Wednesday 16 September 2015

Bombay 106 Original India Pale 7% The Durham Brewery - Beer Review

I liked this beer, Bombay 106 Original India Pale 7% from The Durham Brewery.
Usually I'm not a serious lover of Pale Ale, but this was good, and Mr.R is a big fan of Pale Ales and he liked this brew very much.
I thought it was pleasant, it had a nice bitterness, and a hint of spice and pepper in the finish.
Mr.R said it had a decent bitterness, with a touch of citrus, and a pleasantly long finish, he gave it 7/10.

Bombay 106 Original India Pale 7%
I haven't got a photo of the actual beer, just the bottle 
The beer vanished in the blink of an eye - odd ;)
Or was it the tilt of a wrist? Slurp! Burp! Gone!


From the label -
Named after the 106th Brigade of the East India Trading Company who later became the 2nd Batallion of the Durham Light Infantry. This type of beer was drunk in India at this time.

Very pale Maris Otter Malt and traditional English Goldings hops replicate the original pale bitter.
Bitterness is robust but well rounded with a spicy peppery finish and heady alcohol esters.

This ale is bottle-conditioned.
There is a live sediment which continues to mature and develop the flavour and character. 

Store upright and pour gently to avoid disturbing the sediment.


Natural; not filtered.


Store at cool room temperature and serve at 10 degrees C.

This beer may be lively so have a glass to hand when opening.

Food match: Curries and other heavily flavoured foods. Also steak and chips.

Contains water, barley, wheat, hops, and yeast.

Suitable for vegans.
3.5 UK units.

The Durham Brewery Ltd,
Unit 6a,
Bowburn North Ind Est,
Bowburn, Durham DH6 5PF.
Have you tried Bombay 106 Original India Pale 7% from The Durham Brewery?
Well, what are you waiting for? Go and get some!

Chicken Rogan Josh, with Mashed Potato - How Very English!

Lunch today was another delicious meal cooked by Mr.R.
A seriously tasty chicken Rogan Josh, served with sweet potato mash; with lots of lovely creme fraiche, cabbage, carrots, and an aubergine, onion, and garlic concoction.

Chicken rogan josh. Mashed potato with sweet potato and creme fraiche, cabbage, carrots, and a garlic, onion, and aubergine concoction. πŸ΄πŸ˜‹


See, I can keep it short. Unlike the blog post I uploaded a little while ago (the post before this post), which was also a food post. Chicken, in fact.

That just goes to show you can't judge by first impressions, or you can, but maybe you'll misinterpret the facts.

We do not eat a lot of chicken. We do not eat a lot of meat. Actually a lot of our meals contain no meat at all, not that we're vegetarians, or vegans, we just like to have variety in our diet - it's the spice of life.

Spice! That's one thing we do eat a lot of.

Oops, I'm starting to rambling, and now as is pretty evident, this is no longer the first two sentences that I originally intended to write.
I'd written them in my head, and honestly thought I'd sit down type them, add the photo and that would be it. That would be the shortest blog post I've ever written. Ha!
Oh well, this is still pretty short, and it is probably the shortest one ever anyway.
Unless of course, I just keep typing.......
Arghhh!
I'm finished!
Other than to ask -
Do you eat a lot of chicken? Or any other meat?
What about spicy food, do you love it?
What's your favourite chicken dish? 
And finally, have you ever eaten chicken Rogan Josh with mashed potato? ;)

Roast Chicken. Roast Potatoes, Carrots, Red Pepper, Brussels Sprouts, Spinach, and Peas - It's What's For Lunch!

It would be an exaggeration, (although only a teeny-tiny one), if I said I am always thinking about food.

It would be completely true, if I said I am almost always thinking about food.

Honesty!
I think about food a lot.
Usually as I'm eating breakfast I start to think about what's for lunch, and those thoughts turn quickly to what's for dinner.
I can't stop myself. Not that I want to. I mean what's wrong with thinking about food almost always? 
Nothing!

