Food Glorious Food!

That was definately the theme to todays outing to the Durham Food Festival and what glorious food did we see, taste and bring home!

Always a fantastic outing, especially if youre anything like me and adore food (though you would'nt think it if you saw me, im a little skinny thing, but LOVE my food).

One person more excited than me was my partner Dave, after having been to Paris two years ago for my 40th at Christmas time we were lucky enough to experience their fantastic Christmas Market down the Champs Elysee.  Here it was that Dave tasted la tartiflette, potatoes, with reblochon cheese lardons and onions for the very first time and now everytime there is a food market in Durham we make it a must to visit so he can get his 'fix'.  Thankfully they didnt disappoint and Dave came away very happy.....

Even so more once we had found the cidre stalls in the Marquee up on Castle Green... he managed a taster and had a sneaky half whilst we watched the chefs demo (more on that later) and treated himself to a few bottles to bring home.



 

 

 Me, I treated myself to the most sumptuous piece of  handmade nougat, nothing like that pink and white stuff you buy in the shops that dares to call itself nougat...im only having one very small piece at a time as im sure if i ate quite a bit id be trying to detach myself from the ceiling with the amount of sugar in it, it does have rapberries in so that may cancel it out, but im sure its all good for you ;-)

 

 

 As well as the stalls up on Castle Green in the marquees (there was a small cover charge to enter) there were some stalls down in the market place.  The smells of all the gorgeous, warm food being cooked overwhelmed you as you approached and you were spoilt for choice as what to have. As previously mentioned Dave had the french potatoes, me i went for the Spanish Beef Stew, which was very heart warming and definately warmed me cockles up!

 

After walking around the stalls several times we made a decision, its a hard one when theres so much scrumptious food to choose from.

 

Sweeties...for the kids, well Dave and Brandon

 

 

 

 

Olives a plenty...

 

 

 

Beautiful Greek and Turkish delights...

 

To name but a few stalls, but we choose some tasty french rustic bread to go with possibly the best tasting  balsamic vinegar ever!  

         

 

Well that almost sums up my Sunday, was a lovely relaxing, food fuelled day which id really been looking forward to, especially as the past two weeks have been a real struggle for me, having just been diagnosed with underactive thyroid.  I know that this isnt life threatening but at the moment for me is very life changing, trying to manage the tiredness and lack of motivation especially as im always on the go and have so many projects and things to do, so much that i had to cancel a dry stone walling taster day i was due to go on last week.  Hopefully the medication that im on now will kick in and i will get back to normality, just really struggling with the tireness.

 

One last thing to make you smile this Sunday.... Jean Christophe Novelli..

 

He was demoing in the Marquee, hence i guess the cover charge, but hey it was worth it, he's demoing skills may have been a bit hectic but was nice to watch ;-), and yep definately as handsome in the flesh as on tv (i have a thing for French men).

Hope you enjoyed your weekend.

Sam x

 

 

 

 

Not a bad day considering....

Well after a bit of a let down  this afternoon my day has ended off with the most gorgeous sunset but more about that later.

I was booked in this evening to face paint at a wedding at Brancepeth Castle. So had spent all day ensuring kit was clean and everything was shipshape for the gig.  For some reason id had a funny feeling about this one, dont ask what it was there was just something. Anyway waved bye to Dave with the promise of supper when i came in (was due in about 10) and headed off, thankfully Brancepeth is only about a 15 minute drive from where i live.

Drove down the drive to the Castle and was starting to get a bit alarmed about the lack of cars in the car park, maybe they're parked somewhere else i thought. Walked through the grounds to the main entrance were the silence was deafining, maybe theyre in marquee out the back i was thinking or maybe not! Anyway a yound lad answered the door, i explained i was booked for a wedding party giving the brides name, nope no wedding tonight, though we did have one last week but he couldnt recall the name, really, right, just that ive been booked for the 18th August!

Mmmm maybe id got the date wrong, nope my booking process is one that sends them the date that they asked for, leaving blanks in for them to fill additional details so they have to read the date to get to the next item. Maybe the wedding didnt go ahead, in which case it would have been nice to have been notified, especially as id turned down several bookings for todays date, knowing that i was out most of the evening.

Anyway lets not dwell on that as i wont be chasing it up! 

But one thing is that i was able to spend much more needed time with Dave (my partner) as he works away Monday to Friday in Scotland.

So one phone call later, quick change of clothes, camera in bag and off to take photos.

As you may i know i became the proud owner of a Canon EOS 550D, a gift from Dave, and neither of us have any camera knowledge at all, well not the technical stuff.

Where to?  Luckily we live in the most gorgeous part of the North East, Durham...theres so many places to explore that we are spoilt for choice, so much gorgeous landscape that you cant always take it all in... so we popped up to Waskerley, for those that dont know the area, just imagine vast heather moorlands as far as the eye can see and the most amazing views.

Theres a little reservoir that weve been to before and is stunning!

Lovely friendly residents....

No one around for miles...bliss!

Except some crazy blonde, ahh that be me then.

After a lovely afternoon playing with camera we then stopped off at Stanhope for fish and chips, felt like a real tourist sat on bench in square eating them in the sun.

 Yep we do get the sun up here in the North.

And to top it off the first stunning sunset, now i know the summer is coming to an end and that the amazing autumn colours, sunsets and rises are around the corner.

Oh yeah we managed to find an extra to pose in our pics, one of the neighbours cats sat on the fence post waiting for supper in the fields where we live

Hope you too have a nice, chilled weekend

Sam x



Surprise..

Well i got home yesterday to find that my gorgeous boyfriend had a surprise for me...something that i have wanted for ages but never seem to find the spare money to buy... this ....

....a Canon EOS 550D.  Ive wanted a 'proper' camera for ages, especially now that im selling my bits and pieces and more so for my face and bump painting. Also i just love taking photos, doesnt always matter what the subject is but i love nature and architecture. Im quite lucky as i work full time in a park with a gorgeous lake, wildlife and now we have some watersports with the likes of kayaking, sailing, canoeing...so be prepared for some, if not lots of my new pics.