THE SCHLUMBERGERA'S TIME TO SHINE!

I normally do photographs from my stint at the Community Fridge on a Monday, but thought I needed to give my beautiful Christmas, or Thanksgiving Cactus as it is sometimes known, its few minutes of fame on Blip today.  Its proper name is Schlumbergera and this particular one has bloomed now for several years, after being given to me by the son of a Blip friend, and despite being neglected for most of the summer, it has once again shown its beauty.  So a special “Thank you” to R. for his kindness a few years ago.  This will continue to delight me, sitting on my kitchen windowsill, for the next few weeks.

We were extremely busy at the Community Fridge this morning, despite the rain, but we were four volunteers short so it was quite hard work.  However, we are the sort of team that sees a job that needs doing and we just get on with it.  However, I did think it was rather cruel, in view of my pledge not to eat any chocolate before Christmas, that I was bagging up the Danish pastries.  These came in a huge bag - and there were some of my favourites - cinnamon whirls, pain au chocolat (help!), chocolate croissants and maple and pecan plaits.  The smell was amazing and very tantalising, but I was determined not to even think about chocolate, so kept chatting to Carol, so that I wouldn’t be tempted to nibble even one little bit.  Out of a huge bag, I must have bagged up about 100 of them and of course, my fingers were covered in chocolate - BUT, nothing passed my lips and I didn’t even lick my fingers before I washed my hands!  I hope you are all as proud of me as I was of myself!  You can see in my extra shot that there were lots of chocolate crumbs but again, I surprised myself by how restrained I was.  

We had several new people in today - as the room used for the Community Fridge café is now designated in our Borough as one of ten “Warm and Welcome Spaces” – a place where anyone can go to spend time, stay warm and feel safe, and they often provide food and free internet access.  At our Community Fridge café there is always hot, freshly brewed coffee and delicious cakes and so it was good to welcome the new people - and to chat.   One lady even paid double for her coffee and cake and her comment was “Where could you get a cup of percolated coffee and a cake in the town for only 50p?”  I’m not sure that we had our full complement of people coming through the doors of the Community Fridge today though, because the weather was atrocious - with rain of Biblical proportions on several different occasions, but those who did come seemed to enjoy it.

It is amazing though to think that if we, and many other Community Fridges around the country, weren’t doing this work, then thousands of tons of food would be going into landfill.  After coming to the Community Fridge and the café, several people went upstairs to the Computer Course, but I think that the football, which started at 1 o’clock deterred some of the men!

Although it was cold and wet outside, I like to think that the following quote was true for those who came to the Community Fridge today:

“A warm smile is the 
     universal language of kindness.”
William Arthur Ward