Category Archives: Ordinary

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Wee Winchburgh Café

18 December 2024 billpaterson1@me.com 4 Comments

We were here at the Wee Winchburgh Café yesterday only to find it closed. There was a notice on the door which read “Just had a baby, closed today, open tomorrow“. Obviously we had to come back to meet this superwoman! It turned out to be a day of surprises!

Surprise 1

Winchburgh village used to be on the main road between Falkirk and Edinburgh but it has long since been bypassed by the M9 motorway. Before the motorway we used to pass through it often. Back then it consisted of the Tally Ho Hotel and several streets of mainly miners cottages. The miners were employed in the shale oil industry … Scotland’s first oil bonanza. If you blinked you could miss it. Little did we know that it harboured ambitions to be a city. Almost 4,000 new houses are being built as we speak. The original village has been completely consumed by what is now a ginormous building site. We couldn’t find the old village and our satnav unhelply said “unmapped area”. Eventually we had to stop and ask someone. However, when we eventually found it it was pretty much just as we remembered it with rows of little terraced houses.

When we entered the cafe the first thing we saw was a set of bagpipes displayed on the wall. A reminder to chase up our bagpipe man we talked about at the Turkish Mint Café in Stirling.

Surprise 2

Unsurprisingly the Wee Winchburgh Café is small … only three tables. When we asked the owner if she had indeed had a baby she just laughed. Turned out her daughter, who lives in Preston, had the baby and she had closed the café the day before so she could visit her new granddaughter, Sienna Rose. We were treated to some photos of the bonny baby and even a video of her sleeping.

Surprise 3

Pat asked for a fruit scone and I thought I should try one of the cherry and almond scones on offer. Initially, when we asked about cream she said that they didn’t have any. Then she came back and said she remembered she had some canned cream. And apparently, it was much better than the usual sort of canned cream. Normally we wouldn’t have what we call ‘scooshie’ cream but she sold it to us with her enthusiasm. However we weren’t prepared for the scones to come preloaded. They were presented ‘ready to eat’ complete with jam and scooshie cream. Unfortunately, the cherry almond combo didn’t quite work and Pat wasn’t too keen on her fruit scone.either. Sadly no topscone but a great community café which we thoroughly enjoyed.

Wall decor at the Wee Winchburgh Café — The Broons visiting the Forth Rail Bridge

Surprise 4

As the couple at the next table were leaving and paying their bill they said that they would like to pay our bill as well. Wow! For years we’ve been trying to perfect that art of looking like an little old couple with a purse from which we would count out the pennies one by one but this was the first time anyone had actually fallen for it. Seriously, we thanked them and as they left they simply said “It’s Christmas“. Wonderful when complete strangers do things like that! Earlier our host, new grandmother and scone loader took a phone call from someone placing an order. She finished the call with a “That’s great, I’ll bring it over to you rather than you having to cross that busy road“. It was that sort of place.

Pig cruet set at the Wee Winchburgh Café — our salt and pepper

More surprises

There’s been lots going on that’s taken us by surprise: (a) Ukraine has blown up a Russian army General in downtown Moscow (b) the Church of England is having difficulty replacing the Archbishop of Canterbury because the prospective candidate seems to have been involved in the same sort of sex abuse scandals as the man he is replacing (c) the Royal Mail, started by Henry VIII in 1516, has been sold to Daniel Kretinsky a Czech billionaire. Britain is in a right old state … but that’s not a surprise!

Thank goodness for places like Wee Winchburgh Café whose heart is in the right place. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all our readers.

