After the disappointment of rain stopping play on Saturday, it was wonderful to wake up to glorious sunshine yesterday. We set off to nearby Woburn Sands & a certain garden centre that was hosting a Chilli Festival.
Lee & I went on our own as both boys turned their noses up at what was on offer, preferring to lure of the skate park & X-Box!! To be honest, it was lovely to be just the two of us for a change!
The place was buzzing!!
These guys were very enthusiastic in belting out a medley of well known Mexican tunes…
There was a huge display of Chilli plants, of all varieties & plenty of staff to answer our questions on how to get the best results with our crops!
There were chilli’s there I’d never even seen before…
…& best of all we got to taste them!!
Jalapenos, Hungarian Hot Wax & Scotch Bonnets, all of which I grew earlier this year on my kitchen windowsill, with varying degrees of success!!
So, armed with all our new found information, I’m hoping for a better crop next year!
Of course Lee, ever the exhibitionist, almost found himself drafted into the band…I was quite impressed with what he can do with his maracas!!!
We are both lovers of Mexican food & generally, the hotter the better, so the fact that there was a chef on site, preparing food to taste was an opportunity to see just how hot we could go!! There were big burly guys there, going bright red after sampling the medium hot dish, so I was quite proud to keep my end up & not flinch at a mouthful of ‘Scotch Bonnet' & tomato chutney!! Lee went on to try some others …
…the last of which did actually leave his lips numb!!! Perfect!!
Inspired, he hunted out a jar of Chilli puree made from the hottest Chilli on the planet!! The jar carried a warning not to allow it to be given to children, the elderly, or anyone with a heart condition!! I’m looking forward to adding that to a few of our favourite dishes very soon!!
Then it was time for a bit of browsing around the award winning Food Hall…
…we got to taste a bit of local cheese that could have been made especially for me!!…
…& it was just a good thing that
these lovelies were behind glass!!
After selecting a few more Chilli related goodies, a tray of pansies for my winter pots, we even managed to find a couple of Christmas gifts in the fabulous main shop! It’s never to early when you see the perfect thing is it!!! 
Woburn is such a pretty place, little more than a village, but so pretty & it has a lovely selection of shops. We spent ages in the antique fair & then headed into the Black Horse pub for some ‘refreshments’!!
Anyway I digress!!! We headed back to the car, passing this fabulous old post box, still in use!!
We took the scenic route back through the villages & past Woburn Abbey to home! The boys were fine & pretty much as we’d left them, skating & X-Boxing!!
I wound up my Bank Holiday Monday by preparing for….yes you’ve guessed it…
It all kicks off tomorrow, & I’m ready to roll! My mini album has it’s covers, is bound & decorated. All it’s pages are prepped & in situ! All I have to do now is look out for those little lessons daily & commit them to paper for posterity!! I will be blogging my pages as I complete them, so do check in & see how I’m doing!!!
To get things started…here’s my album cover…
I’m off now to cut the boys hair & get labels sewn into new uniform!!!
Thanks for dropping by…come back soon! : )
8 comments:
Sounds like a great day,Sandi....mind you, I'm not a chilli lover myself...and definately wouldn't want to be sampling them!!
Love your LSNED cover.
What a coincidence, it's our anniversary on Sept 6th too! 30 years for us.
I'm not good with hot chilli food, I do enjoy a good curry, but nothing too hot. We once went to dinner with friends and they had a jar of the chilli you bought, another friend had to try it. He took a teaspoon full out of the jar and dipped his finger into it to sample it, the taste made his eyes water (you can see where this is going can't you?) he wiped his eyes with the finger that had just dipped into the chilli ... we were sympathetic to his plight but it was just so hard not to laugh hysterically as he was throwing glasses of water onto his face to calm it down!
How funny there was a chilli festival at Bennington Manor,but we forgot to go.Hilary went.
Glad to see you are finally getting out without the boys,about bloody time.
I am sure they will be fine.Mind you we left Ryan and Tasmin once and he took her out up the biggest hill with the dog in arms on a scooter and roller blades!!!!She went down it at 100MPH and broke her wrist!!!!!But the dog was fine so that was OK.
Oh I loved this post...I enjoyed spending time with you today!!!! I got such a giggle of the pics of Lee...what a handsome man in his hat and the chili tasting was PERFECT!!!!
Oh I so wish that I could taste some of those chilis!!!!!! My poor tummy would go mad!!!
I adore the cover to your new book....sounds like so much fun!!! I look forward to your journey!!
Wishing you a wonderful day sweet friend!!! :-)
Now this is really cool - I'm pretty sure there is a chilli festival coming here in a couple of weeks and it looks fab. My big lad is the big Mexican fan in our house - he has us eating fajitas every single Friday night.
Your album cover is as lovely as all your projects..see you in class!
Blimey,what a lot of chillis - looks interesting though. Love your LSNED album and thanks for noticing mine on Shimelle's prompt one- you could have knocked me down with a feather !
Hi Sandi,
I just now read your comment about the award. I'm sorry to be so belated in thanking you. Four weeks left...so much to do...so little time.
But thank you again!
You're a sweetie,
Mary Lou
Early anniversary congratulations! xx
Gosh, I do like chilli but I stick to the mild end of the spectrum - and I don't actually like chilli con carne (yet somehow I'm making a big pot of the stuff this evening?!) Love those tasting photos :-)
Your cover is gorgeous, as ever xx
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