leaving tomorrow for a week together in Cornwall but whether three teenage boys will have got themselves ready in time remains to be seen!

Student Specials, Lanolin Gift Box and Family Holidays and most important, A Level Results

With less than 24 hours to go, there is a fair degree of worry in the household as we wait for middle son's A level results... like thousands of other worried parents and students up and down the land, we have been reading lots of newspaper articles describing the 50% cut in places available through clearing, some students probably not getting secured places despite getting the grades needed and the fact that 1991/1992 was a boom baby year. This time tomorrow it will all be done and dusted and at least we will know how to move forward, but at the moment it is a horrible waiting game.

We decided now would be a good opportunity to devise a special Student Offer, so we have come up with a 20% discount on Single Duvets (Autumn, Winter or All Seasons) and also a 20% discount on Merino Underblankets. Purchased together, we will add in a lambswool pillow free of charge. This is something some friends suggested last year and we decided to put a good idea into practise! It is going to have a mention in Bargain Hunter in the Daily Telegraph on August 28th, so if it is something that tempts you, we suggest acting soon and letting us know ...

Our Lanolin Skincare range has had a bit of an update; we have consolidated the gift idea to one Presentation Box, everything all snuggled inside some lambswool, wrapped with ribbon and looking gorgeous- great value for money at £29.50 as it includes something of everything and also postage.

A precious family holiday is almost on the horizon, with three teenage sons it is quite something that they are all still happy to accompany us, so we will be heading off to North Cornwall, the menfolk will all go cycling and I am heading for a beach that I have been told has tropical shells washed ashore- perfect!

White currant icecream and Steve McCurry Photography Exhibition

Having had a complete glut of white currants this year, we had divine inspiration and asked a local maker of ice cream if she could turn them into bespoke ice cream for us. She runs Hillbrook Farm in Kempley, selling the most delicious and creamiest of ice creams. It entailed Susan corresponding with the Dutch manufacturers of her ice cream maker because, as she says "they can come up with a recipe for anything" and, lo and behold, yesterday we picked up our first tub of home made ice cream! About 5 lbs fruit has been magically transformed into 11 litres of ice cream and 1 litre of sorbet. A great success; home grown fruit usefully transformed into perenially popular ice cream! I'm thinking next year we might have a go with the gooseberries ...

Last Friday we took our youngest son to Birmingham Art Gallery to see a most fabulous retrospective exhibition for the American photographer Steve McCurry. In 1992 he took an iconic photograph of a young girl in a refugee camp in Afghanistan. It appeared on the front cover of National Geographic to great acclaim and most people instantly recognise it. This stunning exhibition in Birmingham covers his work in war torn countries, ranging from Laos, Cambodia, Pakistan, Afghanistan to Sierra Leone and every single photo has beautiful composition and a story to tell. Accompanying the exhibition is a tv documentary recounting the steps it took to re-find the Afghan school girl and the amount of time it has taken- a five star out of five star show- try and make every effort to see it before it finishes in October. Highly recommended!

What a relief- our little orphan chick has been completely accepted by the neurotic stepmother- she endlessly clucks and fusses but to give her her dues, she has raised a nice little clutch of chicks that are beginning to develop their distinctive Appenzeller top knots and here's hoping we can continue to keep them safe from patrolling foxes.

R.I.P Little Friesan Hen (and her chicks)

Well, little Friesan hen and her chicks are no more- a fox got into her run last night and killed her and took 3 out of 4 of the chicks. We went outside this morning to find the door of the run on the ground, a few feathers, but not many, and one little chick who had had a miraculous escape. How it had avoided being caught I have no idea and there it was cheeping frantically outside pen number two. Fortunately nasty Appenzeller hen has adopted it as if it was her own, and for that I am relieved. Nasty Appenzeller's temperament was even more feisty than normal this morning and I suspect she had also endured night time trauma as some of her feathers were also on the ground.
Foxes are supreme killers and they will return again and again once they know there is easy prey to be had. Little Friesan hen had been with us for about 4 years- ever since we bought her at Usk Country Show and she was the sole survivor of a particularly devastating fox attack 2 years ago. Such is the cycle of life ...

