THE NEXT TRAIN APPROACHING............

This weekend and the previous one has seen the Hogwarts Express steaming its way up the East Coast mainline. It is quite a majestic site, fire box ablaze and steam billowing. It even had Jeremy Clarkson waxing lyrical when the Top Gear Team took on the challenge of racing a steam train against a humble car from London to Edinburgh. This got me thinking about boys and their toys. Or hopefully in this modern day it is no longer thought of as being entirely male dominated. How many of you ladies out there didn't have brothers and missed out on playing with trains? I doubt I was the only one......

I am now making up for lost time. We have a new table set up in the shop with a Brio display ready for the train enthusiast to rave over. The only way to know what everything does is to play with it, so you will find us on our knees conversing with the three year old Brio experts. We are only fulfilling our job descriptions!

Marbel have taken over Brio. They are a Cornwall‐based toy distributor specialising in bringing wooden, quality, classic, traditional, innovative and educational toys to the UK market. The firm was set up six years ago by husband and wife team Christoph and Rebecca Bettin, who started the company after spending several years working in Munich, Germany, for American multinational General Electric. Ever since 1907, when BRIO first began selling toys, they’ve built a solid reputation for producing safe, high-quality products. Today, their commitment to quality and safety is stronger than ever.

Over the last year Brio have added quite a few new lines and are trying to combine both road and rail as a concept. For the really young you can go round a simple track and then disappear into uncharted territory on the living room floor and negotiate chair legs. For the older aficionado you can build tracks over two or three levels and link this with a road network that takes goods or people to any destination the imagination creates. It certainly is a toy that will grow with your child, expanding their imagination, improving hand eye co ordination and dexterity to name but a few. Beware you will become hooked!

We have just had a delivery of Brio, so I had better go and play, no I mean put it away. Till next time have a good week. Julie

HOT OFF THE PRESS!

Just testing how good your memory is, do you remember in one of the first blogs I wrote I said we had 17.5 children among us? Well we now have 18! Rob is a proud Dad. He has a beautiful baby boy, Alfie-John Michael. Weighing in at 6lb 13oz, arriving early, he obviously heard we had some new baby toys in stock and just wanted to check them out. His first stop on leaving hospital was not home, but Adventure Toys.

The other hot news is that we are having an Open Evening on Thursday 27th October, from 6.30pm to 9.00pm. You are all welcome, please come along, bring a friend. We have invited a number of fellow small businesses to come and show you a selection of their produce as in the case of Roots, and Lewis and Cooper are bringing wine for you to taste. We also have some soft furnishings for sale as well as Hats for every occasion. I will keep you posted, or better still keep up to date with us on facebook. You may just be inspired. Better still pop the date on your calender, or in your diary. All being well we will have some new toys in for you to see.

Talking of new toys. Do you remember Ambi? They are ideal baby and toddler toys. Made of plastic, but with a deep shine that just lasts and lasts. They have stood the test of time, many of you will recognise them when you see them. I still have the sunshine smiley faces that my children had and they don't look like they have been played with, they are still as good as new. Instead of being used as a rattle it is now an executive stress toy!! See what you think. Hazel's grandson is certainly going to find one or two in his stocking.

Till next time, Julie.

PRESERVING (CAN'T LET THINGS GO TO WASTE)

I hope you are all in one piece after the gale force winds yesterday. The wind certainly blew the cobwebs away, as well as a lot of fruit off the trees. Several trees were blown over blocking the road in either direction, and they had to be moved before we could get home. A sleep over in a toy shop may be every child's dream, just think what fun could be had. I doubt there would be much sleep!!

We have finished combining and are starting to work the land ready to sew the crops for next year. The hedge rows are laden with berries. We have a lot of windfalls, great for an Apple Pie or Blackberry and Apple Crumble. Makes my mouth water, better hadn't mention custard, cream or ice cream or I may start to drool. Quite a few of us have been busy making jam and fruit Jelly.

As I promised you in an earlier blog, I would persuade our members of staff to share with you some of their favourite recipes. Here is Belinda's. It is also one that many of us have made after persuading her to part with the recipe, and thoroughly enjoy. Even better if you are able to use runner beans that you have grown yourself. She has been making it for years. It is great with cold meats.

RUNNER BEAN CHUTNEY

2 lb runner beans (when trimmed and sliced)

1.5 lb onions (when chopped)

1 heaped tablespoon cornflower

1 tablespoon turmeric

1 heaped tablespoon dry mustard

1 lb Demerara sugar

1 lb soft brown sugar

1.5 pints of vinegar

Prepare vegetables.

Cook sliced beans in well-salted water until tender.

Cook chopped onions in half a pint of vinegar.

Mix dry ingredients to smooth paste with vinegar.

Strain cooked beans, then add to rest of vinegar and cook for ten minutes.

Add sugar and rest of ingredients and boil for a further fifteen minutes.

Bottle and cover.

This chutney keeps really well. All this talk of food reminds me that lunch is calling.

Let me know if you like it. Till next week, Julie

ENDINGS, BEGINNINGS AND ALL INBETWEEN

Our Yorkshire lass just missed out on a gold medal, but like all good things the athletics came to an end. The same could be said for the summer holidays. The little, and not so little ones are back to school, as are our students who have been helping out over the summer. They are back to University for their final year, but for many this is a new start.

There is still a small amount of combining to be finished, hopefully before we get any more rain. The bailer has been working nearly night and day, and we are leading bails at the moment. As soon as this is finished we will be ready to start ploughing, and the cycle begins again.

I appreciate not all of you will have had the opportunity to visit our shop, and will not have seen what we have on display outside for your little ones to try. Unfortunately my photographic skills are limited, but here is a section of our outdoor display.

I was thinking about the shop and how it varies throughout the year. During March we are busy building our display for outside, often in the snow, wind and rain. We're a hardy lot! The Toy fairs are just before this. Usually we go to London and Germany to see what new toys are going to be introduced over the coming year. We are still getting new products in now, an example of this was the Little Tikes Cozy Cab that we got in for the first time a few weeks ago. Between now and dare I say it Christmas (it seems a long way away) we will be having regular deliveries. The sledges will be ordered, and the debate as to whether we can have another winter like last year will go on until the last possible minute. Santa will have visited, a New Year celebrated, stock taking completed and we have come full cycle.

No time to dilly dally, till next time. Julie