How to Checkout on Our New Website!

So, we have a brand new website, provided by Square Up, who are a payment processor, we have the website for free and they take a fee for processing the payments. I find this a superb way for our business to work because it means we are not wasting money on monthly website fees, without knowing if we are going to make a sale or not and when we do make a sale, Square Up get paid. I think that is a realistic way for them to monetize their business, so that it is fair to them and fair to small business owners.

Whilst we are talking about business, if you do have your own small business and because of the situation with Coronavirus and having to shift your business online, I really do recommend Square Up, you can literally make your own e-commerce site and only pay for it, as a percentage of your sales.

If you would like to look into that, please use this link, which means that you will get free processing fees for a time and so will I, for referring you. Now, I must point out, that I'm not referring you because of the freebie but because it has really worked for me, the free processing is an incidental happiness that occurs if you use this link.

In the main, people have been finding the website easy and simple to use, once they get to know how it works and I have found it to be really helpful because, a lot of the time, when people are putting in their orders, the work is automatically done by the website, the stock levels, the payment and the organising the delivery, or Click and Collect time, which means I can juggle the home learning that I am doing with Elijah, far more effectively and it is better for our family, all round. More about that, here.

If you are using the website checkout for the first time, there is a bit of a learning curve. Several people, upon using it for the first time, have found it difficult to check out. Sometimes, they have tried late at night, not been able to do it and then they have tried the next morning and it has worked. Sometimes, they have chosen the Google Pay button, instead of the Checkout button and that has worked better for them, sometimes, they have found putting in a full postcode doesn't work, so they have just put in the first 3 digits. It is frustrating when you want to buy something from a local business ad you want to support them but you just can't seem to make that payment go through. Please don't worry, or feel embarrassed, it's not just you. If these were normal times, I would stand by your side and show you how it's done on a computer in our shop but the reason we need the website is because, this is our future and this is our new normal.

This is why I have written this article, to help you navigate your way through the Checkout section of our website.

How To Checkout on Our New Website!

First go to our website, here.

How do you find the products that you want?

1/ You can search for an individual item by clicking on the magnifying glass icon, circled in red in the picture below, to the top right hand side and entering your search term in.

2/ You can click on the relevant category on the list to the left hand side of the pictures, as also circled in red, in the picture below.

3/ You can browse through all pictures of the items and click on the ones you want, which gives you the opportunity to put them into your basket.

Once you have clicked on an item you like, to put it into your basket, select the green 'Add to Cart' button, circled in red in the picture below.

If you want to continue adding items to your basket, just look at the bottom of that section, underneath the Checkout Button and Google Pay Button and in blue, in small letters, it says, 'Continue Shopping', click on that. Keep repeating the selection procedure steps above, until you are ready to checkout and then select the green Checkout Button, circled in red, in the picture below. Then follow the steps outlined in the next section, 'How Do I Buy the Item or Items, that I have put into my Basket?'

How Do I Buy the Item or Items, that I have put into my Basket?

1/ To buy your item, or items, you need to click on the green 'Checkout' button, that has been circled in the picture beneath, in red.

2/ If you have continued browsing the products and you can't see the Checkout Button on your screen, you can get to it, by clicking on the trolly icon, in the top right hand corner. Circled in Red, in the picture below.

3/ Once you have clicked on the Green Checkout button, you will be taken to a section titled Secure Checkout.

4/ There is a subheading underneath that called, Your Details. (To the right hand side of the page you will see your Order Summary.)

5/ You will need to fill in all parts of the Your Details Section, taking special care the for the Phone Number part. Scroll down and select 'United Kingdom' for the Country Code, (If that is where you are ordering from) and then in the box for your phone number,
DO NOT write the first 0 of your number, as circled in the picture below.

6/ Click the Black Button that says NEXT.

7/ Please note, that if you are still on the Your Details section, then you have done something wrong, you'll need to scroll up and see if there is a message in red and correct what the message has highlighted.

8/ If you have done the last part successfully, you will then move onto the next section, this is called Store Pick Up, as shown in the picture below. Details are given about how to pick up at our shop. You can keep the default time you are given, or you can select another later time, by clicking on 'Schedule for Later'. The dot is beside the one that is selected.

 9/ Look further down that section and you will find the black button with NEXT written on it, in white, select that button. This is circled in red, in the picture below.

10/ That will bring the next section up, which is pictured below, called Payment Information.

In this section, if there is just one digit wrong, or one space, in the wrong place, the transaction won't go through. So, you have to really double check everything that you enter.

 11/ First you'll have to enter your credit or debit card number, that is the long number across the middle of the card. Just type one number in after the other, no spaces. (The website will automatically put the spaces in for you)

12/ Then you will have to enter the expiry date of the card, don't mix this up with the date of issue and make sure you have written the exact digits on the card, otherwise your transaction will not be successful. (The computer will put in he forward slash)

13/ You will then have to type in the CVV number. This is the last 3 digits of the number printed in black on the back of your card, on the signature strip. Get them right, otherwise the transaction won't go through.

14/ Next you will have to enter your postcode, this has to be the same postcode as the card is registered to, otherwise the transaction will be unsuccessful. You will have to make sure that you type in the first digits and then leave a space and then type the following digits. The postcode BA4 5AS, for example needs a space between the 4 and the 5, if you don't leave a space, the postcode won't be accepted.

15/ Then you will need to enter your billing address, make sure the postcode matches the one you have written by your card details and has the same space in between.