In fact most evenings I'll ask Mr.R what we're having for lunch the next day. And that's often long before I've even eaten that nights dinner, or the next mornings breakfast.

Food, food, glorious food!

Mr.R is a really good cook. He makes us delicious meals.
Unfortunately I am seriously crap at photographing food.
I blame the bad light in this house, which is kind of the reason my food photos are bad, but not the whole reason because in fact this house is really light inside.
I think the main reason the photos I shoot of food are not good, is simply because not only am I always thinking about food, I am always hungry, so as soon as my food is served, I want to eat it - not faff about taking cool photos of it.
Ironic really, as I can actually take good photos, of food, of anything, because I studied photography. And I achieved excellent results. And I worked in the photographic industry for many many years.
Oh feck! This blog post is not about my life, well, it is, but it's not. This blog post was purely meant to be one photo of a plate of food cooked by my husband, Mr.R. The photo was supposed to be accompanied by a short paragraph about the meal, and my crap food photos. Hahaha!

Seriously tasty lunch yesterday. And seriously huge too. 😳🍴🐷😜😬 Roast chicken. Roast potatoes, roast carrot, roast red pepper, Brussels sprouts, spinach and peas. Yum!
Seriously tasty lunch. And seriously huge too. 
Roast chicken. Roast potatoes, roast carrot, roast red pepper, Brussels sprouts, spinach and peas. Yum!


I feel I'm doing a disservice to the lovely food cooked by Mr.R with my bad photos.
Oh well, whatever! Here's the food shot - above - obviously.
Do do think about food a lot?
Are you always hungry?
What's your favourite meal?



Seriously tasty lunch yesterday. And seriously huge too. 😳🍴🐷😜😬 Roast chicken. Roast potatoes, roast carrot, roast red pepper, Brussels sprouts, spinach and peas. Yum!

Fun for the Dogs on Crimdon Dene Beach, County Durham

We really appreciate the fact that we have several good beaches very close to our house, not because we are beach people, but because the dogs love to run free on the sand.
I've mentioned it in previous blog posts, but I'll say it again, we have two wonderful rescue dogs, a Lurcher and a Rottweiler. Being a sighthound, our Lurcher absolutely loves to run, and where he goes our Rottweiler follows - at a slightly slower speed. Hehehe!

Three. πŸ˜πŸ‘±πŸ•πŸ•☺️
Mr.R (in the distance) Barley (Lurcher) and Porter (Rottweiler) 


A few days ago, bright and early one morning, we took the dogs to Crimdon Dene beach, and as often happens we had the whole beach to ourselves, which meant the boys could enjoy running off lead without us having to worry about other people, dogs etc.

Two. πŸ•πŸ’¨πŸ•πŸ’¨πŸ˜Š
Barley and Porter

When we first let the dogs off of their leads they usually spend a few minutes play fighting, and then the real fun begins - ball chasing.
They both love to run after balls, which they'd happily do for as long as we have the energy to continue to throw them - thank god for tennis-ball launchers; you know those long plastic scoop thingys.

Porter. Sea spume. πŸ•πŸ’¨πŸ˜Š
Porter enjoying the spume


Anyway, on this particular beach day, the sun was rising, the sea was quite calm, and it wasn't raining - hooray!
There had obviously been some rough weather though, as the evidence was scattered along the high-tide line - lots of seaweed and seashells etc.
There was also a lot of spume, it looked like there had been a foam party, not in a club in Ibiza (for example), but on a beach in County Durham with seafoam.

Barley. Sea spume. πŸ•πŸ‘…πŸ˜Š
Barley catching his breath before he zoomed off again


We all walked, well me and Mr.R walked, the dogs ran, for quite a way along the beach in the direction of Hartlepool. It was a very pleasant morning, and excellent exercise for the dogs, who, once we got back to the house, spent the next few hours sleeping - very very deeply.

