The Medieval Damson Fayre

This weekend, a medieval market came to our little town to celebrate the traditional festival of the Drayton Damson Fayre. Although we were massively busy this weekend with a belated family birthday weekend for Kizzy's birthday, we found an hour to pop into town to join in with the fun.

Morris dancers, fire-eaters, musicians, the local regiment of the army including their gorgeous and huge Irish Wolfhound mascot, some rescue owls and loads of stalls selling various wares made the fayre a great spectacle.  Stall holders and some of the visitors were dressed in medieval clothing, adding to the theme of the day.  Our local town is steeped in so much history, it was interesting to learn more about an event that dates back to the 1400's.

Freddy really enjoyed having a go at embossing his name into a piece of leather using a wooden hammer to bang the letter stamps.  He did a great job and got to take home his very own handmade leather keyring.   He was also quite delighted with the fancy dress stall that sold weaponry and armour and picked out a red and gold shield for himself.  He spent quite a lot of the weekend challenging his grandad to sword fights!

It was nice to get out into the fresh air, after a week of being poorly, and enjoy a wander around our local market town.  It is nice to support the community and lovely to see such a great turn out for an event.  The day was bustling and we enjoyed popping into the local shops.  The wholefood shop was a great place to stock up on vegan goodies, now that my eldest daughter has become a fully fledged dairy-free vegetarian. I really enjoyed revisiting some of the products I used to buy when I was vegan and I discovered a few new ones too.  Megan's enthusiasm for her new way of eating is really rubbing off on us all!

Sainsbury's were there demonstrating some recipes and I sampled Vegetable Quesadillas and Shrosphire Blue Cheese Potatoes.  Both were very nice but as they contained cheese, Megan couldn't try them so we stocked up on some fruit from one of the stalls.  Sadly, they didn't actually sell damsons so we made do with donut peaches and bananas.  We watched a blacksmith making things in the way they would have done back in medieval times, but my girls were more interested in watching a very, very handsome community police officer instead!

I'm glad we made the effort to pop along and Freddy loved his leather stamping activity...anything that involves hitting things with hammers is high on his list of things that are fun!

Here is a video made by our local Drayton Crier, in case anyone is interested in finding out more about the history of the Damson Fayre and seeing what went on in our local community this weekend.

                        

Love Indian Food? You'll Love Oruna Cuisine!

Oruna Cuisine Indian Restaurant 

There are not many things that I am passionate about in the area in which I live, however we have an Indian Restaurant called Oruna Cuisine which is a culinary gem in the crown of North Shropshire eateries.  We regularly treat ourselves to take-aways but until yesterday had not dined in.  As it was Ella's 16th birthday, we decided it was time to experience the restaurant in all its glory and not just order the food that comes in foil containers!

Oruna Cuisine boasts an  extraordinary blend of tradition and modernity creating  authentic Indian dishes that are quite simply some of the best I have ever enjoyed in my years as a lover of curry!  The extensive menu has so many vegetarian choices that for once I am spoiled for choice even with my self-imposed dietary restrictions.

The restaurant has an excellent 'Happy Hour' on a Thursday and Sunday night that lets you choose any drink, starter, main, rice or nan bread followed by a coffee and all preceded by popadoms and a chutney tray for just £11.95.

Oruna Cuisine

The table was decorated with helium balloons and birthday banners and Ella was made to feel really special by the staff who are genuinely attentive and very friendly.  The food was plentiful, beautifully presented and as ever, absolutely delicious!  I chose Chot Pothi to start, which was a spicy chickpea curry inside a chappati style bread, and Paneer Tikka Masala and Mushroom Pilau rice for my main.

Indian starter

There was loads of food so we could try everyone elses' dishes too.  Always a bonus!!

Indian Mains

After the meal, Ella was thrilled when the waiters presented her with a chocolate gateau birthday cake and sang Happy Birthday.  It was just too cute and a wonderful gesture, making Ella feel really special!

Birthday Cake

My love for Oruna Cuisine has indeed got even greater after our experience of dining in.  They waiters were even on hand to provide a lolly for Freddy to keep him entertained and happy when he had finished eating his dinner, allowing us to relax and enjoy our coffees in peace!  It was a wonderful evening.

Oruna's Friendly Staff

If you ever find yourself anywhere near North Shropshire and you want to enjoy an Indian feast in lovely surroundings with friendly staff, then you'd be hard pressed to find anywhere better than Oruna Cuisine.

Fairytale Favours and Gingerbread Men!!

I live in Market Drayton, a small market town in North Shropshire which has been the home of gingerbread for the past 200 years.  The original recipe included rum in the ingredients and was enjoyed after being dipped in port!  However, over the years gingerbread has become far more fun (and a lot less boozy!)  Image on Food is a local company that has been lovingly creating gingerbread novelties for over 20 years.  Each piece is handcrafted using the finest ingredients and then is beautifully hand decorated by a team of skilled gingerbread decorators.  With top of the range technology, they can produce any shape, logo or design and supply customers from little farm shops through to major coffee house chains!

Fairytale Favours is Image on Foods online retail shop supplying their products directly to us...the public!  They create gorgeous edible gifts that can be posted to UK of BFPO addresses.  Their range of beautiful, handmade gingerbread cookies are perfect for any occasion.   They can provide unique wedding favours to make your special day even more special.  How about a cookie card to celebrate an upcoming birthday!  Celebrate the birth of a new baby with a baby bundle.  A Super Dad cookie would make the perfect Father's Day gift!  For a really impressive gift for birthdays, as a Get Well or Thank you present or just to say "I Love You" you could order a splendid Cookie Bouquet.  Much tastier than a bunch of flowers!!