16/ Then you will have to enter your phone number. Again, you will select the United Kingdom in the scroll down menu and only write your number, without the leading 0, otherwise, it will not work and you will get an error message.  The photo below show the correct format for how to write your phone number.

 17/ Select the Black Button that says 'Next'. It will bring up the Review & Submit Order section, as shown by the picture below.

 18/ You'll notice that you can write me a note, you don't have to but you might need to if you have already ordered and you want to add this order to another order you are due to pick up, or if you can't make that time, or if you want to ask about another product. That kind of thing.

19/ You might want to save your information for a faster checkout next time, or you might want to do the same process that you have here because a faster checkout involves a code getting sent to your phone and you might not like it.

20/ There is a big black button at the end of this section which says Commit to Buy, click on that and your order should go through.

21/ You will definitely know if your order has gone through because there will be a confirmation screen that pops up. It looks like the picture below. It starts off with 'Your Order has been received'.

22/ It tells you when your order is due to be picked up, the pick up location and even has a link to directions.

24/ You will probably receive an email and/or a text message confirming your order too.

25/ If you don't get the above message, then your order hasn't gone through and you need to scroll up and down the page you are stuck on, to find an error message written in red.

26/ If, however, you don't consider technology your strength and you have managed to follow these instructions and you have persevered, then congratulations and you definitely deserve to get your order! WELL DONE!

Please let me know if you have successfully ordered using these instructions, I'd love to know. I'd also love to know if there is anything I should amend in these instructions.

Thank you for your time and effort in doing this.

Karen.

The Plastic Audit

Milk From Horrington Milk Hut, just one off the changes we are making to reduce our plastic usage.

We are a humble coffee and health food shop in a little town in Somerset called Shepton Mallet, people live here, people pass through here and people visit here. The footfall in our little town is low, with Mendip District Council refocusing the centre of town up by the retail park. The retail park is crammed full with well known brand names, whereas the high street still retains a certain innocence, there is still a bakery, some really good places to hang out for coffee and some cool vintage shops. The high street is worth a visit for it's quirkiness and character. It is a very different shopping experience and I would say it is a cheap place to shop, cheap and friendly. We also have a little market on a Friday, with fruit, vegetables, bread, meat and other local traders and we have a much bigger Sunday Market on every 3rd Sunday of the month, this is when the town really comes alive and all those people that were so busy working on the other days of the week are able to come and enjoy spending their money in their local community. It's so special that people even make the effort to visit from further afield.

So, that's a bit of a background to the location of our shop, just an independent shop on a very independent high street, driven by the passions and obsessions of the owners and what has captured my imagination is the challenge to reduce our reliance on plastic and to reduce the amount of it that we send out into the world as post-consumer plastic.

When we first opened 9 years ago, originally in Enfield on a train station platform, one of our main aims was running a sustainable business and we have stuck to that ethos and we hardly produce any waste. Gardners love to take our coffee grounds, we recycle or reuse our cardboard boxes, we make sure that we recycle our bottles, compost our food waste and so on, it takes weeks to produce a bin liner of rubbish but wouldn't it be great if there was no bin liner of rubbish and wouldn't it be great if the world saw everything as resources rather than rubbish?

Reducing Plastic in our Business and Post-Consumer waste

I have been going through the items that we sell and working on reducing our plastic and day by day making little changes. It is a matter of slowly transferring and changing but some things have been cut with no transition. So here is a list of the things we have done so far recently to try to reduce plastic usage in our business, or to reduce the amount of plastic that is released into the world post-consumer.

Washing up liquid is available on tap for you to fill your own bottle with and reuse.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil is available on tap for you to refill your own bottle with.

Dr Bronner's Castile Soap Bars are in stock, they have up to 18 different uses from washing your hair to even, if you are brave enough, brushing your teeth.

We don't use plastic straws, we use stainless steel straws in people's smoothies and fruit juices.

Stainless Steel and Bamboo Straws are available to buy.

We sell Bamboo Reusable Coffee Cups, with a 20p discount off your hot drink when you use your own cup.

We recycle any of our paper cups that have been used and left with us and we will be using plant made cups in the future, if people still need take out cups and lids.

We recycle any tetra packs that we use and make sure we pass on information to our customers, where they can recycle theirs after use.

We have stopped buying in products that have the misleading arrow symbol on them that looks like you can recycle the packaging but actually you can't and it just means the company has paid a subsidy.

We have sourced local milk that is supplied in refillable glass bottles and are phasing out our milk in plastic bottles, if this goes well.

We are committed, in future, to buying items in bulk that we usually store on our shelves in small packets and refilling your jars and packets with them instead. We are transitioning at this time. Lentils and buckwheat flour are already available like this.

Herbs and spices are now available for you to fill your own jar for 50p (Unless it is a very expensive herb or spice, then the price will be higher), or you can use one of our jars and it will be 70p. If we haven't got what you want, we will order it in.

We used to buy flapjacks in wrapped in plastic, they are now made by us everyday. They are vegan, gluten free and have no sugar in apart from the dates and bananas used in the very simple recipe.

We have teabags that don't have plastic in BUT they still come presented with a plastic film around the cardboard carton. Yogi Tea have been brilliant and don't have plastic in their teabags or around them.

We sell Toilet Rolls in home compostable film, made with plants.

We have If You Care parchment baking paper, that can be used again and again and can be home composted.

Our take out bags for cakes and toasties are paper bags with a home compostable film window.

Our customers are expected to use their own bags, or use a box from us, if we have one to hand, for their shopping.

