One pan, slow simmer as you enjoy the countryside or even just a glass of wine
Ingredients – serves 2-4
2 Courgettes of about 10 inches long
A similar weight of tomatoes
1 Onion
A small punnet of mushrooms
3 good sized garlic cloves
Passatta sauce or tomato puree (optional)
Some grated cheese (optional)
Herbs (optional)
Salt and pepper
Butter or olive oil
Heat the butter or olive oil in a frying pan or good sized saucepan and fry the onions and the garlic for 3 to 5 minutes. Once well under way and smelling wonderful, add the other ingredients except the cheese and simmer with the lid on for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Bring the heat down and continue mellowing the flavours for at least another 10 minutes but if you are low on time just simmer for longer! Once nearly ready to serve, add the grated cheese and stir in until it melts.
Serve with crusty bread or as a side dish to a BBQ. And a glass of wine of course!
As the long season comes to an end and following on from the recent winterizing post, some owners may elect to cover their pride and joy with a cover.
Please. Pretty please. Pretty please with little chrome covers on. Don’t cover your expensive paint work with a tarpaulin that will get condensation inside it, press that moisture onto your bodywork and accelerate the attack on the paint and the metal underneath.
If you don’t have access to a garage or a car port that will keep most of the weather off, try to invest in a good breathable cover. Get the right one for your vehicle and make sure that the material is not flapping around, abrading where it touches.
Ideally park on hard ground that will not have standing water. Parking on grass at the bottom of the field will collect water underneath which will evaporate upwards into your van and its little cover. A breathable cover will let some or most of that collected moisture out but ideally you should remove the cover over winter every month to let things properly dry out and then put it all back to bed once more.
If possible, get a cover with straps that go under the vehicle from side to side, so that the wind cannot lift the cover off the vehicle. It is disheartening to get home from work in the dark and find your expensive van exposed to the elements and a wet cover wrapped across your hedge.
For those of you lucky enough to have a garage, a dust cover is optional but again, think about the possibility of trapped moisture pressing against the bodywork. Does a quick dusting or a nice spring time wash and wax give more benefit than the winter cover?
Our key show of the year. 100 member vehicles, 6,000 vehicles at the event, 6,000 people through the gates each day. Stands selling everything and music all weekend. Except in our nice, quiet field at night!!
BBQ on the Friday free for club members, the same on Saturday. Coffee morning (with cake!) on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
We had prizes for the furthest travelled (won by 5 metres by Birko who came all the way from Germany over 400 miles for the weekend in convoy with his daughter Lena who narrowly missed out!) and “Best van”. This one went to new member Phil Allmark with his unique Bay window pick up.
A great event, what’s not to like? Walkable from the city of Skipton in North Yorkshire, accessed by driving over the North Yorkshire moors with its beautiful scenery is the village of Embsay. Right in the middle in Embsay train station that takes you as far as Bolton Abbey a few miles away. This volunteer led steam railway is keeping the tradition alive and you can ride the whole line in luxury in the restored carriages, you can have a cooked breakfast or a dinner, you can ride on the footplate (there and back again) and they even offer a murder mystery event!
This is our second time putting on a display for their customers and the feedback from the public is brilliant. Our members also get a weekend watching steam trains and all for £10 per vehicle per night which we donate to the railway to maintain this great piece of history.
Wow, what a cracking event. 4 hours of Chinooks taking off, circling and landing, 2 hours of aircraft displays including 20 minutes from the Red Arrows and all from the comfort of a ring side seat. 10 of our vehicles attended with a pub dinner before and after.
An air show unlike most public events and free of charge for our club members.
Photos by Brian Coles and David Eaton amongst others.
Well I guess this is, firstly, a lesson in being prepared! I left sunny Surrey one Friday afternoon and made my way to the M25 where I was able to enjoy looking at the back of a lorry for a couple of hours as I was travelling 5 junctions!! but, hey ho though ‘tis but the M25, the M4 will be much easier. It is only 2pm after all.
