It is two years to the day since I had one of my favourite days EVER, going on the Vera tour in Northumberland.  For those who don’t know, Vera is a British TV show featuring the fabulous curmudgeonly TV detective, Vera Stanhope.

I am so obsessed with Vera that I recently woke from a very vivid dream where I was getting married to Brenda Blethyn.  My husband called me Mrs Blethyn for a while after that.  This morning when I told him I’d managed to find the photo of her venison and blueberry dish, which I thought I’d lost, his comment was, “Oh, your wife WILL be pleased.”

Brenda’s recipe is at the very bottom of this post, but first, I have to share some pix of my trip to the spectacular locations seen in the show.

It was my beloved chum Caroline Frick who introduced me to the splendour of Vera and when she said she was planning to fly from Austin, Texas JUST to go on the Vera tour, there was no way she was going without me.  I bought us hats.

As we waited for the minibus to pick us up at the hotel, I nipped into Starbucks and when asked my name for scribbling on the cup, I said Vera, just to amuse Caroline when I emerged…

If you are a Vera fan, I cannot recommend this escapade highly enough, we had an absolute blast.  Here we are laughing our heads off at Dunstanburgh Castle.

LOOK – us on the causeway that leads to Vera’s house on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne!

LOOK, us outside Vera’s house!

There were so many glorious moments on this day, and I took copious notes in a notebook that I can no longer find now that two years have passed, but the thing that sticks in my mind is the phrase WOMBAT IN A BARREL.

Our tour guide Anna was utterly brilliant. She was so funny and knowledgeable about Vera, the Northumberland countryside and local history.  We learned loads  Our driver was lovely too, and as Caroline had booked us a private tour there were just the four of us, mucking about all day long in the splendour of Northumberland.  IT WAS GLORIOUS!

Anna naturally had a hat too, and here’s Caroline and Anna doing a brief Vera impression outside her house…

and here’s Brenda’s recipe, my photo is terrible, but the dish is good!

Ingredients

For the sauce

For the venison

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