We will continue to buy in things to order, if you want them but we will contact the manufacturer to remind them to update or change their packaging, if it is made of plastic, especially non-recyclable plastic.

Future Aims to Reduce Plastic in Our Business and Post Consumer-Waste

We want to buy our coffee in sacks, not in plastic bags but I still want it to be fairly traded and organic.

We want more fresh fruit and vegetables for people to snack on spontaneously, instead of wrapped in plastic snacks. The fruit and vegetables must be sourced from local and independent wholesalers, so that we can make sure that more of your pound stays circulating in the local community.

We want to write to the companies where I think the products are good, it's just a shame about the packaging to ask them to change it.

We have written to St Paul's School to ask if they will be come a collector of old writing materials in our area.

We will take responsibility for the plastic that we still have in the shop and take it off for the customer and recycle it, or if not able to be recycled, send back to the manufacturer of the product with a note to ask them to change their packaging.

We will continue to reduce the amount of things we buy which use plastic, especially once use plastic.

We will continue to research the best way that old plastic can be used and look at the details of what we are doing through internet resources and information.

We will continue to be transparent in this subject and to share with our customers what we are doing and the blocks we are experiencing in making changes.

We will stop buying hand towels wrapped in plastic and will either use kitchen rolls in compostable film if we can find some,  or we will use old but clean rags for spillages and cleaning.

Instead of plastic sponges we will source loofah sponges for cleaning, from our supplier and we will also stock them in the shop.

We are looking to find a wholesaler for tiffin boxes, so that you can use them for take out food, not only from us but from other local outlets.

Turning Back the Plastic Tide

It is hard and it is challenging, to make these changes. When I look around me at the world we live in and I see the amount of plastic we are surrounded by in our everyday lives, I feel very sad and upset and I really don't know how we can make a difference, when even as I write this, there is a factory somewhere, churning out plastic things. I think the people that have seen the light and know that this just can't go on feel very passionately about this and we do have to do what we can as each individual do, to reverse the plastic tide! So, whether you take one step, or several steps, it is worth doing. We have to do it, this is the only way we can communicate to the decision makers, to the manufacturers, to the factory owners. Our little actions together, will make big changes. Sometimes it can feel hopeless and it can feel futile and it can feel very overwhelming, especially as a business owner to try to make those changes but in it's turn, it can also feel empowering.

I have been inspired by other people in my community to make bigger changes and more focused changes, so hopefully, we can keep inspiring each other and sharing ideas and good practices. I am not saying it is easy, it isn't and it can feel very challenging in a mental health kind of way, like an I'm turning into a crazy woman type of way and the worst thing is the guilt but we just have to keep thinking positively and thinking about what we can do and what we have done to make things better and that is why I have done a plastic audit in my business and my home.

Please let me know about the changes you have made and the solutions you have found to the plastic problem.

Thanks for reading. xx

Travellers and Townsfolk all agree Collett Park is beautiful!

What is the definition of a Traveller? What do I have to do to be one? Can you only be born as one? What if I want to be free and travel in my caravan and camp up, am I allowed to use the Traveller Sites provided by the council? Ok, so I am quite ignorant about all of this. Who's allowed to camp where and when? Where can a Traveller go, where can their families live without being hassled? Where is there, with proper rubbish collections and amenities? Where?

A group of Travellers have moved from the Shepton Mallet Football Fields and are now trying to set up camp in Collett Park. Being a nosy and natural Journalist type, ten years of travel reporting has left me a changed woman, I had to see what all the traffic queues were about. So, I followed the high street up to the blockage and found lots of police and a queue of caravans. Police have blocked off the Park Road on the approach to Collett Park and there are queues on all of the approaches to the Cenotaph Roundabout and Shepton Mallet High Street has been closed, right at the St Paul's Road Junction.

I went up to a group of people, standing at the edge of the road, one of the women there was filming. I asked if they were travellers, I was a bit nervous about asking that, in case it was the wrong phrase but the lady that was filming said that they were and she asked me what I thought about the situation where they would like to set up camp in Collett Park. So, with the camera still filming, I said there should be more places available for them to camp up in and said there should be proper rubbish collections for them and amenities and she nodded her head enthusiastically, which I was pleased about because it's just nice to agree, especially with the weather being so hot. Then she tried to get me to agree that it was wrong that the police had blocked the park off, as they were now separated from their children. I reiterated that it would be nice if there was a field with all the facilities they needed but I don't think that went down well. I reminded the Police and the Travellers that they are all human and they need to be respectful to each other and kind. I don't think that went down too well with the Police or the Travellers and I joked that I was going to get beaten up by everyone involved. I found the group of people that I was talking to friendly and relaxed and feel as a group they suffer a lot of prejudice because of a few individuals that might behave badly.

I feel a bit ignorant about the rights and the wrongs and the legality of it all but there must be some moral obligation for Travellers to have a good choice of different sites to stay and there just isn't. There is a problem about landownership, who said that anyone ever owned any land? How did that come about? I thought that we should share and be kind to each other.

I am typing this, sitting in my coffee shop and all around me people are chatting about it passionately and disagreeing with each other, well, disagreeing with me actually! I keep joining in the discussion from time to time and putting in my tuppence worth but nobody in here agrees with me.