EH52 6RA 01506 200659 Wee Winchburgh Café FB

///cared.childcare.watch

Ordinary, Scones

Mint Café

12 December 2024 billpaterson1@me.com 3 Comments

You know how it is … you go into somewhere like Mint Café in Stirling for coffee and a scone and by the time you come out the world has changed. Okay, Syria to be more precise but who knows what is going to happen next. The hellish Assad regime has fallen and people are rejoicing. However, within a day of the Russians stopping their bombing of the country, Israel, Turkey and the US have started. All trying to protect their own interests but hardly an auspicious launch of a new era! There are all sorts of tensions mostly caused by slightly differing interpretations of the same religion … clerics have much to answer for! Nowhere are these tensions more evident than on the Turkish/Syria border with the third longest wall in the world separating the two countries. Only the Great Wall of China and the US/Mexico wall are longer.

Anyway, purely by accident we are here in Mint, a Turkish café. But why? Well, we were hoping to pick up a set of bagpipes in Stirling but having been unable to contact the guy who was renovating them, we decided to pay a visit to his shop.

Just our luck, when we arrived, it wasn’t open. The word on the street, however, was that he normally opened a bit later in the day. What to do? Our solution was to go away and come back later, hence you find us here in Mint. Not only are we here but we are the only ones here. The place was deserted … just the Turkish owner busying himself behind the counter, and us. It seemed to be a place that specialised in cakes but there was a bowl full of scones on the counter … yeah, the day was taking a turn for the better!

I’ve always had a soft spot for Turkey since hitchhiking to the country in 1970 and experiencing the hospitality and kindness of the local people. Our host was no exception ,,, he made us very welcome. He soon had us sorted with a scone and some coffee. Rather odd presentation but the scone was nice and warm with a very pleasant texture. It came with butter, jam and a dollop of ‘scooshie’ cream. The coffee was great but the rest maybe not so much. Ten out of ten for effort but some way short of a topscone.

Afterwards, we made our way back the bagpipe shop. Hallelujah, it was open!

Lifestyle notice in Mint Café, Stirling — It’s not working

Turned out that our man was uncontactable because he had lost his phone. He had a new one but didn’t want to use it in case he found his old one?? And, in spite of having had the pipes for almost three months he hadn’t even started on them. He apologised profusely and promised to get on to it straight away. He would even deliver them to our house! Chaotic is the only way to describe his business operation but the workmanship is excellent so we remain ever hopeful of a delivery before Christmas.

Being here in Mint made us feel a little closer to Syria. Bashar al-Assad and his family have successfully escaped to Russia. Presumably with him being an ophthalmologist he saw his downfall coming 😃. Sorry! The brand spanking new Syrian government has an uphill struggle ahead but hopefully they can magic up some real stability for the region.

FK8 1BJ tel: 01786 357541 Mint Café TA

///bucks.agent.sculpture

Ordinary, Scones, self-service

Pitlochry Festival Theatre

5 December 2024 billpaterson1@me.com 5 Comments

We are back home now after our short but very enjoyable break in Pitlochry. After our posts from Fonab Castle and Victoria’s we can now bring you one from Pitlochry Festival Theatre which we visited on our final day.

Advert for the Sound OF Music — The hills are alive

Currently they are putting on the Sound Of Music. Sadly though, there are no performances on two days every week and we were there on one of them. The cafe was open, however, so all was not lost. A scone coming up but first a fairy tale!

Fairy Tale

Readers could easily be forgiven for asking how a small town like Pitlochry in rural Perthshire with a population of less than 3000 has a theatre at all. The theatre could comfortable seat a fifth of the population. The story of the theatre is a bit of a fairy tale in itself and testament to one man’s vision and single minded determination.

In the early days of WWII, John Stewart, head of Skerries College in Glasgow, hid a slip of paper in a wooden post down by the River Tummel. It read ‘When peace is declared I shall return to this spot to give thanks to God and to establish my Festival’. On VE Day he did just that.

View of Port na Craig ferry site — Port-na-Craig was the site of the original ferry that crossed the River Tummel, connecting it to Pitlochry. The theatre roof can be seen behind Port-na-Craig

Whisky Galore

Because of the post war shortage of building materials he could not get permission from the government to build the theatre.