Happy boys. πŸΆπŸ’¨πŸΆπŸ’¨☺️
Barley loves zoomies, and he even lets Porter catch-up with him - sometimes


Obviously I'm biased because we live right next to the sea, but I truly prefer dog walking on the beach, compared to wandering in the woods or countryside.
We also have lots of countryside, fields etc. by our house, and we do walk the dogs there as well, but I think they prefer the beach too.
Do you have a dog?
What's your prefered dog walking location, beach, countryside, or city?



Monday 14 September 2015

Dreamtime Ridge, Australia - Wine Review

I've got millions (very slight exaggeration) of wine review blog posts in my draft folder waiting to be completed and published. Some of these blog posts are so old I can hardly remember writing them, let alone what I thought of the wine.
But this wine, this blog post is freshly written today, and the impression the wine left on me is as fresh as if I'd drank it today - I actually drank it about a week ago.

Cheap as chips and twice as tasty. πŸ·πŸ˜‹πŸ‘ Dreamtime Ridge, Australia. 🍷 Smells like chocolate liqueurs, taste like liqueur and port. Nice! 😊


So, what did I think of this Australian wine.
Well, firstly I'll say I'm not particularly keen on Australian wines, not usually - but this wine.......
This wine was so good, I'm definitely interested in trying more wines from Oz in the future.
It's not that we don't drink Australian wines in this house, it's just that we tend to buy more French, Spanish, and Italian wine.

Anyway, this wine, it was seriously nice, it had a pleasantly strong aroma of chocolate and those chocolate liqueurs that are popular at Christmas, and it tasted more like a liqueur than a wine, and reminded me of a light, young, port.
Now, I know that food can influence how wine tastes, so I thought that maybe I was loving Dreamtime Ridge wine so much because of what I'd eaten, but no, Mr.R had eaten something completely different to what I'd had, and he also liked this wine a lot, and agreed with me that it tasted like a liqueur and a young port.

Cheap as chips and twice as tasty. πŸ·πŸ˜‹πŸ‘ Dreamtime Ridge, Australia


From the label - 
Fresh, fruity, easy drinking red.
Great with pasta, pizza or grilled meats. 
13% vol

That's so typically Australian isn't it? The wine label description I mean; short and to-the-point.
No messing. No using one hundred words when 12 will do. Excellent! Hahaha!

Anyway, we loved this wine. It's cheaper than chips, and twice as tasty, and a bargain from Asda for £3.50.
Although it's probably only a quid in Australia. Joke!
Have you tried Dreamtime Ridge, Australia?
Did you love it?

Generous Neighbours, Free Vegetables, Allotment Goodies

One of our neighbours recently gave Mr.R a jar of pickled beetroot.
He said his friend had grown the beetroot himself, and we love beetroot so we were very pleased.

Then a few days later I saw the same neighbour and he handed me a bag of lovely ripe tomatoes, again these were grown locally on an allotment.
And then another neighbour called us over, and asked us if we like tomatoes, we said yes, and she handed us a bag full of lovely sweet tomatoes.

And just a few days ago the neighbour who gave us the beetroot etc., offered us some more fresh homegrown food, this time he handed us a bag containing some lovely big carrots, three large onions, and a huge leek.
As you can see from the photo, the leek was so large that our neighbour cut it in half to share with us.

Good glorious food! All grown on local allotments. One of our neighbours gave us these beauties - look at the size of that leek! πŸ˜³πŸ‘πŸ˜‹


It's so lovely having such generous neighbours.
And really lovely eating lots of fresh healthy vegetables.
We absolutely love vegetables, I mean we're not vegetarians, but we eat lots and lots of veg.
Do you like vegetables?
Do you grow your own veg?

Jez Lowe - Last of the Widows

This weekend past, was the Easington Colliery Heritage Day, 12th September 2015.

We had intended to go along, but unfortunately the weather stopped us, it was pouring with rain for most of the day.
I'm sure the rain didn't put most people off of going though, and hopefully all of the hard work involved to organise this event didn't go unappreciated.