Let's get this straight, Collett Park, the park gifted to the town by John Collett is not an appropriate place to be used by travellers to camp in. Well, that's my first instinct but I wonder what would John Collett say? Could there be a little bit where Travellers could be welcomed, the toilets open to be used and for regular rubbish collections to be organised? I mean, personally, I don't want anyone to camp in Collett Park because it's so beautiful and sculpted and looked after, however maybe that's a really good reason to camp up. I think that's a point on which we can all agree. Collett Park is a beautiful, beautiful place. Who wouldn't want to camp there?

I wanted to see for myself how the Travellers were settling in at Collett Park. There was a calm and peaceful family atmosphere, washing drying on the line, children playing. No loud music, or smoking of drugs, or any aggression. Dogs on the site were friendly and run up to greet us, children spoke to us quite openly. It was a safe and calm spot to be, I almost felt like joining them. Then, slowly and quietly, everyone started to call their children in and packed up their possessions and picked up any litter and then left. They were cheerful and cheeky and left as good sports. The police handled the situation excellently, with great respect to the travellers and I think they did really well.

Most of all, the park wasn't an unsafe place to be. It was probably one of the safest places to be, with a high police presence on the circumference of the park and relaxed families inside.

#SupermarketSwap!

Today, it was the General Election and that made me think about the way people vote, whether tactically, or with their heart, or any other method they choose. I thought about how important voting is and then I thought about how we vote with the pound in our pocket for the shops that we want on our high street, every single time that we go shopping and every single time we buy something.

When we first moved to Shepton Mallet, I was riding on the crest of a wave of organising over twenty one Shock Cash Mobs in the Enfield area, where at least £100 was re-directed in the course of each mob into the businesses of local traders. The Shock Cash Mob campaign captured the headlines in our local press, when we were based in Enfield and even resulted in TV and Radio interviews and the idea spread across the UK, with copy cat Shock Cash Mobs being set up by others independently of me!

Then when we moved to Shepton Mallet, we discovered there was less disposable income and people were not able to just traipse into a store waving their tenners and buying lots of goodies and there were just less people in general, available to join in this mad and merry scheme. I like to go with the flow and not flog a dead horse, so I stopped that and I have been keeping my mind open to something else. Something that I could do in my business, as an individual, that would help already loyal customers and friends to make sure that we make a profit and we are still around in the months and years to come and today, I realised that I have been doing just that very slowly and redirecting money that might have been earmarked for a supermarket, into our little store instead. I don't know if you already know but in the 6 months up to the beginning of this year, we only broke even. There were no wages for us, we were depending entirely on our tax credits and also on housing benefit. We are still in the same situation but we are now tweaking things and we will start making a profit. We would love to be able to pay our own way, at least starting off by being able to pay our rent for our home.

Over the nearly four years that we have been open here in Shepton Mallet, some of our customers have noticed that they can enjoy supporting us even more by choosing something that they might usually buy from a supermarket and getting it from us instead. Maybe a bar of chocolate, maybe a some Miso Soup, maybe some tea bags, maybe a specially made up gift basket. We generally try not to stock exactly the same things as a supermarket, as we are here to fill a gap in the market, a certain niche, however, there is a little overlap here and there and supermarkets do go and check out what local stores are selling and if successful, they then stock those items. So, we always have to be one step ahead and one of the things I love doing is researching new products and recipes and visiting trade shows! 

I am creating a campaign that will not only help me and my shop but that others in Shepton Mallet can replicate and perpetuate. It is a simple campaign that hinges on the use of a hashtag phrase, that we can use across Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and generate support from our loyal customers and remind them to spend mindfully and to support their community directly by swapping at least one thing they would usually buy from a supermarket, to buying it from a small, independent and local business instead! It's not a case of totally abandoning the supermarkets either, they are there, they provide employment, they are convenient, they fill their own gap that a small family business cannot fill in the same way. I believe there is room for the big corporations and the little businesses too. This is not a fight, it's more about making people aware of their choices and the power they wield with that little shiny pound coin, I do especially like the design of the new ones!

We will be the first shop in the UK to launch #SupermarketSwap on 9th June 2017, on the very day that the election results are known. We know that as other independents in Shepton Mallet see how we increase our sales, they in turn will make use of the phrase #SupermarketSwap and encourage their customers to divert their pounds into their local store instead of habitually spending in the supermarkets and chain stores! 

Any small, independent, local business is free to take this campaign and use it for themselves, please comment here and let us know how you are doing.

If you know a small business owner, please share this blog with them and let them know about the power of the #SupermarketSwap.

If you are a small business owner, please use this phrase and share with your customers what you have that other people could drop from the supermarket and pick up from your shop!

#SupermarketSwap 

Get it from your local shop!

We are just saying that if you are in a supermarket, put one item down and get it from your local shop. If you are in a local shop, think about your shopping for the week, what do you need to get? What meals are you making, what clothes do you need, what gifts do you need? Then get one more thing than you usually would, from that little shop. That one extra thing makes such a massive difference to the viability and sustainability of that one little business. 

So, even if you might have felt that voting today was hard, or you felt like you might not have made a difference, all I can say is that it is really important to vote and it is really important too, to realise that you get to vote about the changing face of your high street and your local economy nearly every single day.

Don't forget to vote!

Update 27th June 2017:
Thank you to The Shepton Mallet Journal for covering this story!

A Simply Nourishing Avocado Chocolate Smoothie Recipe!

This is just an easy peasy recipe, that can be thrown together and ready to drink within 5 minutes, as long as you don't get distracted! I get distracted sometimes, but usually, when we are selling this in our shop, I manage to concentrate long enough to get to the end!