Bridge over the River Tummel — The ferry operated until 1913, when a suspension footbridge was built

As a result the theatre began life as a large tent in the garden of his Knockendarroch House. In 1952 a storm destroyed the tent almost spelling the end of the theatre. Stewart, however, formed a Society to which he gave over his house, garden and workshops. The Society was able to build a more substantial theatre at Knockendarroch and gave him permission to continue living in his own house. Success followed success and 1959 saw the world premier of Whisky Galore – The Musical in the current building at Port-na-Craig. Incredible! And we have to arrive on a day when there’s nothing on! However, the future for the “theatre in the hills” looks bright. The new Artistic Director is none other than local boy and fierce campaigner for Scottish Independence, Alan Cumming.

The theatre itself is impressive and the cafe is a fairly typical self service facility in the foyer area. It’s a large light airy space and surprisingly busy considering the time of year and the fact that there were no live performances. There was a choice of plain and fruit scones so as usual, we chose fruit. They looked as if they had loads of fruit and they did, maybe too much. Not a topscone but very enjoyable nevertheless.

Tickety boo?

Pitlochry seems like another world where everything is just fine. When you are here in the Festival Theatre it feels even more like another world.

In the real world, however, things aren’t quite so tickety boo. That Far Eastern beacon of democracy, South Korea, has suddenly and inexplicably declared martial law. Luckily North Korea has sent half its army to fight with Russia in Ukraine. Russia has also resumed fighting in that almost forgotten war in Syria. In Europe, France seems determined to make itself ungovernable. Across the pond, at the risk of giving banana republics a bad name America continues with its system of Presidential pardons. Why? The hills are alive with the sound of people scratching their heads!

PH16 5DR tel: 01796 484626 Pitlochry Theatre

///charge.choppers.talents

Ordinary, Scones

Glenkinchie

25 November 2024 billpaterson1@me.com 6 Comments

Today we are in the pretty little hamlet of Glenkinchie just a little southeast of east of Edinburgh. About 90 people live here. It’s a little bit unusual. because unlike the surrounding towns and villages which are all built from stone, here it’s all red brick. Not sure why this should be but it certainly applies to the distillery in the heart of the village which is entirely made of red brick. It’s owned by the drinks giant Diageo who use it as the “Lowland”corner of what they call the “four corners distilleries” The other three are Clynelish (Highland) Cardhu (Speyside) and Caol Ila (Island) and they are all used in the making of the Johnnie Walker range of blended whiskies.

Battle of the distilleries

We have a love hate relationship with Diageo. About thirty years ago the company also owned our local Rosebank Distillery just a few hundred yards from our home in Falkirk. It was generally seen as the King of Lowland whiskies, however they closed it in favour of Glenkinchie … booo! It fell into a sorry state. This year, however, there were fanfares as Rosebank was opened again. Bought by Ian MacLeod Distillers who spent £millions returning it to its former glory. The town also has the added bonus of another brand new Falkirk Distillery. All is forgiven, hence we thought this rival might be worthy of a visit.

Internal view Glenkinchie Distillery — part of the visitor centre restaurant

Becoming legal

It began in 1825 by a couple of local farmers presumably trying o diversify away from farming. They ran it for about 12 years as Milton distillery before deciding to make it legal and renaming it Glenkinchie after the little river Kinchie which runs past it.

Window seat at Glenkinchie Distillery — looking out on to the gardens

Scones

Distillery tours are of no particular interest. They’re all much of a muchness so we decided to leave this one out.

Scones, of course are another matter and we had spotted some in their café restaurant earlier. The staff were very friendly and helpful and they so had us sorted with some fruit scones and coffee. No cream but there was plenty butter and jam served on nice crockery with unusual bronze cutlery. Everything was well presented and although it wasn’t a topscone it was very enjoyable nevertheless.

Johnnie Walker is the world’s biggest selling scotch whisky brand with 205 million litres going down the hatch every year. That’s a lot of whisky and a fair amount of that must be made here at Glenkinchie. It is marketed under different coloured labels, red, black, green, blue etc. we’re not sure what the difference is except to say that ‘blue’ is four times the price of ‘red’, a marketing triumph!

