Scargill

After passing through the Hexham Farmers market we headed off past the church to the Hexham Eating Festival.

Well, not so much a festival as a load of stands with food and some (very nice) vintage cars…. non-the-less the park in Hexham was really alive this afternoon – thanks partly to the weather and probably just as importantly thanks to some imaginative eating options – as well as the usual ice-cream and burger vendors there was, would you believe.. a CHURROS vendor – not only that but clearly one who’s done this before! I could hardly believe my eyes (being used to these only in Spain) – though I’m prepared to bet that one of the couple running the stall was Spanish – good call!!

In case you don’t know what Churros are  – take a look here  – they may be new to the Northeast but they’re standard stuff certainly over in Andalucía – not the healthiest option but most welcome! Here they were eaten standing up as you might eat chips – in the market towns in Spain it’s common to eat them at a café with hot chocolate or coffee as dipping material. It’s making my mouth water thinking about them. That’s our Thursday treat when we’re over in Spain.

We had two of the grand-kids with us (stunning isn’t it – 58 and I have grand-children!!) and so they were as keen as we were to sample the delights on offer – in a messy, mixed-with-ice-cream sort of way. I can’t think of the last time up here in the Northeast we had a combination of a good set of food vendors AND good weather to boot! Last few times I’ve been to the Hoppings it’s chucked it down!

There was a company doing chicken and pasta done on a hotplate, another doing steaks… you name it and a great selection of ancient cars to give you something to do while stuffing yourself! That and sunshine in a park – what more could you want!

Then of course there was the obligatory blow-up slide – amazing the construction they can make out of simple blow-up plastic – the kids thought it was Christmas!

On the way out we went past a really interesting display of vintage cars, lovingly looked-after by their owners. One model – the 3-litre Capri brought back memories, it was one of my first cars and went like a rocket – even by today’s standards (I had the 3-litre purple automatic – fantastic stuff). Interesting though though – that must’ve been, what, 70s and we were using litres then – but not for fuel (which I recall was actually affordable at well under £1 a GALLON!)

There were far more cars than I have room to show here – perhaps if they repeat this next year (that would be nice) they’ll come back.

We finished the trip out with a visit to the Pound-Stretcher store – which of course the kids loved as they came away will all sorts of colouring materials – always a winner. I came away with a load of new fluorescent markers and a new set of razors for chopping up stuff.

A spot of weed-killing (it’s still not raining – the stuff might just work this time) and the sun is starting to fade, kids have been slug-hunting in the garden and I’m in here doing a write-up while the new tablet charges. After this morning’s fiasco with the burning electricity pole I’m thankful I can do this! We came back note to the sparkies finishing off re-connecting some of the neighbours who lost power during the morning’s fireworks.

Click on any of the images above to see larger versions. Here are a few more – again, click to see the full-size versions.