1/ You need to throw the following ingredients into a strong blender:

1/2 an avocado scooped out
250 ml Almond Breeze Unsweetened Almond Milk
1 x Frozen Banana (If you don't have to hand use an unfrozen one and throw more ice in)
1 x Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract by Taylor and Coleridge
1 x Tablespoon Agave Sweetener Chantico Original
1 and a half x tablespoon  Raw Cacao Powder by The Raw Chocolate Company (Substitute Cocoa powder, if you wish)
A handful of ice.

2/ Blend.

3/ Pour into a big glass. We serve ours in mason jar!

This is delicious! Smooth, nutritious and delicious.

Iron Man Waffles!

I am really pleased that I have at last perfected these tasty waffles and they tick so many boxes for people with special dietary needs too!

I specifically wanted to create a recipe that was rich in iron, with about 2% of your daily iron intake in every waffle but it had to be gluten-free, suitable for vegans and low in calories, at only 81 calories per waffle and low in sugar, all at the same time.

These waffles taste great topped with strawberries, which are very high in vitamin C, which helps the body process the Iron and they have a low Glycemic Index (GI).

This is the kind of recipe that you will be able to take out, for example 20g of the Buckwheat Flour, and sub it with 20g of a protein powder instead, for example Pulsin Rice Protein Powder, in order to up the protein content and lessen the carbohydrates at the same time.

Instead of Almond Milk, you could sub some alternative dairy-free milk that is chocolate flavoured to give a different twist but don't forget that would of course slightly alter the nutritional content.

This is a great basic recipe but feel free to add your own tweaks and adjustments and let me know how well you got on.

I like mine topped with strawberries and melted dark chocolate. How do you like yours?

IRON MAN WAFFLES

1/ Turn your waffle maker on and if you need to grease it first, make sure that you do!

2/ In a small jug pour in:

 3 x cups of Almond Breeze Unsweetened Milk 

 3 x teaspoons of  Biona Apple Cider Vinegar with Mother.

3/ Into a large jug mix the following dry ingredients:

1/2 a cup of Nairns Gluten Free Porridge Oats

2 x cups of Clearspring Organic Buckwheat Flour

1 and a 1/2 teaspoons of Doves Farm Gluten Free Baking Powder

1 teaspoon of Cinnamon

2 x teaspoons of Ginger

Pinch of salt.

4/ Into the smaller jug with the almond milk mixture inside, mix in the following:

1 x tablespoons of Meridian Blackstrap Molasses  

1 x Tablespoon of Meridian Dark Tahini

3 x Tablespoons of vegetable oil 

3 x Tablespoons of Essential Apple Puree

1 x Teaspoon of Taylor and Coleridge Vanilla Bean Extract

5/ Then pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well, make sure the flour and oats are well combined. 

6/ Then pour the correct amount of mixture into your waffle machine and cook according to that model's instructions. Mine is a heart shaped waffle maker bought for my birthday, I get 18 waffles out of the mixture and they take 2 minutes exactly to cook through. You might need to experiment to find out how yours works best.

Copy Cat Businesses and how to Cope!

Picture by Anne-Marie Sanderson

I am feeling so annoyed having read one of my friend's posts on Facebook where she tells us that whole chunks of her website copy and ideas have been stolen and placed on someone else's website and business literature.

It's made me think about all the times that Gunter and I have suffered from this same copycat syndrome. It doesn't stop there, they will go after your client base too. We even had a business that tried to steal our name and our logo, let alone the ideas!

The gratifying factor is that they copy the things they see but they will never know the true secret to your success that they try to emulate, that's not to say that copying doesn't undermine your business and take the bread out of your mouths but it does mean their days are numbered, their longevity is questionable and their ethical sensibilities are none, even if they insist their business is ethical.

When someone copies you, the usual response from well-meaning friends is that you can choose to see it as flattering, however if someone steals your car, no one says that is flattering. I prefer to look at it this way, the threat to your business is a challenge for you, a challenge for you to focus on the positive and not the negative. Choose to concentrate on your business and all the good things you do and choose to ignore the other business, do not support it, or help to promote it. The one thing that I have noticed is that people that copy are intrinsically negative thinkers and struggle to realise their own brilliance, when they realise their own brilliance, they won't have to rely on yours and in that lies their weakness, if they take on you and try to compete against you, with your own ideas, not their ideas, then how will they ever win that battle? They can't! Their days are numbered because once you cut them from your circle and you are not so generous with your time and your ideas, they will have to stop copying you.

It is a long, slow and painful lesson for them to learn but copying just does NOT WORK. It is a simple equation a business that copies = FAILURE. That business will not last long because copying someone else means that faced with their own challenges in business, they will not have the resources, the though processes, or the experience of how to deal with challenges, they only know how to copy.

So, to anyone, especially my friend, who feels copied in business and stolen from, please take comfort in this, as long as you focus on your business and your positives, you will succeed no matter what, unfortunately I cannot say the same for business owners that copy. They say jealousy is the sincerest form of flattery, that's what they say about copying too......but copying only cheats everyone involved, the business owners and the public.

The one that copies will almost always be a friend, a friend who asks your advice and then takes your secrets for themselves, they'll treat you kindly and then take from you, rather like a conman....'He always seemed so nice', people say after their life savings have been taken, think about it, he wouldn't have been able to take your life savings if he seemed nasty, would he! Yes, it will feel painful cutting them out at first because you're a human with a conscience.

Having been in this situation many times over the past 7 years in Enfield and in Shepton Mallet. I know the way forward for you is to know your positives and concentrate on them.

