Where to begin - 23rd January 2014

Indeed, where to begin as it has been a crazy ten days hence why I forgot all about my blog last Thursday.

I’ll start with the middle of last week when I went to check on the chilli seedlings and could not believe the amount of chilli babies that had appeared overnight. This might not be a problem you say, but it was to me as I hadn’t prepared the area where they were going once emerged. Frantic few hours then ensued but thankfully all is well now as you can see

Then before I knew it the weekend had arrived and we were off for a long weekend. This was a birthday treat for my husband, though four months late as I was so busy with chillies at the end of last year. We headed to Breakwater Cottage, Seahouses and had a fabulous time. However we did end up going on an unexpected trip to the fabulous Giacopazzis (a business that I met through Twitter) after promising hubby that we’d do nothing that involved my business. He did forgive me quite quickly after being treated by the lovely Kerry to many many samples of their amazing ice-cream. It really was amazing and I love the ideas that Kerry has, a very worthwhile trip.

We returned home on Monday and I made sure my phone was fully charged in the evening as this was to be the very first #chillihour on Twitter. This was an idea that I came up with a few weeks previous after the success of many other hours on Twitter. I spoke to some chilli friends to discuss what we thought would be a suitable date and time. Before I knew it #chillihour was born, to be held on the third Monday of the month from 21:00-22:00. I could not believe the success of the first hour. We actually trended which was just amazing. A huge thanks to Janice Pattie who publicized it so much. It was great to have such a range of people join, from the gardeners, chilli businesses to the foodies who loved cooking with them. Thank you all.

Before I knew it, the alarm was going off on Tuesday morning and another early start to Glasgow to attend the Scottish Speciality Food Show. This is my second year at the event visiting and I love it. I was actually helping out this year manning Mr C’s stand. Both myself and the lovely Vicky from Heart and Soulfood manned the stand for most of the day. As there were two of us it also gave us the opportunity to take turns on the stand while the other caught up with businesses at the event. One of the great things about this event is the opportunity to have a yearly catch up with Twitter friends and to meet new ones. I was really pleased to finally meet Karen from Angels Share Glass, we have tweeted for what seems like forever but this was the first time we had actually met and it was great to see her glass angels at the show. It is a very long day but really worth it and I highly recommend it.

Hectic time over? Well no, as I had a workshop to attend yesterday. Thankfully this turned out to be perfect timing as it was in Glasgow also. I therefore stayed overnight, visiting a good friend which cut down the travelling immensely.

So it is now Thursday and I returned to my day job. Unfortunately I had to travel today for a course so yet another early start but at least the return train journey gives me time to catch up on my blog.

So there that is what has happened since I last managed to blog. I’m still on the train and now catching up with emails. Once I get home I can upload my blog.

I really will try to make this a regular Thursday night blog. Hopefully by next week I may have some more news for you as we have lots of exciting projects in the pipeline.