As we didn't attended the Heritage Day event, I don't have any photos from it to share, but I've had this Jez Lowe song in my head for several months.
In case you don't know, Jez Lowe is a folk singer songwriter, and Last of the Widows is about the mining pit disaster in Easington Colliery in May 1951 that killed 83 men.
It felt appropriate to publish this blog post now - it's been in my draft folder for ages.

Obviously because this song is about the miners and their widows, it's not an uplifting song, but it is full of emotion, and beautifully sung by Jez Lowe, so I hope you like it.




Jez Lowe - Last of the Widows

The last of the widows of the Duck Bill seam
Is lying tonight with her young man again
They're clinging fast together soothing sighs and pain
And coaxing back the love their loss survived

The last of the widows of the Duck Bills flare
Is brushing back dust from his strong brown hair
And he's stretched on her bosom with his love laid fair
And making up for time fate stole away

Parting words were never spoken last kisses never broken
She never even watched him walk away
Now the last of the widows of the Duck Bill's seam
Reached out and took his hand again today

The last of the widows of the Duck Bill's fire
Stood bleak and bewildered as the count climbed higher
Then she wept for the world across a newsroom wire
When she heard his name called out across the crowd

But when the world had turned to leave eighty women turned to grieve
And cursed their compensation through their tears
Now the last of the widows of the Duck Bills seam
Can close her eyes and wipe away the years

The last of the widows of the Duck Bill's flame
Is free of the lonely nights of bitterness and blame
And there's some who'll remember as they speak her name
The reason why she lived so long alone

And in the fields above the dangers of Gresford, Trimdon Grange
Haswell, Hartley Beam and Markham Main
The last of the widows of the Duck Bill's seam
Is walking with her miner lad again


Are you a fan of Jez Lowe?

Homemade Roast Vegetable Pizza - Delicious

Mr.R is a good cook; he knows the way to my heart is - food. Hahaha!

A couple of nights ago he made us a seriously tasty roast vegetable pizza to share.
It may not look good to you, but that's simply because I am crap at taking food photos - it was good, really really good.

Mmm! Dinner yesterday evening. Hub made us a roasted vegetable pizza to share. πŸ•πŸ·πŸ˜‹


Mr.R made the pizza base, then while this was proving, (sometimes he makes leavened bread, sometimes unleavened, depending on what he fancies) he roasted aubergine, courgette, and red peppers.
Once the pizza base was suitable proved, and ready for topping, Mr.R smothered it in his homemade spicy tomato and chilli sauce, then he added the roast vegetables, and a little bit of grated cheese, before baking the pizza.
A few large green olives, and a bottle of red wine, and dinner was served.
Delicious!
Do you make your own pizza?
What's your favourite type of pizza?

Supertide - No Beach Running for the Dogs - But we all had a Lovely Walk in the Grassy Sand Dunes

A while ago we took the dogs to one of our local beaches.
Nothing unusual about this, we often take them to the beach, but this day we hadn't bothered to check the tide.

Footbridge. πŸ‘žπŸ‘Ÿ Went to the beach this morning. The tide was super-high so there wasn't any sand upon which the dogs could run, so we had a lovely walk up in the dunes by the golf course.
If you squint you can just about see the sea - in the far distance 


Well, we'd checked the tide, we knew it would be high, but that didn't concern us because the beach we'd chosen to drive to always has a lot of sand even when the tide is very high.

Steps. πŸ‘žπŸ‘Ÿ Nice. 😊 Went to the beach this morning. The tide was super-high so there wasn't any sand upon which the dogs could run, so we had a lovely walk up in the dunes by the golf course.
Steps, lots of steps, leading across the grassy dunes


Not so this day though.
Apparently the tide was a supertide, which meant there was absolutely no beach at all for us to enjoy, or more importantly for the dogs to enjoy.

