It's been over a week since I blogged, a week full of frustration and indecision and nothing going right. Not for lack of ideas, I can't sleep for thinking what I could be doing only to find I'm so tired the next day everything I try turns into a disastrous mess. I have a half made stocking, half done photo's, a half made Advent calendar ..you get the picture. We are going to Brancepeth Castle a couple of miles from Durham for a three day fair from the 25th. It was an un-mitigated disaster last year ..... this is what it looked like!
The first day wondering if we were going to make it
The second morning
Beautiful to look at but a nightmare to travel in
After 3 days of snow
Not surprising the footfall was considerably down from the year before but it gave us plenty of opportunity to wander the halls and admire the work of other crafters, buy some Christmas presents and spend more than we earned. The castle, grounds and small church looked beautiful covered in sparkling snow when the blizzard took a moments reprieve. As you come into the castle under the tunnel some very hardy crafters had outside stalls and the first one was a display of garden ornaments, giraffes, hippos, gnomes, mushrooms and large birds all took on a similar shape under a foot or more of snow. Some stall holders never made it and other such as the farm produce lady lasted two days before frozen to the bone gave up and wasn’t seen on the third day. 15 foot of pure white snow!
