Teesdale Sports Center

It's only taken me about a year to go to the Sports Center, even though I pass it every day on the way to work. Our friend Michael has started a sort of Badminton Club, so Thursdays we've started going and having a knock around. For £6 a court for an hour, split between however many, it's pretty good value.

The Meet Pt.2

The Meet ended on bank holiday Monday with a procession through the town. Not the greatest spectacle, but it was nice weather and the amount of people who turned out to see it was staggering for such a small town.

The Meet

It's the big weekend for Barnard Castle. An event called 'The Meet'. We weren't here last year so missed it then. So far rain has stopped some of the events. Last night it was tipping it down so we didn't go to the Bowes Vs Barney veterans Football Match. Shame.

Today there was also some sort of mix up, there was supposed to be a huge boot sale. As you can see from the picture below, 3 cars is not a huge boot sale!

At 2 this afternoon however, rain or not, an event called 'Not The Boat Race' took place and was great fun. It's a makeshift boat race from the main stone bridge into Barney to the next bridge down the river. The Rugby Club had 3 entries, I also spotted one of the Bowes Footie team, but a friend from work won it in the pictures directly below.

There's a few more events planned, and if the weather holds off I'll add some more.

Coopers

After a long shopping session in Richmond, Nicky took us all to her favourite cafe, Coopers. This picture is from the downstairs area. It's very relaxing and do a superb hot chocolate!

Yarm

It was a bit of a grey day when we visited Yarm, but I wasn't that impressed. The shops, in my opinion, were overpriced and the meal we had in a local pub, though OK, was really tainted by the glass of cider I had that came in a glass with lipstick marks round the edge. Yarm has a huge viaduct in it. The top picture shows it down a side street, but it is very dominant as you reach the end of the town.

Nathan's first football award

I was very proud of Nathan. He's about to be signed up proper for the Barnard Castle football team. He's not missed a training session and has put in 100%, every day training or out running. He was included in the team photo and given an award for the next up and coming player.

Richmond for Cake

Why is there always one in the family that makes a face...that's usually my job in photos! Anyway, while we were waiting for Elionwy in her youth club in Richmond, we went for a meal at The Turf (a superb place to eat and worthy of it's own post sometime), then after we went for a walk and found this little cake shop open. The smell in the place was wonderful, freshly made cakes being made. I can't remember the name of the place though. If I find out I'll add it as a comment, they serve Cafe Vinci hot chocolate though and freshly made cakes for about £1-2

Bishop Auckland Food Festival

I didn't even know there was a castle in Bish! Anyway, we went to the Food Festival last weekend. It was huge. It started in the town and stretched down the street into the castle grounds. It was very well done, only let down by cold and wet weather.

Blowing My Own Trumpet

The picture of me above is worrying in I seem to be starting to resemble Wallace (from Wallace & Gromit). Still, I'm (sort of) smiling.
I recently entered a couple of local competitions.
The first was the Teesdale Mercury Calender competition. I only found out after a friend showed me the article in the paper, that I was one of the 12 winners!

I also entered a competition for Durham County Council and had this reply:

Hello,

I’m delighted to tell you that your photograph has been shortlisted in our top 20 in the photograph competition.

The top 20 will be on display in our Durham Room at County Hall next week.  You are welcome to come along and take a look.

I didn't win that competition, but felt very pleased I'd got so far for a first try.