05/08/2026
It’s Been A Couple Of Days Now… and and ♥️♥️♥️
It’s been a couple of days now since Trout ’n’ About, and I’ve been thinking about it.
If anyone’s interested, this is what goes into planning a day like that.
People see Trout ’n’ About.
We see about a week’s worth of planning.
The freezer starts filling up with extra bags of ice. Then comes the annual debate…
“How many burger buns did we buy last year?”
Nobody can quite remember. Last year it looked like rain, so that doesn’t help much.
The staff rota suddenly triples.
The chefs take charge of the BBQ.
The front of house team take charge of the outside bar, serving drinks, collecting glasses, clearing tables and keeping everything moving.
The card machines get tested.
Every year we hope they’ll behave.
Every year they don’t.
The bubble machines need batteries.
We forgot to buy them.
We still managed to find enough.
Before 10 o’clock, the residents cars have to be out of our car park because, for one day only, it becomes the outside bar.
The BBQ is dragged out the front.
The gazebo goes up for the band.
The extension leads come out…
Then we need another one.
The wobbly tables get sorted.
Another fifteen or so tables somehow get squeezed into the garden.
The float gets counted.
The staff briefing begins.
Then, at about 9.30, I walked into the kitchen.
The chefs didn’t look anywhere near ready to be cooking a BBQ outside in half an hour.
I looked at them with that expression on my face, is there any chance that you will be ready.
“Are we really going to pull this off?”
Without missing a beat, they smiled.
“Don’t worry, Lucy… we’ll be ready.”
And they were.
At exactly 10 o’clock, the BBQ was fired up and serving its first customers.
Meanwhile, breakfast was still being served to a full house, the breakfast room needed clearing and twelve bedrooms still had to be cleaned.
Then the first visitors arrived.
The music started.
The food just kept coming.
The queue at the bar just kept growing.
A few people tried to barge in, but our front of house team stayed calm, kept smiling and kept everything moving.
One thing that made me smile was seeing so many of our locals wearing their new Three Cups shirts.
It hadn’t been organised by us.
They’d organised it themselves.
By the end of the day we were exhausted.
Not because anything had gone wrong. It had gone right.
Days like Trout ’n’ About aren’t about extension leads, burger buns or bags of ice.
They are about these people…
The hard working Chefs, our front of house team, musicians, customers and most of all …
Our locals
If you’ve made it this far… thank you for sticking with me. Long story. Long day. ♥️♥️♥️