Whisky barrels at Glenkinchie Distillery

Troubled

We’re raising a glass of Glenkinchie to toast the health of all our readers in this strange and troubled world.

The ICC (International Criminal Court) has issued an arrest warrant for Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu. Not before time many might say. He is now classed as a ‘fugitive’ along with Mad Vlad Putin. We live in peculiar times when the leaders of Israel and Russia are international fugitives and America’s President Elect is a convicted felon. Another dram please and make it a large one!

EH34 5ET tel: 01875 342012 Glenkinchie Distillery

///gravitate.bongo.talking

Ordinary, Scones, self-service

Dynamic Earth

3 November 2024 billpaterson1@me.com 9 Comments

The title picture is of Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh with the Salisbury Crags and Arthur’s Seat in the background. Obviously you want to know the age of Arthur’s Seat, everyone does, don’t they? It’s a 346 million year old extinct volcano, give or take a couple of million. Back then, fire and lava would have been spewing everywhere! But,of course, that all happened when Scotland was much closer to the equator than it is today … obviously! Another old Celtic explanation is that a huge dragon used to terrorise the city until one day it ate too much, lay down to sleep and turned into the Arthur’s Seat. Today, looking up at the craggy hill, for some reason the dragon explanation seems much more believable.

Awkward questions

The only reason we are able to furnish you with these little nuggets is because we’re here with a couple of granddaughters at the Dynamic Earth Science Centre and Planetarium. It tells the epic story of how planet earth began. The girls are always asking awkward questions so this seemed like the place to get some answers.

You know how they say that the best place to start is at the beginning. Well. here you can enter a Time Machine which takes you all the way back to the Big Bang. The visual and sound effects are amazing. At one point you have to hang on to railings as the ground violently shifts and rumbles beneath your feet and volcanoes explode all around. Luckily, rather than millions of years, it only takes about 90 minutes to walk all the interactive experiences from the Big Bang back to the present day. However, you do emerge from the Time Machine with more than a touch of information overload.

Facts and figures

Our 9 and 11 year old girls are fascinated by tectonic plates and how mountains and valleys are formed so this was ideal for them. Did you know that continents move 2cm every year? Did you know that 200,000 people are born ever day or that 2 people die every second? Well, if you didn’t, you do now!

These days, for Pat and I, information overload kicks in pretty early. What a relief then to find that there was no thinking or decisions required at the cafe. Cheese scones, take them or leave them! We took them along with a bowl of lentil soup. The girls had a kiddies goodie bag which they emptied in double quick time.. The soup/cheese scone combo was surprisingly good and much easier digested than some of the rather mind boggling facts and figures. It was never going to be a topscone but enjoyable nevertheless.

Differentiation

Our 11 year old is fascinated by Time Machines. When we suggested that she just wanted to go back to the beginning of time, we were emphatically corrected. “No. I just want to go back 70,000 years!” Okay, why just 70,000 years?. “Because that’s when human’s cognitive abilities developed so that they could differentiate themselves from other animals“. she explained in her serious voice. A slow “okaaay” was our only response. These girls are a constant source of surprise and joy.

Cognitive development

Lola holding up the world — Maybe she can save the world?

However, given that we have presumably been developing our cognitive skills over 70,000 years it makes the slanging match that characterises the American Presidential elections somewhat puzzling. You’d think, after all that time, that selecting the most powerful person on earth would be a tad more sophisticated.

But we should know by now that people are fickle. Australians, for example. Recently Lidia Thorpe protested during King Charles’s visit to Australia with “You are not my King“. Charlie’s official title is “King Charles the Third, by the Grace of God King of Australia and His other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth”. The question is why do people, particularly straight thinking Australians, put up with this sort of nonsense? Even the King himself, a thoroughly decent chap, looked embarrassed being reminded of Britain’s genocidal land grabbing tendencies. Privately, we suspect he would have been on Lidia’s side.