Burnt. πŸ”₯ Went to the beach this morning. The tide was super-high so there wasn't any sand upon which the dogs could run, so we had a lovely walk up in the dunes by the golf course.
Oh dear! Someone has been lighting fires


As we'd bothered to drive to the beach, we decided not to turn around and go straight back to the house, but to go for a walk anyway. A walk among the sand dunes that border the golf course by the beach.

Nice. 😊 Went to the beach this morning. The tide was super-high so there wasn't any sand upon which the dogs could run, so we had a lovely walk up in the dunes by the golf course.
The sea, the grassy dunes, and the golf course


It was very early in the morning, the weather was dull and damp, but we still enjoyed the walk, so did the dogs, and we weren't the only eejits up and about - there was a man playing golf as we wandered across a couple of the holes.
We weren't invading the greens, the route is open for walkers.

Mushroom. πŸ„πŸ„πŸ„ Went to the beach this morning. The tide was super-high so there wasn't any sand upon which the dogs could run, so we had a lovely walk up in the dunes by the golf course.
We saw lots of wild mushrooms - wish we knew which were edible


Anyway, for a change I didn't shoot lots of photos of the dogs running and playing on the beach, instead I took some photos of the scenery and things I saw on our beach dunes walk.

We all enjoyed our walk along the sand dunes, the grass, and the gold course, although I'm sure the dogs would have prefered to chase their ball and run on the sand.
Mr.R and me really like walking, which is why we like living in County Durham where there are lots of lovely places to walk in the countryside and by the sea. Our love of walking is also one of the reasons we got a dog, and then another dog - you can't not go for regular walks when there are dogs in your family.
Golf is a different thing though, neither of us like golf. I say, golf - why spoil a good walk? Hahaha!
Do you enjoy walking?
Do you play golf?

Friday 11 September 2015

Uvas Douradas, Bairrada DOC Reserva 2010 - Wine Review

We recently enjoyed a bottle of Uvas Douradas, Bairrada DOC Reserva 2010.

Uvas Douradas 2010


I know I've mentioned it in my previous wine review blog posts, but I'll say it again - we buy a lot of the wine we drink from Lidl. And I do mean a lot, as we drink a lot of wine.
Well, when I say we buy our wine from Lidl, I mean Mr.R - because he's the one who does the shopping.

Lidl is really good for wine, they have a good selection and reasonable prices.
This Portuguese wine is another bargain from Lidl, it's good value at £4.79, and it tasted much better than the price may suggest.

On the nose there were aromas of rich dark fruits, on the palate it was fresh, and young for a 2010, with delicious flavours of blueberries, blackberries, plums, spice, and a hint of tobacco, followed by a pleasantly smooth dry long finish.
We'd happily buy this wine again.

Uvas Douradas 2010


From the label - 
This ruby red wine is made from the Baga grape variety, which is typical of the Bairrada region. Its intense flavour is reminiscent of plums and raspberries, with characteristic notes of rosin as well as hints of coconut and vanilla, which are emphasised by the cask maturation. 
This full-bodied wine with a harmonious structure and long-lasting, fresh finish is ideal as an accompaniment to meat, particularly game. 
Have you tried Uvas Douradas, Bairrada DOC Reserva 2010?
Do you buy wine from Lidl?

Friday 4 September 2015

Brenda Blethyn Came To Visit - As Vera Stanhope in ITV Drama - Vera

A week or so ago we noticed quite a lot of activity going on in one of the houses that faces the front of our house.
This activity continued for about a week. A luton van, with several men on board, would pull up in front of the house, unload lots of furniture which the men would then take inside the property.
Initially we didn't think too much of this, as there are always people moving in and out of the houses in this area, it is a very common and regular sight.
The only thing that struck me as slightly out of the ordinary, was that the furniture didn't seem to be what we'd expect for the properties here, the style seemed a bit wrong, and also the fact that the van made so many visits. Usually people just move into a house in one go, one day, and it's all done and dusted.

