Wild Violets

I very much enjoyed the monthly talk at our local library this morning.  It was by the chocolatier and his wife who run an upmarket chocolate shop in town.  Gary is one of best chocolatiers in the UK and has travelled all around the world as an ambassador for this delicious treat.  What he doesn't know about chocolate isn't worth knowing.  In many ways producing chocolate can be compared to the production of fine wine.  The location/terroir/climate of the chocolate trees all play an important role in the final taste of the cocoa bean.  That's before someone like Gary then develops the raw product into the most beautiful confectionary.  He even gave us a tutored taste of a single Madagascan region chocolate in its natural state to really appreciate the smell, tastes, texture, mouth feel, etc. A fascinating talk indeed.

I'm afraid I don't have any photos of the stunning looking chocolates to show you, but I have blipped a photo of a pretty wild violet blooming in nearby woodland.

I believe that it's my blip birthday and I have posted 6 year's worth of blips. However, it has taken me nearly 11 years to reach this milestone.  As you can tell, I don't post everyday and in the past I've had gaps for health reasons.  Nevertheless, I just love blip and I'm so grateful to the volunteers who run it and to my fellow blippers who take the trouble to follow me. It gives me a great reason for using my camera and provides wonderful support from the great community that is blipfoto.  Not to mention the very good friends that I've made, again all thanks to blipfoto.  Simply marvellous!