Now they are discussing dropping the word “Empire” from the King’s honours list. Could this be yet another attempt to sanitise Britain’s history. Perish the thought!

External view of Dynamic Earth — Starting to get dark as we left Dynamic Earth

Fungi?

The only slight disappointment to our day was the Planetarium visit. We had always assumed that Planetariums only did things about planets. On this occasion it was all about fungi! Interesting enough but not what we had expected. In terms of learning, we did learn not to make assumptions! An very enjoyable day of time travel for everyone concerned.

EH8 8AS tel: 0131 550 7800 Dynamic Earth

///clots.lived.margin

Ordinary, Scones

Cronies

17 October 2024 billpaterson1@me.com 2 Comments

There are questions and answers in this post. For example … is vandalism still vandalism if it takes the form of a poem. Or, could it then take on some other cultural significance such as ‘art’. What if the poem itself is seen by some to be offensive or in poor taste? Okay, okay, there may be more questions than answers in this post from Cronies bar at the Golden Lion Hotel in Stirling.

Reception area at the Golden Lon Hotel — Reception at the Golden Lion

And, while we’re asking questions, do you know the collective noun for a group of cronies. We don’t either but some think it might be “The House of Lords”.

Internal view of the Golden Lon Hotel — Cronies Bar

Inscriptions

The ‘vandal’ in question, of course, is Robert Burns, Scotland’s national bard. How could someone who wrote a celebration of friendship and memories with friends in “Auld Lang Syne” be a vandal? Not that difficult as it happens! 1786 turned out to be an eventful year for the ploughman poet. Earlier in the year, the Earl of Glencairn had gifted him a diamond pointed pen. The intention probably was that he might inscribe some suitable ditty on one of his drinking glasses during dinner. Burns may well have done that but later he used his present to inscribe poems on windows all over Scotland. He even inscribed a window at the Cross Keys Inn, just a few hundred yards from our home in Falkirk. On this occasion, however, he was visiting Stirling Castle and staying at the newly opened Golden Lion.

Power

The poem in question had no name but has since become known simply as “The Stirling Lines“. In it he displayed Jacobite leanings and his dislike of Hanoverian Royalty and George III in particular. Such was the furore that followed he was forced to return a few months later and smash the offending window to avoid prosecution. So to some, the Stirling Lines poem was ‘art’ but, obviously, to George III ( generally thought to be deranged) and his cronies it was just “libellous vandalism”. And they had the power to make things extremely difficult for the poet.

Painting of Burns with his cronies — Burns with some of his cronies at the Golden Lion

We wonder if the hotel made Burns pay for a replacement window because it has been dining out on the poem ever since. The words are inscribed all over the place. And we are here dining out on scones in Cronies Bar as well. It’s a comfortable atmospheric space – you could almost imagine Burns and his cronies at the next table in lively discussion over the problems of the day.

The staff were very friendly and soon had us equipped with some fruit scones, nicely presented with little jars of jam and cream as well as a couple of delicious Puro coffees. Both scones were lovely and warm and mine was perfect. However, we thought the jam and cream portions were a bit on the meagre side and Pat felt that a bit of her scone was slightly undercooked. What are we like? Moan, moan, moan! No topscone but pretty close.

Wood carving commemorating wee courin' timorous beastie poem — A large wood carving depicting the ploughman poet and his “Timorous Beastie” poem

Mad

So even back in the 18th century things could be a bit mad politically. Today we have the UK government sending £millions in Humanitarian Aid to a destroyed Gaza to alleviate the disaster they helped create. We are tempted to agree with George Bernard Shaw when he said “the older I get, the more convinced I am that this planet is being used by other planets as a lunatic asylum.” Burns would have probably have agreed!