Anyway, trying to stay on track with this blog post, the van came every day for about a week, and then nothing, no sign of any people living in the house.
Once again, we didn't think too much about that because living here we find ourselves saying, ''only in the colliery...'' very often. By which I mean, nothing surprises us about what happens here, it is without doubt the maddest place either of us have ever lived.
Oh the things I have seen in the colliery.......

Right, so, back to what I was saying; lots of furniture moved into a neighbouring property over the period of several days, and then nothing, no activity, no people, nothing.

Then one bright and early morning we went out as we always do to walk our dogs in the open fields just a minute away from our house.
There is a tarmac road leading to a small car-park, and then from there people can wander everywhere, across the fields, around the coastal path, or even down onto our little beach.
On this morning the gate that very rarely closes the entrance to the tarmac road and the car-park was shut.
We didn't think much of this, because the gate has been closed a few times since we first moved here.
So we just went about our usual walk with the dogs. And the same on that evening, and the following morning and so on, until.......

Vera. White vehicles in the background are the film crew for a new series of Vera, staring Brenda Blethyn. Porter and Barley weren't star-struck, they were just there to poop. πŸΆπŸΆπŸ’©πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚
The dogs wandering why lots of strangers had taken over the car-park

One morning the car-park, which had been out of use for a few days by this time, was more or less full of vehicles. There were a few trucks, several caravan trailers, lots of cars, a mobile toilet block, and even a double-decker bus.
It was obvious that there was a film crew here. Obvious because the double-decker bus had writing on it, something along the lines of, 'Bristol Film and Television Solutions...'.

So we now knew that there was going to be some filming taking place here in the colliery.
That's nothing new for this place, as parts of the film Billy Elliot were shot here, as was Grim up North, Secret Millionaire, and Benefits Street.......

Brenda Blethyn! Standing by the front door in her character 'Vera' long mac. Filming Vera at the end of our road. That's Vera's Land Rover. They've been busy hanging washing on the washing line, then taking it down, then rehanging it, moving it about..,..
Vera, (Brenda Blethyn), in her characters trademark mac and hat, knocking on the from door

It wasn't until we spoke to a neighbour that we knew what was being filmed here. Vera.
Yep, the excellent ITV detective drama starring Brenda Blethyn as Vera Stanhope had come to the colliery to film.

Brenda Blethyn, here in the colliery, filming some scenes for the new series of ITV detective drama, Vera.
You wouldn't believe the numbers of times this washing was moved by one of the film crew. 
It was hung up, taken down, and moved around on various washing lines in the street - millions of times (only a slight exaggeration) 


Neither me or Mr.R are particularly interested in what famous people are like in real life, so we weren't about to become all sychophantic, but we were quite excited by everything that was going on in the colliery because it was such a refreshing change for something positive to be happening here.

Brenda Blethyn. Filming Vera. Hot footing it (between the white van and Vera's Land Rover) to shoot a scene at the front door. We've never seen so many people here, usually there's rarely more than a handful of people wandering about.
Vera (Brenda Blethyn) hot-footing it to the front door (she's between the Landy and the white van)

Anyway, after we'd spoken to our neighbour and found out that Vera was what the film crew were shooting here, it wasn't long before things began to get very busy. Well, busy for the colliery, as usually it is lacking in people, and vehicles on the roads, but now there were lots of vehicles driving around the back streets, and parking here and there, and there were more people wandering about in one day than we'd usually see in a week. It all felt very different.

They've set up a scaffolding tower for the huge light; centre of this photo. I was just about to take the shot, when a bloke pulled-up in the camper-van. πŸ˜ƒ Poor Brenda Blethyn having to work on bank holiday Monday. She must be tired, the film crew
Rigging for the lighting ready to shoot the interior scenes

One morning this week, bank holiday Monday, we heard some noise outside, not loud disturbing noises, just cars parking, and people talking etc.
We looked out of the living room window, and what did we see?
We saw a Land Rover parked opposite our house, and lots of people milling about.
Then we saw Brenda Blethyn.