It is hard to focus on the positive but keep going and blank that business out from your radar. Focus on your goals and your aims and what you are doing.

Bin There, Done That But...

What a great job, in front of the iconic Pyramid Stage!

The reason that I find it difficult to imagine enjoying Glastonbury Festival is because I do not enjoy being in any type of queue, the traffic chaos of last night (June 21st) is something that I would not be able to put up with at all, I cannot tolerate changes in temperature very well at all, especially cold, so being wet and muddy and feeling cold doesn't appeal to me whatsoever. For many years I thought I was just a snob, as I felt the only way I could enjoy the festival would be in a special bit away from the crowds and with no queues and looked after properly. Then after photographing Collett Festival, the other week and being able to go backstage and right up in front of the stage, to get my shots, I realised that perhaps I need to be just working at Glastonbury Festival, in order to enjoy it, rather than being a member of the public. I need to be involved from the inside. I find the whole concept rather overwhelming and the space huge and the amount of choice of what to do just incredible, so for me the whole thing is about getting myself accustomed to the sensory overload that I would experience in these conditions. I've suspected for a long time now, that I am on the high functioning end of the autistic spectrum and that is why I have these issues, that 'Neuro Typical' people just don't seem to have. So, when a very special family, customers of our shop, told us that they were organising bin painting at the festival, I was very interested in seeing what it was about. They told me that if I did 10 shifts of bin painting, that I would be able to get free tickets to the festival! I didn't know if I would like the vibe, or painting bins, or even if I would be able to do it, or anything, so I just kept saying 'No'!

From left to right: Andy, Thali and Holly.

However, Holly, Andy, baby Thali and brother Sky, are lovely, lovely people and really encouraged me to do it, even if it was for just one hour. (Well baby Thali didn't encourage me verbally but he has such a lovely way with him and a gorgeous beaming smile too, very hard to resist!) My problem was I was just very, very scared! I was worried about going there, finding them, doing it and just everything. I was frozen by the thought of stepping a bit outside my comfort zone. So frozen that I dressed in old clothes specially for bin painting for three days in a row before I finally managed to convince myself to get into my car and drive down to where I didn't know where I was going.

When I found the Worthy Farm Festival site, the security where wonderfully smiley and welcoming and not intimidating at all and there was a very friendly lady in the office called Emma, who offered me chocolate biscuits as I awaited Holly to pick me up in her 4x4.

I eventually got dropped off in a field and Sky, Holly's brother was my leader. I was introduced to his team of bin painters and then given brushes, paint, a bin and instructions to do something happy and bright! So before lunch, I painted bunting going round my bin and then after lunch, which was a very delicious vegan option from Goose Hall, the onsite restaurant for staff, I painted flowers around the bottom half. I took a sneaky peak at some other finished bins to get an idea of the technique that I could use to paint some pretty flowers. I LOVED being let loose on a bin! It was a happy, relaxing time. I didn't really want to chat, I loved being in my own little world just happily painting, whilst someone blared out some tunes from their phone and a speaker. ( I think I was expected to interact a little more though, as John, another volunteer bin painter told me about the bonding exercise that they had done as a team and how it was really good to break the ice and so on). After I finished my bin, I said goodbye to everyone and planned to come back again the next day.

My first and only bin so far, with bunting and flowers.

The next day, I had to park up in a lay-by and then walk into the site. I found a great little spot to park up and due to my inexperience with Glastonbury Festival and where everything is, I ended up walking, not knowing where I was going for a couple of hours, I was completely lost and found a perimeter fence, there was a sign about a gas main and phoning the site office for permission to dig, so I decided to phone that number to find out where I was and how to get in, then as I dialled the number, Michael Eavis' office number came up, I described to them where I was but they didn't recognise it either, there are a lot of places looking the same, so they advised me in the end to just keep walking around the fence and I would bump into someone to help me eventually. I had actually got straight through to Michael and I was really shocked that it was him who answered the phone and he was just as shocked that it was me who was phoning, different reasons to my shock of awe and admiration, I think! After a quick chat his PA, was the one who gave me the guidance to follow the fence and there was I imagining special treatment, like a rescue helicopter loaded with food and drink for me and a special guided tour by Michael himself but I really should have known better!

Eventually, I came across the right people to help me and I marched all the way to the Bin painting field where I discovered, there was no-one and I realised that it was lunch! Yippee, so after walking all that way, pass The John Peel Stage, pass The Pyramid Stage and taking some pictures too, I arrived just in time for lunch. There was a queue, I didn't have a meal ticket but for some reason the very lovely security took pity on me and put me at the front of the queue and asked a bin painter, with purple paint marks on her face to explain why I would need a meal. Then I bumped into Sky! So synchronicity was starting to kick in at last and it kicked in so perfectly, that as I sat down to enjoy another beautiful vegan meal at Goose Hall, torrential rain banged on the tin roof of the structure we were in and I felt extremely lucky to be fed, watered and dry and not still lost!

In the afternoon, we were told that we wouldn't be painting bins but we would be painting a mural! Which sounds really exciting but I just wanted to go home, as I find working in a team really difficult indeed, unless I have my own role nicely mapped out, starting to panic a bit, I made a joke about there being no 'I' in team, so I'd better F@*"k off then but Andy told me to stay and paint my own little piece of wall on the end. That felt ok to me, so I stayed. It suddenly felt very not ok when other painters came by looking at what I was doing, maybe thinking I must be a really good painter to get my own bit of wall, until I explained to them that I'm rubbish at working in a team, that put the score straight for them and immediately lowered their expectations of what was going to appear on that wall. I was blown away by the murals that they were creating, I couldn't understand how they managed to communicate with each other within about 5 minutes what they were going to map out and how they were going to paint it, they were all extremely talented! The rain was relentless whilst we were painting but we kept going as luckily we were undercover. Then, when I finished my piece, Holly, Thali and her Mum picked me up and very kindly gave me a lift to my car.