FK8 1BD tel: 01786 475351 Cronies Bar

///charge.wires.trial

ps In our last post from Macmillan Coffee Morning we said we would update you on the final amount raised.. It was £4,810.05 … fantastic! Many many thanks to everyone for their amazing generosity and helping make it such a happy enjoyable event.

english, Ordinary, Scones

Gail’s Artisan Bakery

24 September 2024 billpaterson1@me.com 3 Comments

If you have ambitions to live in London we would heartily recommend Barnes village on the banks of the Thames. We are visiting family here. With its delis, bookshops, small boutiques and fine restaurants it doesn’t feel as if it’s only a couple of miles away from the Houses of Parliament. It just has that pretty little village vibe. Of course, that’s until you look in the estate agent’s window and realise that unless you’re willing to part with a couple of million pounds you’re not going to get much by way of a house. Gail’s Artisan Bakery is a typical up market café for the area.

Working from home?

Incredibly, the last time we reviewed Gail’s was more than nine years ago. It hasn’t changed that much but we felt it had a slightly different less welcoming feel about it this time. Still the same range of delicious looking breads and other bakery and still the same assortment of baby buggies cluttering up the place. Of course, there were also lots of people “working from home“. It must be frustrating for cafés like this to have all these laptop folk sitting for hours with a single cup of coffee.

Not that we were much better. It wasn’t long after breakfast so two americanos and a fruit scone to share was the order. When it arrived at our table we were slightly perplexed to find that the scone was on its own. No butter, no jam and no cream. Did they expect us to eat the scone ‘neat’? Pat had to go and ask and came back with nice little pots of butter and jam … no cream. Maybe with this being an ‘artisan’ bakery our hopes were unreasonably high but suffice to say our scone certainly did not live up to expectations. It was decidedly average and neither of us even finished our halves.

It wasn’t until we were leaving we noticed that they had other offerings. Sour Cherry & Chocolate as well as Maple & Pecan scones. We should have tried them!

This is a Range Rover/Porsche kind of area where lots of celebrities live. We came across this notice which seems to indicate that it may always have been relatively affluent. Quite a generous reward for this sort of misdemeanour. Not sure what would have happened to the felon if caught. Probably hanging or even worse … transportation to Australia. That last bit is just for our Australian readers.

A tiny ray of hope

One of our Israeli readers has informed us that people are leaving the country rather than stay and watch the stupidity of the atrocities being carried out in their name. Presumably they’ve worked out how utterly pointless it all is.

Talking of felonious actions, at home we have the Conservatives outraged at members of the new government receiving gifts of clothing. Pot, kettle, black comes to mind! On the other side of the pond Trump has gone ever more extreme with his accusations. It’s a mad old world.

SW13 9HH Tel: 020 8741 0987 Gail’s

///honest,quiet.oasis

Ordinary, Scones, self-service

John Lewis

15 September 2024 billpaterson1@me.com 3 Comments

As department stores go John Lewis is just a little bit different. It began back in 1864 with a small drapery shop in London’s Oxford Street and has prospered ever since. Okay, but what makes it different? Its full name is the John Lewis Partnership because all of its 74,000 staff are partners in the company and share in its success. Part of their mission statement states “Driven by our ambition to make the world a happier place by leading with kindness and delivering integrity“. The cynic might say “Well they would say that, wouldn’t they“

Well we were a bit cynical as well but then we experienced it first hand. We’ve given up looking for hydrangeas and now we are on the hunt for an armchair. John Lewis has a huge furniture department hence we’re here at their Glasgow store.

A slip of paper

However, In spite of an amazing range we couldn’t quite find what we were looking for. One of the staff tried very hard to help us but eventually he apologised and gave up. Asking if there was anything else he could help us with, we asked “the war in Ukraine?” He just smiled and took himself off. A bit later on, however, he caught up with us again and handed us a slip of paper. He felt bad that we hadn’t found a chair so this little piece of paper entitled us to free coffee and cakes in their cafe. How kind was that? For us, the world was indeed a happier place.