Blog for Dogs (and other pets of course)

Saturday was spent preparing and cutting up more dog bed fleeces- this gargantuan effort usually gets put off as long as possible because we all know how long it takes and what a mess it causes! Step 1- heave and push an enormous 35m roll of wool fleece down from the top store room having rounded up some unwilling helpers- Step 2- move the enormous hall table to outside - Step 3- manoeuvre the 35m roll somewhere near the table so that it can be unrolled and cut. Step 4- do the whole thing again in reverse, but at least there is less of the roll to manhandle! We spent about two and half hours cutting and measuring before we all got fed up and decided enough was enough... Mind you, the dogs thought it was marvellous and even Olly got into the spirit of it all. The woolly fluff goes absolutely everywhere and the big advantage of cutting outside means it gets picked up and used for nesting material ....

Speaking of nesting, one little bantam chick somehow managed to achieve finding its way out of his cage last night and first thing this morning I found it cheeping furiously - how it survived the clutches of a passing buzzard I just don't know. Thank goodness I found it before the dogs did! Bertie is particularly enthusiastic about chicks, all that lovely squeaking and cheeping seems to bring out his worst murderous instincts! Anyway, mother hen kindly rewarded my efforts with a quick peck which did seem a little unfair!

Baby Bantam Bulletin and misleading eco-friendly claims by 50% of hotels and B & Bs

Despite our very best efforts, the little bantam chick mentioned in the last blog post, did not survive- we did our best, but it was not to be. A mother's presence is definitely preferable- we now have a total of 8 thriving little chicks shared between two separate hens and the difference in their characters is fascinating! The Friesan bantam is a natural mother- calm, dependable and a quiet presence. The other hen, a Golden Appenzeller (see photo) is a bit uppity, always fidgeting, slightly on edge and fiercely protective (we have to wear gloves to go anywhere near her!). We just have to wait and see who produces the most well-balanced offspring!

It was interesting to read this week that "half of hotels mislead guests with eco-friendly claims". According to the Green Tourism Business Scheme, more than 50% of hotels, B & Bs and guesthouses use misleading terms such as "locally sourced" to describe goods bought at a nearby supermarket to boost their credentials. Other top claims are "low energy" for using low voltage light bulbs and using "recylclable" instead of "recycled" products. About a year ago we approached a very upmarket premium hotel group and were completely horrified to find that they were prepared to spend no more than £15 on each duvet in their hotel beds. As a chain of hotels advertising luxury and exclusivity, it seemed to us that they were neglecting what guests are most seeking- a comfortable and wonderful nights sleep. Certainly good and restful sleep seems to come pretty near the bottom of the pecking order in terms of priority for many establishments.

Chicks and Cheeps!

With all three of our sons away this week, we are adjusting to a life of Darby and Joan- the massive reduction in the food bill is absolutely wonderful, and so is the break from ceaseless washing of smelly mis-matching socks! Our friesan bantam has hatched four gorgeous little chicks, however the fifth egg was slow to hatch and she decided she couldn't be bothered to wait any longer. We have rescued it and, amazingly, it is trying to hatch but without a mum to give encouraging cheeps... this is a dilemma- if it succeeds against all odds, it will certainly deserve a chance and we just have to hope we can secrete it back under mummy hen tonight without her really noticing she has gained a fifth chick. Strange how a little gap in the family has been replaced by the impending arrival of a small new baby chick!

The latest container arrived safely last week- all safely gathered in and accounted for, and a quick turnaround for most of the stock, as it was largely pillows ordered for a company in the South of France. It has been an exercise in revising our school level French, but rewarding to work with a Company who recognises quality and traditional values over and above cheapness.

There we are, two sorts of "cheaps" and time for me to go and check on the new additions in the chicken population ...

Olly, Sheerluxe competition, Tadpole PR and Gooseberry Fool!

Olly's spot! Here he is, now firmly esconced in our lives, family and work. He has all of us exactly where he wants us and we love him dearly. Like all Siamese cats, he is brainy, feisty and naughty. More like little dogs than cats, they are hugely companionable and he never fails to entertain us.

We were absolutely delighted that over 6,000 people took part in our recent Sheerluxe competition, news like this is tremendously heartening and bolsters our confidence in our products.

Much of what we do and achieve would not be possible without Marisa and Kat at Tadpole PR; we first made contact a year or so ago and since then they have jostled us along and generally prodded and persuaded. Our meetings generally consist of a rendezvous at The Ludlow Food Centre, half way between where we all live, which gives all of us an excuse to visit the wonderful food shop and pretend to talk business while Kat eats her bacon butties! Seriously, we feel very grateful to have the support and help of two such optimistic, friendly and enthusiastic people. The main focus of this morning's meeting was to show them our new packaging and to discuss the next stage of our new brochure. We expect to have this finished around the end of September and it will reflect the look of our website and include all that we have recently been working on. A long time ago we were advised that a brochure should be renewed every two years to keep it interesting. In other words, just as you think you have got it right, 18 months goes by and it is time to look at it all over again!

