Good morning lovely people
Is it just me or is this year “marching” on very quickly.
Victor and John the gardener have seen the first colours of spring in the Kitchen Garden. Shocking pink of our Early Timperley Rhubarb is waving to us. The polytunnel has been scrubbed. It’s sparkling and spanking clean. Annual planting plan for the restaurants is underway and we’ve potted trays of seeds and cuttings dotted all over the warm parts of the house. When we say ”Grown for you”, we mean it.
The boys have also been planning the replant of the Herb Garden at The Scottish Cafe & Restaurant. With the completion of the Scottish Collection we can get stuck back into the banking, creating the first edible horticultural addition to Princes Street Gardens since the allotments of the Second World War. Spearmint, rosemary, bay, thyme, holly, sage and lovage. Sadly as this is a public park we can’t eat anything but we can use it to make the venue look more beautiful and the visitors and the bees love them.
Councils across the country are struggling to balance their responsibilities. Edinburgh city centre will see parking changes increase by 20% again this year, due to the freeze in Council Tax. Thankfully our bus and tram serves the city well as the move to remove cars continues. The negative news that arrives from Glasgow around their LEZ and predestination of Sauchiehall Street is hitting a dead end.
British Gas profits are racing not marching from £72m to £751m while some nations are lost on satnav.
Japan has entered a recession. The UK economy is in recession. All that Quantitative Easing is catching up, benefitting the few not the many. Are governments just tampering too much? Has the increase in interest rates applied the brakes too harshly? Time for the Bank of England to change gear? Maybe the drive for top position on league tables for GDP growth isn’t taking us to the best destination? Or maybe our governments’ eyes aren’t on the best road that serves the community they are elected to represent?
The hospitality industry is practically begging for a VAT cut in the Spring budget. The Scottish Government has introduced a second increase to minimum alcohol pricing. One step of support, not a leap, would be to reduce VAT for restaurant food sales only. A middle road from the VAT free supermarket food products to dining out? Here the labour, ingredients, utility costs and overheads are the highest. If governments understood the different business models it would help.
10th by-election loss for the Conservatives. Are they worried about the swing to Labour or the frightening move to Reform UK? Their Brexit vision helped get us to the car crash we’re in.
The coldest and hardest parts of the year are almost over. Our warmest and best months will soon be with us and I feel very blessed that our restaurants are located where they are in our beautiful city. It’s just a short walk from George St, through the Gardens to Castlehill after all.
Keep well and keep on the right side of the road
Carina