Baristas?

Suffice to say, this little piece of paper forced us to find their cafe and eat scones and drink coffee. Otherwise it would never have crossed our minds … honest! Previously we have reported on The Cafe by Benugo which is an independently run restaurant on the third floor. This time we were in their own self service cafe ‘The Place To Eat‘ on the first floor. Like the store the cafe is huge. There was a bit of a log jam around all three coffee serveries (it takes a long time to make a coffee these days) but eventually we had what we wanted and were able to find a table by a window.

View down Sauchiehall Street from our table — View from our table up Sauchiehall Street on a rainy day

They have a large sign saying “Please leave everything on your table, we will clear it up“. And they did! There must have been about sixty or seventy tables but as soon as anyone left, the table was cleared and cleaned. It was diffucult to choose between looking out the window at everything going on outside or just watch all the comings and goings in the cafe. Dilemas, dilemas! It was all really good. Nice little pots of clotted cream and jam and the scone iteself was wonderfully textured with just the right amount of crunch. A topscone had it not been for the self-service nature of the place.

A happy place?

We were impressed, this place does do it’s best to make the world a happier place. Of course, there’s only so much they can do. Our young chap didn’t have any answers for Ukraine but then, no-one else does either. It’s impossible to see how either side can win. And now, with long range missiles in the mix, it seems to be in danger of escalating in to goodness knows what. In the Middle East, with the might of the US behind them, Israel cannot help but win the war … but they will never know peace. No winners, only unhappy losers. With their expertise in kindness and making things ‘happy’ perhaps a John Lewis management team could provide a few pointers?

G1 2GF tel: 0141 353 6677 John Lewis Partnership

///upper.clips.tides

Ordinary, Scones

The Glen Café

8 September 2024 billpaterson1@me.com 3 Comments

In our previous post from Simply Sarah’s in Doune we mentioned that the village was famous for making pistols. The sort of weapon used by gentlemen who felt their reputation had been besmirched. Besmirching was usually done by gentlemen to one another and dueling was seen as an honourable way of resolving such situations. Common people couldn’t duel; a) they couldn’t afford a decent pistol and b) it would be unseemly for a gentleman to be shot dead by someone of lower social standing … perish the thought!

Quick draw

Today we are at the Glen Café in the little hamlet of Clachan of Campsie. Just a few yards from the cafe stand two ancient Spanish chestnuts, “the duelling trees”. They mark the site of a duel between a Tory and a Liberal politician in the 1600s. The Liberal chap, Malcolm Kincaid, lost the duel … and his life. The victor may have retired here (it used to be an Inn) for refreshment and to enjoy the congratulations of his admirers. When you think of the endless inconsequential arguments between politicians these days, dueling seems to take on some merit. Can you imagine the quick draw contests between our current world leaders? The problem is that self evidently all that duelling in the past didn’t actually solve anything. They’re all still arguing.

Do we need a dog?

This morning the weatherman said “go west if you want sunshine” so we did. Falkirk was decidedly cloudy when we left but by the time we got here we were bathed in glorious sunshine. Well done that weatherman! The café is quite big and virtually joined on to the historic St Machan’s graveyard. It’s a favourite place for people to access the paths onto the Campsie Fells and perhaps unsurprisingly is very dog friendly. In fact there were so many, at first we thought it might be a prerequisite to have a dog but luckily, it wasn’t.

It was still early so we decided on a light breakfast followed by a scone to share. Our coffees arrived first and we were delighted to find that they used our favourite coffee … Henry’s, fantastic! This is the way to start the day! Helpfully the staff had said that they would hold our scone until we had finished our breakfast. Then, when we were ready, they asked if we would like the scone warmed. Why not? No cream but they came with plenty butter and jam. Unfortunately none of it was locally produced, not even from Scotland. A bit of a black mark there. On the plus side the scone itself were really nice.

Who was St Machan?

