…time to reflect..
Second lockdown
So here we are again. It’s not for as long but it’s still all a bit odd isn’t it? Stay at home, don’t meet friends or family not even outside.... It’s made me reflect on what ‘has been’.
It’s been crazy that’s what it’s been. Slowly coming out of lockdown in May we needed to do something, we were going crazy stuck at home feeling helpless. Takeaway isn’t really what we do, but in this instance it was a case of trying anything at all! So we started providing wholesome, evening meals, well Dave did, our amazing chef, the rest of us just put the stuff in bags and washed up.
We had dhal, meatballs, beef stew and dumplings. Comfort food
It did feel weird though. Folk coming into the cafe with their masks on and seeing people again for the first time in months. Putting in distancing measures and having bookable time slots so that people didn’t ‘bump’ into each other.
On a personal note in lockdown, I visited my parents who live two miles up the road almost every afternoon. My Dad putting my Mum in her wheelchair by the patio doors and I’d sit outside on the bench, come rain or shine. Luckily it shone most of May and June. I’d take Cai for a walk around the field when I was there and documented the change in the days and months in the field with my iPhone.
At Stiwdio 3 we decided to open in the day for takeaway. Slowly at first, just three days a week. We started to bring our staff out of furlough. It was pretty dead, trade-wise. Not many folk out and about on the street. I guess a cup of coffee in a disposable cup is the same wherever you get it from. Unlike that is, sitting in your favourite cafe, chatting to your mates... taking in the ‘atmosphere’.
We were able to put tables and chairs in the street two weeks before we could open inside, cant remember exactly when, but it felt great. It meant that we could start some kind of ‘proper’ trade. It had been almost three months since we had done that.
It felt great to be trading ‘normally’ the seating outside in the first few weeks before we were allowed to open inside was great.
Visitors were allowed to the area (to holiday in Wales) by the middle of July and the town started to liven up again. I can’t tell you how good that felt!
A business needs customers and to see folk meeting up at Stiwdio3 eating our food, drinking our coffee and sitting in the sunshine is what it’s all about. Our little shop started to trade again and our visitors bought Welsh gifts to take home. (Confusion from our visitors though, why aren’t you wearing masks, can’t we eat indoors, oh it’s 2 meters distancing here, not one meter)…. that was then.
Two weeks later we were allowed to start seating people inside. So we cleared the whole of the first floor and spaced out the tables to accommodate customers at a safe distance. We ‘gave over’ our huge sofas which are normally occupied by keen crochet and sewing ladies, to the cafe (Social distancing means no meeting up in huddled groups of chatty ladies). Stiwdio3 is very spacious and we used the venue really effectively for cafe customers. We had lots of comments and reviews from customers who said they liked the distancing measures we had put in place and they felt very safe and comfortable with us.
August was mad! (But fantastic for trade... at last)!
“Eat out to help out”, helped out but we had to get extra staff in to ‘police’ it! Our approved distancing measures were easily flouted by keen families wanting a table. Understandable, if a little frustrating for our staff.
We tried Sunday smoothies but there wasn’t really enough customer to make it viable…. next year?
We were excited to hear that we might get an ‘extended season’ of visitors and we felt happy that we might make up some of the lost trade by visitors staying a little longer in our beautiful part of the world.
Then.... the regional lockdowns were introduced and folk stopped travelling. Our courses which we had started up again (albeit tentatively) when we were allowed to open inside, started to receive cancellations and it became more difficult to run them, well impossible really, to get numbers to make the craft sessions viable.
We tried Sunday opening too but we just didn’t get the trade to make it worth while. So we stopped that too after only a few weeks.
Bean Sawyer running a stained glass course
Thinking ahead…
This time of year we would be looking forward to providing Christmas work do’s and this time last year we had loads of Christmas courses in the diary.
We have, as have many businesses have, adapted and changed over thee months since march and tried different things in order to survive. We have applied for every scheme and every bit of assistance we can to keep the business afloat.
The staff have been amazing. Adapting and changing. Working long hours in the summer and having their hours reduced to half and in some cases to zero more recently. It’s heartbreaking.
We remain positive but it’s extremely difficult to plan ahead. How do we know when this will all be over?
Our customer base has dropped to a very small few. Lockdown the country and you lockdown the customers and business trade.
You feel kind of selfish stating fact and implying ‘poor us’ because we know there are dozens and dozens of businesses and people in the same boat. Some of us won’t survive... some of us will. It’s our full intention to be here in the spring, but the spring feels a long way off from here somehow.
Cardigan town felt like it was just picking up.... there was an amazing buzz here in the summer, it’s almost cruel that we saw the town so full of life, sunshine, people... and now it’s closed again except for the essential shops.
Cardigan carpark looking pretty empty
We know we’ll all start to get on the move again soon. We will resume and reopen slightly differently from before no doubt. We’ll have to adapt, change, try new things. As will the rest of the town.
Anyway, this wasn’t meant to be a dooms-gloomsville post, just one of reflection.
I hope you enjoy the photos, it’s great to document the change in both the seasons and the situation. The gallery shows I guess, that we have done quite a lot.
In no particular order:
Eileen finished her 2020 knitting challenge for refugees. A HUGE response from people far and wide and lockdown made sure her target was met. Almost 3000 jumpers were knitted and dropped off at Stiwdio3.
Our lockdown exhibition was put up in the week before this recent lockdown. We asked for work from artists and home-crafters to show how creative people got in the last lockdown.
My podcast with Sarah James from capital of craft which you can hear along with many other makers on apple or spotify. Click here to listen
The Stiwido3 pencil sketch which was the basis for our new logo and added to our website redesign.
Walks to: Henllan, Abermawr (recently), Cenarth Falls and visit to Melin Tregwynt
Suzi