Sadly, the M4 was not going to be nice to me either! I travelled easily down to junction 16 only for signs to light up “J18 SEVERE DELAYS”. Now, I happen to know some of the back roads (A & B roads) between there and Bristol, some of which are particularly lovely (no photos as I was driving by myself, you’ll here that lot in this story!). Instead, I took myself off through some lovely Wiltshire villages, crossing the M4 several times and seeing it stationary. I prided my self for moving at a nice pace, not admiring the back of an Amazon lorry! Of course this still left the M32/M5/M48 section, but I had missed loads of standing traffic!
Alas and alack, I had forgotten the Carn Gals tunnels, but at least I was nearly in Swansea a mere 60 miles to go. Swelling with pride I decided to fuel up at Cardiff Gate. Well, some of you might have read about my breakdown and recovery at the pump? I may have had a hot start failure! I finally got to Swansea and was able to enjoy a pint at 9pm. 8 ½ hours after starting off!!! Let us see if tomorrow goes better!!!
Saturday
So here we are! Clare fully loaded and ready to go (yay!) NOPE! The unnamed brother is about to tell me that he can’t afford the trip! (ok, he’s still alive but only just!!) So what do I do? As he’s been brewing for a fight all morning, because he’s not sure how to tell me, I’m now having this adventure by myself! Selfish? Maybe, but better than rowing all the way! So far from a good start to the day!
Now, here is an important message to learn from the Internet, I searched for ferries only from Fishguard to Rosslare. The booking mechanism booked me from Pembroke!! Did I check? Well that’ll be resounding “No” then! Anyway nice, but rainy, trip to Fishguard. I arrive 2 hours early and drive up to the gate.
“Sorry, mate you reg isn’t recognised”
I stop at the gate only to be told this by the staff! No panic, I get the paperwork, some cameras can’t read black and silver plates. The chap looks at my papers and declares “Wrong port, you should be in Pembroke!”
Well that’s ok 2 hours to do a 40 mile journey, hang on why is this guy getting out the car next to me? He seems very concerned about something, has he done the same thing? Ha, ha, ha! “Do you know your rear tire is flat?” No of course not!! What???? I filled up 300 yards down the road, I’d have noticed if I’d been driving on the rim! I literally must have done it as I stopped! OK! Now is the time to panic! Is my spare ok? Have I got the tools to change it!! AA again?
Quick tip people! Always chock the wheels that are going to remain on the ground, you may not notice but you could be on a slight slope! Chocks applied to front and rear wheels that’ll stay on the ground, jack grabbed from under the passenger seat and….. Oh, no! How to get the hub caps off!? Thank fully the staff nip off to get a flat head screwdriver.
20 minutes after hearing those fateful words “You’re in the wrong place” I’m ready to get back on the road! (Is that 3 things, I hope that’s 3 things? It is, isn’t it? Oh, please let that be 3 things). The wind is picking up as I make my way back to Pembroke Dock and I’m hearing on the radio that a named storm is on it’s way! Oh my, is this the start of another 3? Things are starting to look better it’s 1:35 and I’m arriving at the ferry port only a few cars and vans in front of me. Great I’ll be on first and away early!!
No such luck! There has been a hold up coming from the west, so once again the wrong port malarkey was a blessing in disguise! The sudden arrival of all the vehicles has caused a blockage on the roads near the hospital so, rightly, they have to clear them before we can start boarding, but finally we get under way and Ireland awaits!!
If anyone wants to hear more I’ll be sending the further adventures in time for the next mag!!
Colin invited us to “camp in his back garden” last year, so we did. He had parking for the public plus enough room for 232 classic cars. This is the 5th annual event that has run here and he has asked us to return again next year.
It was a lovely chilled out weekend.
Photos by David Eaton and others.
Our own Lorna sangAnn “Noddy” EatonA mixture of classicsThe 1935 Citroen Traction AvantOur club vehicles
Our most popular event with around 100 club vehicles, our own club field, the marquee, the BBQ, Lorna James singing, kids looking after each other and the occasional glass of wine.
To get on the club field, you need to be an active member and book through http://www.busfest.org selecting the correct club and using the discount code.
Another club event happening shortly, we have about 20 vehicles going to Embsay for the Bolton Abbey and Embsay Steam Railway display this coming bank holiday weekend.
Steam trains running through the day, a chance to show off your pride and joy and tell everyone about it. Meet club members and then relax with them after 5pm. There’s a pub within a few hundred yards as well! What’s not to like?