Last but by no means least.....
My saintly cousin has made her annual pilgrimage from NZ to come and stay for the summer and thanks to her unstinting efforts with secateurs and protective gloves, we have rediscovered our gooseberry bushes! Absolutely laden with fruit, I decided we would post up one of my favourite recipes:

Gooseberry Fool - serves 4-6

About 450g/1lb of gooseberries, topped and tailed
2 oz unsalted butter
4 tbsp or so of muscavado sugar
Half a pint of single cream or half each single and double
3 egg yolks

Stew the gooseberries gently in the melted butter and sugar in a heavy bottomed pan, turning frequently as the sugar begins to coat and caramelise. Do not allow the berries to overcook. They are cooked when you can crush them with a fork without resistance. Leave to cool.
Scald the cream, then pour over the beaten egg yolks, whisking as you go, before returning the mixture to the pan. Continue to cook and stir or whisk over a gently heat until the custard has thickened. Pay attention at this stage or the mixture will scramble! Fold the fruit into the custard, cool and spoon into glasses or a glass bowl.

Olly news, Summer Newsletter and the many capers of switching bank accounts!

Olly news-
Olly continues to keep us exactly where he wants us; increasingly confident of his surroundings he has taken to chasing Bertie, the mildest mannered Jack Russell there ever was. Great fun and highly amusing! Olly is a huge success- who knows he might be modelling cat beds next- he certainly has the requisite supermodel temperament!

First achievement of the week! 2500 summer newsletters printed, folded, put in envelopes and sent out- neatly but coincidentally timed with the news of a VAT increase! I think the delay in the increase has taken most people by surprise, most businesses were expecting implementation rather sooner than early January. From the beginning we have tried to put in a little bit extra for our existing customers; our belief is that they are responsible for the success of the business and they deserve extra nurturing and rewards.

Second achievement of the week- although not quite accomplished yet; the moving of the bank accounts! As luck would have it, we are right in the middle of switching bank accounts just as we have to send a payment for the next Order to New Zealand. It hasn't been easy for them or us, but by tomorrow, fingers crossed, the dust might have settled and the poor ancient fax machine might have some time off work! It has been quite a dilemma for some time; we knew it would be painful, but it is time for the company to tackle more and we need the help of a designated business advisor. I just hope and pray our local branch of Barclays does not get the chop under some short-sighted cost cutting exercise. Perhaps the new coalition government will help foster a return to old fashioned common sense in all sorts of areas in our lives. Oh joy, the unwelcome arrival of four sets of new debit cards, four sets of new numbers, four sets of online banking numbers- all supposed to be different, that we remember only in our heads and don't commit to paper....

Olly the Siamese, Pet websites and Frampton Country Show - 12th September

This is the new office cat! Olly arrived in our lives last Friday- all the way from Epsom, he now lives in Gloucestershire and has got all of us firmly where he wants us. The dogs are coping really well with the new upstart and, apart from our lacerated arms and legs, we all love him! Just what a Siamese should be; fearless, naughty and adventurous- he is really great fun- pint sized, he thinks he is bigger than he is and nothing daunts him. Perfect, just the cat I have been looking for ...

On the subject of pets, we have recently had a flurry of activity linking with other pet websites and suggest it is worth taking a look at, amongst others, a particularly good video on the K9 Magazine website http://www.k9magazine.co.uk/ talking about White Cloud wool pet beds. Or take a look at the video below.

Other White Cloud news- we have been delighted by the number of visits to the http://www.sheerluxe.com/competition/157.htm website, it offers the chance of winning a £500 voucher and it is open to anyone to take part.

Just today we have sent an application for a trade stand at Frampton Country Show on September 12th- this is a lovely old fashioned traditional country show in Gloucestershire, with a definite emphasis on dogs, sporting events and rural life. We thoroughly enjoy it and will be going along this year with lots of wool pet beds, wool pillows and lanolin skin creams and if room allows, some lovely warm wool blankets. If you are local to Gloucestershire, please make a day of it and, even better, come and find the White Cloud stand ... http://www.framptoncountryfair.co.uk/ It is the 25th Anniversary Fair this year.