Do I want to do this next year? Oh yes please! Would I like to do the ten days for a ticket to Glastonbury Festival? Absolutely! So yes, I've 'Bin There, Done That But...' I haven't done the festival yet and I really would love to because now I see that the festival is a place that pulls many like-minded people together! How could I, a lover of performing arts, not be involved in the festival in any way, when I live in the nearest town? So, yes, I am a convert, I admit it, I am a Glastonbury Wannabe and I want to paint those bins next year!

If you would love to be a volunteer bin painter for 2017, then you need to email Holly!

Leave our Library Alone!

have the opening hours of the library in Shepton Mallet Town centre have already been cut, to even less than than the short hours that were already in place BUT plans are being discussed about:

1/ Moving the library from the centre, to the so called 'Hub', on the edge of our town.

2/ Automating it, so that it is a self-serve facility. 

You know what, one day, they will tell us that it's all available online anyway, so why on earth do we need to pay rent for buildings to house books? Slowly, slowly and then not so slowly they are taking away and eradicating our library.

Please support our campaign and sign the online petition.

Why should our Library stay in the centre of our town?

In my mind the library is the cornerstone of all education. Reading is one of the most important life skills that we will ever learn, it is one of the most honourable pursuits of your time. Once we learn to read, we can learn almost anything because there is probably a book for every subject under the sun. Isn't it incredible that we can even learn another language just through the pages of a book. Reading is at the forefront of our education system, it is the backbone of our learning and the main centre of reading needs to be right in the forefront of our minds and in front of our eyes too. A library is a place to be proud of, standing where it is, right by our majestic looking Market Cross. Right in the centre of our town where it is easily accessible by everybody. 

The Friday Market is coming alive again and more and more people are enjoying this part of our town and altering their lives to either work in the market, or come and visit the market and then taking a look in the library, is an easy and natural progression of those visits.

Having the library in the centre of town reminds us to go and to use it. There is no way that such an important part of community life should be hidden away in the council offices.

I understand that in these economically difficult times we have to make cutbacks and sacrifices and we have to think sensibly about how we use our money. Maybe it is just not viable to pay the costs of a separate lease, when the library can be housed more cost effectively in the council's own buildings. However, maybe it is the council buildings that are in the wrong place and not the library! I understand that a few years ago, the council buildings were in the centre of town. Why did that change? Why make one mistake and then because of that mistake make another one and another one? In the short term moving the library will mean cheaper running costs. In the long term, a Library that is hidden away and automated sends out the message that reading is not important in our society, it is not worth investing in the future of everyone who lives in Shepton Mallet, it is more important to keep costs down. They say that actions speak louder than words, the action of moving the library from the centre of town to the edge of town says loudly and clearly that 'We don't care!' and the written words in books will disappear and not be read or 'heard', those words will be silent.

I taught both of my boys to read and the accessibility and visibility of the library meant that we had support and encouragement and it was very, very easy to incorporate it into our lifestyle. The position of the library is not just about convenience, or about people visiting to be too lazy to walk a little further, it is about the prominence of the library in our every day lives, the profile that it is given, its visibility and the respect that we give it. Moving the library and making it invisible shows us that the service is undervalued and will then be cut completely.

Why should we keep people employed in the Library?

A library with no one to serve us becomes a soulless place. A library isn't just a place to get books, it's sometimes a place to get warm, for someone on the streets, while they read and enjoy talking to someone about something other than their situation. A library for me, is sometimes a respite from the stresses of the outside world and that means the people who work in there too. I am not always in a good state of mind, sometimes I need help to look for a book and I need someone else's knowledge and enthusiasm and recommendation as a guide. Taking the people out of the library is just wrong. Those people are the very essence of the library, their helpfulness and personalities make the library a place that you want to go back to again and again.

Imagine an automated library! That would mean no person to interact with, no one, apart from you, again, to praise your child and encourage them when they choose their first book. No specialised personal knowledge, the knowledge that only comes from life experience and the infectious enthusiasm of another person, the kind of knowledge that can't be gleaned from a computer. There'll be no smile as you walk in, no chat at the desk, no sense of community. No-one for you to speak to, even if it's only about a book, if you've been on your own all day and have no family in the area.

Severing our links with our library is one of the worst ideas that I have heard of since I have moved to this area!

DO NOT MOVE OUR LIBRARY, LEAVE OUR LIBRARY ALONE!

It is perfect where it is, right in the heart of our town. Right where everyone can access it easily. It is appalling that the hours have been shortened, it's appalling that they want to make it self-service and it's appalling that they want to move it from the centre of our town. No, no, no way will I as an individual resident allow this to happen. As individuals we are powerful together.

If you agree with me please like this Facebook Page, please sign our petition.

If you don't agree, come into my shop, buy loads of things and then I might spare a moment to listen to your point of view. 

Moving the library is almost as bad as suggesting Timpson's have a pod at Tesco!

Secret Hero stops driver causing more damage.

