Welcome to Yorkshire White Rose Awards

A promise to myself I must catch up writing my blogs. November was a very busy and exciting month for me as you will see in the following blogs .It started off with Welcome to Yorkshire White Rose Awards which were held in Harrogate. Jack has decided he has done enough of wearing a dickie bow and having to wear shoes that pinch his feet. In my other life of doing marketing for other businesses I had managed to get 3 through to the finals and after Jack made me promise not to go in for them again myself I was kindly invited along by the finalists I had submitted the entries

for. He didn't like the pressure of having to answer /or not answer the telephone. As previously the judges had awarded be 100% for breakfast,welcome and accommodation but scored only 75% when the telephone had been answered -we ll Jack had done his best but on the day his best was good enough.
Move on and drink the gin ... Slingsby Rhubarb gin it is one of my favourites and with partner in drink Catherine Feather we were treated to the biggest glassfuls.
Even the food was very good as usually it is only passable at these large events - we had a miniature ploughmans lunch to begin with followed by lamb cutlets which were delicious.  The puddings was dashes and dabs and jelly type things which didn't seem to go down as well as th e18 bottles of wine on our table ...hey not a drop passed my lips I was very happy with the gin.
I finally walked up our drive at 2.30am as the other party revellers on the table whooped it up util 4.30am I think I am now showing my age

Breakfast at Tiffany's -Give me Betty's any day

Well Audrey Hepburn might have brought Breakfast At Tiffany's to mind, but it was Breakfast at Betty's of Harrogate for me and on my birthday too.

  A kind invitation for Betty's took me to Harrogate as they were holding a network breakfast meeting and afterwards a cookery demonstration. Food has always featured highly in my 61 years after at a week old I wasn't pacified with a regular quota of Oster bottle milk. So my Dad took the situation in hand- doubled the strength and the volume to shut me up. 

It was a lovely drive over to Harrogate , I parked up and walked through the beautiful Valley Gardens in time to get to Betty's for 8am. 

Warmly greeted and ushered to the Imperial Room in Betty's. We were treated to a delicious breakfast of skewers of fresh fruit ,toasted bacon buns and finished off with pain de chocolat. 

One of the first people I spied was Olivia Brabbs ,complete with camera. Knowing Olivia now for many years

I guess Betty's will have ended up with some very good shots of the occasion. 

All too soon we were been asked to join one of Betty's chefs who gave a demonstration on how to cook the perfect Betty's Rosti. All I can say is next time I have chance to go to eat there this will be top of my order.

As always the staff ,the surrounds and the dateless elegance make Betty's. No wonder it is world renown. A couple of days later my Australian guests were heading to the York branch as someone had given them a wedding voucher and needless to say they loved it 

Thank you to All the Team at Betty's for making my birthday special.

Y14 and all that jazz

The first Y conference I went to at Harrogate we were welcomes by a jazz band . This year it was Tom Ashurst and his colleague who I spied first. I got a good viewing seat up in the rafters. Gary Verity look very suave in his yellow trousers -quite a suitable colour for lambing in I thought. Nick Clegg arrived and spoke well about the involvement of Welcome to Yorkshire and Le Tour. The 8th Earl of Harewood House,David Lascelles spoke of the involvement of the Arts side of things and so it continued. The arty side of things had made these huge birds on poles that when they were waved through the air by their 3 legs - men with poles you need to use your imagination here.Think voultures rather than Mrs Henny Penny. Ending in a grand finale to mark the 100 day countdown to LeTourYorkshire with what I could descibe as large yellow party poppers been let off. As Alistair Griffin and the band ended the presentation with the song that again has been created for Le Tour. People are thinking up great ideas ,coming together with others to make this the biggest and the best Grande Departe. What we cant organise is the weather but lets hope it behaves itself.

Treats in Harrogate

I have always said Harrogate was where mothers went to buy hats for weddings. It is that sort of place. This week I managed to escape for a few hours.I promised myself to go to the Turkish baths. Since it reopened in 2004 I thought my visit was long over due. Apparently it is only one of 7 in the country and is the most popular. I was there on Tuesday afternoon.There was a lady from Helmsley only 6 miles from me who's shop I know with her friend. A mother who had taken her daughter and 10 of her schoolmates to celebrate her 18th birthday, A lady who taught Mandarin from Kent- so a mixed bunch in all. I loved the heat.The cold pool didn't do much for me as I didn't venture in further than my knees. But I soon started to fidget I am not used to doing nothing. Some had taken books to read. I am glad I went but I am afraid it isn't really for me.There is a "massage parlour" too well a beauty type affair. I am quite happy to slap a bit of nail varnish on my own toes - Thank you and as for finger nails I have work hands. I much prefer to be outside in my own little hot tub up in the woods.Here I can watch butterflies and birds.The only thing is Betty's isn't at the end of the road and it is raid the fridge and make my own if I stay at home.Betty's looked lovely decked with hanging baskets and as I past at lunchtime people were queueing to get in. A right holiday treat.