Vera. πŸŽ₯ They've got a nice morning for filming. ☀️ It feels odd having so many vehicles and people milling about here. It's been nice hearing accents we can easily understand though. 😜Heard some Bristol accen
Busy busy busy, preparing the lights etc. to film the interior scenes

I'm not just saying this because I'm writing a post about Vera, but Brenda Blethyn is my favourite English actress, I think she's wonderful. In fact she's not only my favourite British actress, she also happens to star in my favourite film, by Mike Leigh - Secrets & Lies.

So, yeah, one minute me and Mr.R were happily sitting here messing about online, the next we were sitting on the sofa looking out of the living room window watching Brenda Blethyn, as Vera Stanhope, walking up to one of the houses opposite our house, and then knocking on the front door.
That was one scene, another scene that we watched being filmed, involved the Land Rover. Vera, Brenda Blethyn, drove into the top of the road, parked the Landy, got out and then knocked on the front door.
The director was obviously very specific about what he wanted because the Land Rover was going up and down the road for hours. Brenda Blethyn would drive into the road, get out of the Landy, then she'd drive off down the road, then she'd have to reverse back up the road for the scene to be shot again. And this went on for a long time.

Brenda Blethyn, here in the colliery, filming some scenes for the new series of ITV detective drama, Vera.
Brenda Blethyn, as Vera Stanhope, wearing her trademark mac and hat


Just sitting watching Brenda Blethyn getting in and out of the Land Rover made me feel tired.
This scene took ages to shoot. Poor Brenda Blethyn, she must have been tired, having to keep repeating the same thing over and over and over again.....
It took all day for the director to be finished with these two scenes; the knocking on the front door, and the driving of the Land Rover to the property.

Vera. They're still here filming. Our neighbour spoke to Brenda Blethyn this morning, told her she should be filming somewhere nicer. Hehehe! She told him this was the right place. Vera is all about gritty northern charm. πŸŽ₯πŸ˜πŸ˜‚
At least the sun made an appearance on this day - preparing for the interior scenes


The next day Brenda Blethyn and the film crew were shooting further down the road, filming the interior shots in another house.
I know that's how things are done in the film industry, but it seems like they enjoy making more work for themselves. Using two houses, which are the same, to film two different scenes, one inside the property and one outside.
I know why they chose to use the house, which is more or less opposite our house, for the exterior scene, it's because it looks awful, really run-down and in a serious state of disrepair.
And judging by the fact that that house has a big hole in the roof, I'm sure it wasn't a suitable property to use for the interior scene. So thats why they chose to use the house further down the street. It's obviously in a better condition inside.
The film crew are lucky there are so many empty properties here, they were able to take their pick, and choose the best houses for their needs.
If you've ever watched an episode of Vera you'll know that it is grim in appearance.
And speaking of grim, a couple of days after filming had started, we spoke again to the neighbour who'd originally told us that it was Vera that was being filmed here in the colliery. He said he'd spoken to Brenda Blethyn and told her that they should film somewhere nicer than here. Brenda Blethyn replied that this was the right place. Gritty and full of character is what's needed for ITV detective drama Vera. Hahaha!

Overnight. Where some of the 'Vera' film crew spent the night last night (white blobs bottom right; vans, trucks, bus etc). Not a bad place, by the sea.
White blobs on the bottom right, vehicles where some of the film crew slept overnight -
not a bad place right by the sea...


Right, I think that's enough rambling from me.
I hope it makes sense, well, some kind of sense anyway. I've been awake since 4am today, and my poor tired brain is having trouble keeping my muddled thoughts in order.
The photos I've included are not excellent shots, because they were shot through the window, or from a long distance away. We didn't want to intrude, or interrupt Brenda Blethyn while she was busy working.
We always enjoy watching Vera, but when the new series starts we shall be watching with even greater interest to see how our area appears on screen.
Do you watch Vera, the ITV detective drama?
Are you a fan of Brenda Blethyn?
Do you wish you lived in an ex-mining colliery town in the North of England? Hehehe!