Last night, I was sleeping, snuggled up in bed, when I heard an almighty crash. The sound was in slow motion, it was quiet and got louder and louder and seemed to slide slowly into my consciousness, until I was begrudgingly awake.

I couldn't see anything untoward from my window but heard people talking and then, upon looking again, I saw the edge of a group of people. I had no idea what they were talking about and what the intermittent shouts were but everything seemed under control. So, I went back to my bed.

Later on, my partner and son told me that there was a crash involving a car and a bollard and they oveheard a man saying that he was trying to avoid the scaffolding. I wondered what had happened exactly, sorry, journalistic tendancies after having worked in a newsroom environment for ten years. So, I went dowmstairs and after listening and chatting, this is what I picked up about what could have happened. I say what 'could' have happened because I didn't get to speak to the one who had been driving the car and it wouldn't be fair to presume exactly what had happened.

I heard that the car had been parked outside the pub most of the night, then after the pub closed, the driver got in and drove down the High Street and then crashed into the bollard. People gathered round to see if he was ok and to help him out of the car but I was told he was aggressive and just wanted to drive off again. A quick thinking individual reached out to grab the car keys to prevent him driving off and maybe crashing into some more street furniture, hurting himself, or even hurting someone else on the street that night. My partner and son were out together, coming home and I think how different things could be, if that person hadn't stepped in. That bollard could be one of my loved ones instead, or one of your loved ones, or maybe even you and if the driver is one of your loved ones, he was saved by that individual from hurting himself, or creating an even bigger mistake.

So, today I have woken up feeling very grateful to anyone in our community that is brave enough to do the right thing and this was the right thing for everyone concerned, even the driver. Although he was screaming and shouting outside the pub, once he realised that he could not drive away. I hope this morning his anger diminishes and he is able to say a silent thank you to our community's secret hero.

Best Brownies Ever, Fairtrade, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, with Free-Range Eggs in just TEN STEPS

It's not every day that you go to someone's funeral and taste a cake that is so deliciously chocolatey and gooey and chewy, all that same time, that you have to ask the person who gave it to you from her tin, for the recipe. 'Ah', she responded,'It is a secret family recipe and I can't tell it to you.' I knew that I had to get that recipe, it couldn't remain a secret any longer, I wanted my customers in my shop to be able to enjoy a slice of this indulgent deliciousness with their coffee. Poor lady at the funeral, I followed her around asking and asking, finally, she smiled a secret, cheeky smile and told me the truth, that it comes out of a packet mix from Costco.

So, we went to Costco and found the mix that she was talking about and it was so easy, we just had to add some oil and some eggs and they came out perfectly, every time, which was great for me, as I don't see myself as a naturally great cook, I'm the kind of person that would always burn myself when cooking, or burn what I was cooking! Also, my concentration is not my strong point, so remembering where I am in a recipe or even planning ahead to pre-heat the oven, is still an achievement in itself. That I suppose, would be the end of the story, if I didn't feel passionately about Fairtrade and making sure that our cakes do something to help heal the planet and are ethical too. I called up the mix manufacturer and asked if they would be doing a Fairtrade version, with Fairtrade chocolate and sugar in and they said that it wasn't on their radar at all. I was really disappointed and after a lot of thinking decided to try to create a recipe as simple as theirs, no egg separation needed, no fancy stuff, just quick ingredients that you can throw in the bowl and then cook and it comes out right, every time, no matter who makes it and it is Fairtrade and I decided that I wanted to make it Gluten-Free too.

So, I tried and I tried and I tried, again and again and our customers were lucky enough to taste them and tell us what they wanted it to taste like, then one day, after lots of failures, I created a recipe that tasted so beautiful, gooey, chewy and rich but with a clean aftertaste! Success! Not only that but it was Fairtrade and Gluten-free too.

Well, after that build-up, you'll want the recipe now, won't you!

I write my recipes as step by step instructions, how you would do things logically, none of this suddenly being told to put things in a pre-heated oven, without being told it needed to be pare-heated, at the beginning of the recipe.

Best Brownies Ever, Fairtrade, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, with Free Range Eggs. Suitable for Vegetarians.

1/ Preheat the oven to 170 Degrees Celsius

2/ Line a 9 x 13 inch baking tray with grease-proof paper and grease with oil.

3/ Into a big bowl put 450g of raw cane caster sugar, Fairtrade, with 3 eggs and 1 teaspoon of Fairtrade Vanilla Extract. Mix together well, with a fork.

4/ Into a measuring jug, measure out 200ml of vegetable oil, then add 70g of Divine Cocoa Powder. Mix these together well with a fork and then add to the sugar and egg mix and mix it all together.

5/Next, measure out 120g of Doves Farm Organic Gluten Free Self Raising Flour and add 1 and a half teaspoons of Doves Farm Gluten Free Baking powder and add this to the chocolatey mixture, stir in well.

6/ Take a 100g bar of Divine Dark Chocolate and smash into pieces whilst still in the packet, using a rolling pin, I prefer a hammer though!

7/ Mix the chocolate pieces into the mix.

8/ Pour and scrape the mix into the prepared baking tray.

9/ Place in to the preheated oven for 19 minutes. Then take out, cover with foil and place in the oven for another 19 minutes.

10/ Take the brownies out and give them time to cool, then serve up and enjoy!

These brownies are great for a teatime treat, or even as an extra delicious dessert. If you can't be bothered to make them for yourself, then please pop into our shop and get some.

These brownies are full of sugar, so they are not the healthiest thing in the world to eat but they are very, very tasty and enjoyable!