I was thrilled to be given a Cookie Bouquet to sample.  It consists of six large, colourful, iced gingerbread flowers and a traditional gingerbread man displayed lovingly in a tin.  Each cookie is hand finished and wrapped in cellophane for freshness.  The bouquet is wrapped and tied with ribbon to create a beautiful and original gift...the sweetest way to show you care!!  A personalised greetings card is included and the gift can be dispatched on the same day if ordered by 12 noon from Monday to Thursday.  Delivery is free via courier.

The cookie bouquets will keep fresh for up to 3 months.  But there is no way they will last that long!!

The gingerbread is thick, crunchy and tastes delicious.  The icing is so pretty and all the colourings are completely natural. Each cookie is a good size.  The flowers are each over 4" across.

The cookie bouquet would make an amazing centrepiece to a table, ready for your guests to nibble on after dinner!  The appeal crosses the generations.  Freddy is 2 and he was delighted with the appearance of the cookie bouquet.  He was very excited to be given a gingerbread flower to munch on!

"Ooh look at this!  I want that one!"

"Lolly!!"

The cookies are mounted on sticks which have a sharp bottom where they are mounted into a polystyrene base, so we had to chop off the spike for Freddy to eat his "lolly" as he called it!  He actually loved having it on a stick and thought it was real fun to carry it about, licking the icing and chomping on the biccie!

Licking the icing!

Freddy loves it!!

Kids and adults alike love gingerbread and Fairytale Favours has a design for everyone. From farmyard animals to bugs to stars to teddy bears! They even have a Help for Heroes range featuring an RAF bear, a Navy bear, a Marine bear and an Army bear which helps support the worthwhile charity. 

You can order online on the site,  by post, fax or email and if you don't see exactly what you want you can call for help and information.  So if you are having a wedding, a hen night or if you want gingerbread for a corporate event, give them a ring!

The Cookie Bouquet that we received for this review is priced at £34.95 and available for free same day dispatch by courier if ordered on Mon-Thurs before 12pm.  You are able to personalise the ribbon colour and include a personalised gift card to make a completely unique gift for the lucky recipient.

Have a look at their Facebook Page and check out photos of their amazing creations (including their new summer designs for John Lewis!) and follow them on Twitter  for up to date news.

Image on Food is definitely a company that we Market Draytonians are rightfully proud of!!

Listography - Places

Oh dear.  Kate Takes 5 's topic for this week's Listography is "Places".  For me, this is not going to be easy. 

Firstly:  I am not much of a traveller.  I get car sick, train sick, sea sick, air sick...I even get sick on Merry Go Rounds!  So my wanderlusting is quite limited!

Secondly:  I've had children since I was nineteen so I never really had the "young, free and single" opportunity to see the world or the cold hard cash without having nappies to buy with it!

Thirdly:  I'm a little phobic of new or unfamiliar places.  I like to know exactly which door to go through. 

However, I am not to be defeated. 

1:  France is the only place I can get to.  I can just about cope with the Eurotunnel although I do need distracting from the overwhelming fear I harbour whereby I imagine the tunnel cracking and the entire contents of the English Channel being deposited on top of our car.  Whilst in France I love to shop.  I'm not talking boutiques or quaint markets though.  I like the Hypermarches...the bigger the better.  There is something so familiar about shelves of long life dairy desserts.  It's novocaine for my phobia!  Here's a picture of my last French holiday.

2:  I always imagined what it must be like to go to Mexico and visit the Cancun pyramids. We were once host family to a Mexican boy called Angel.  He spoke about the beauty of Cancun and part of me felt a twinge of desire.  Then reality kicked in as I thought about the 13 hour flight, the heat, the language barrier...and I knew that the nearest I'd get was Barburritos at the Trafford Centre.

3: Market Drayton is where I live now and I'd like therefore to include it in this list as I did visit before moving here.  It is a Tudor Market Town in rural Shropshire.  It's quite a pretty place.  I know it's a bit of a cop out...but I'm struggling here!!

4:  London...coming from Slough, which is spitting distance from the big smoke, I used to go to London quite a lot.  Half an hour on the train and you'd arrive in Paddington.  As I've got older, I've found the crowds, the traffic and the noise a bit intimidating, but there was a time when I was a bit of City Girl.  This photo shows me in Trafalgar Square...OK I was about 5 at the time, but still it's good enough for my list!!

5: Belgium I never meant to go to Belgium.  I was actually in my home from home France on a day trip, shopping in my favourite Hypermarche buying dairy desserts...you know the drill.  We went back to Calais for our crossing to discover the French seamen had blocaded the ports and the subsequent backlog was so unmanageable that they were diverting everyone to Zeebrugge.  The arduous drive along with thousands of other disgruntled daytrippers took hours.  At one point we all fell asleep in a traffic jam.  Some time later, we woke up to the sound of a car horn.  At some point during our slumber the traffic had cleared and goodness knows how many cars had used the opportunity to get in front of us to secure a coveted place on one of the UK bound ferries.  Had someone not alerted us, we could still be there now!  Eventually we got ourselves on an overcrowded boat, to suffer an overnight crossing that sailed in to Dover just after sun-up.  And you wonder why I hate travelling!



So...sorry Kate for my pitiful entry to this week's listography...but I didn't want to miss out on your fabulous bloghopping opportunity!!