A little Elf!

Santa has been visiting this weekend in his lovely grotto upstairs in the gift shop.  We did not see much of him    as he stayed in the warm this weekend, however we did see his elf!  Very appropriately named, "Holly", one of the regular staff working in the shop volunteered to help Santa this year and what a good and cheerful job she has made of it!  Holly is a very versatile person as we have seen her working in the restaurant doing table waiting as well as cleaning two evenings a week - she is a real worker and is well loved by everyone!

Elf Holly

Santa will be back in the grotto for the next two weekends from 2-4 each day.

Out and about there is much frantic shopping going on ready for the big day and this weekend was a particularly busy one for Mike at Arkle plants and shrubs - he nearly sold out of Christmas trees today!

Sadly this will be Mike's last Christmas here at the Jinney Ring as he is retiring at Christmas.  Taking over his business and plant unit is Karl who is a local and grows his own plants close by.  KArl was here today meeting customers and helping with the trees.  He has assured us that we will still have the same quality if plants as previously - of course our only input has been to have a little taster when they are planted in the Jinney Ring gardens!  We understand that there is also a vacancy for a new gardener here too as Jean (Mike's sister) and Chris (Mike's wife) are also retiring and they have been maintaining the gardens for a long time on and off.  We will miss them all but expect them to come back and visit us regularly.

Here is a reminder of the help we give the gardening team:

Helping out in the Spring - they put up wire barriers!