We really enjoyed this place with its friendly service and beautiful location. We decided to visit St Machan’s graveyard next door and asked one the ladies behind the counter who he was. “Who?” was the puzzled answer. We would have to find out for ourselves.

Turns out not much is known about him. Firstly he was a Scottish 6th century bishop, educated in Ireland, ordained in Rome and spent the rest of his life as a missionary here in Campsie Glen. Secondly, how did he do all that back then without Easyjet or Ryanair? The chapel in the graveyard was built over his grave.

Luxury mausoleums

The Lennox mausoleum was built in 1715 by the powerful family who lived at nearby Lennox Castle.

In 1819 Miss Lennox had it restored and added another storey with a fireplace. She used it as a “sitting room” to receive guests between services. She, in turn, was buried here in 1832 and in 1884 it was sealed up permanently using ancient Kincaid tombstones from the graveyard. And we thought one of them might have belonged to our old duelling loser, Malcolm, but apparently not. It is fascinating to read the inscriptions on some of these graves. They shed light on what life was like centuries ago. However, some were unashamedly looking for an easy passage into heaven. Quite blatantly bragging about how saintly they had been during their time in Campsie Glen.

Other mysteries

Sadly, besmirching seems be a thing of the past. Perhaps there aren’t enough honourable gentlemen around these days? Vulgar insults and “see you in court” seems to have replaced it.

This was a beautiful day. We returned home via the Carron Valley, which supplies all the water to Falkirk. Seldom do we think, when turning on the tap or taking a bath, that this is where it all comes from. How does that work? It’s almost as mysterious as St Machan’s travels all those centuries ago.

G66 7AB tel: 01360 238258 The Glen Café FB

///year.earmarked.piglet

Ordinary, Scones

Simply Sarah’s

2 September 2024 billpaterson1@me.com 7 Comments

Today we are in Doune at Simply Sarah’s tiny café. Usually when we are here we go to the Buttercup Café on the other side of the road. However, we didn’t come to Doune intent on visiting Simply Sarah’s, no no no, we came in search of a hydrangea. We need one to match another we already have in the garden. Pat suggested that we look for one here because there’s a teeny wee place that sells plants behind the Buttercup café. Coincidentally there just happens to be two of her favourite clothes shops here as well. The fact that we had to drive past several mega garden centres to get here didn’t make me in the least suspicious!?

Trevor Davis

Although you might not think so this little village is famous for making guns, pistols to be exact. The demise of highway robbery and gentlemen throwing down the gauntlet, of course, led to a drastic drop in demand. Now the village is just a nice place to live … and it has a couple of nice clothes shops. Doune Castle is a big attraction but in spite of the fact that many famous people have stayed there you would never know. They don’t do blue plaques here. That’s not to say that they don’t do any plaques. This one just outside Sarah’s is to Trevor Davis. A local hero and fount of all knowledge by the sounds of it!

Anyway, surprise surprise, there weren’t any hydrangeas for sale at the little plant stall. Did I mention that two of Pat’s favourite clothes shops are here? There was nothing else for it but to visit one of them, Doune Chic. They didn’t have any hydrangeas either but the did have lots of clothes. Suffice to say they don’t have as many as they had before we arrived. It was when we were on our way to second clothes shop (to see if they had any hydrangeas) that we visited Simply Sarah’s.

It’s very small, only two tables. Everything is home made by Sarah so we were keen to try their scones. No cream but we were asked if we would like butter and jam with the scone. However, we hadn’t expected them to preload them … argh! As you know, we like to do that ourselves. There was certainly no skimping on the jam. It would have to be a fork and knife job to avoid very sticky fingers. The scone was delicious and in other circumstances could have been a topscone.

This is a great wee place and very busy. Lots of chat so, in the absence of Trevor Davis, probably the place to find out what’s happening in the village. We left to go to the clothes shop next door, Woodlane of Doune. No hydrangeas but lots of other stuff.

It’s interesting to speculate on what pearls of wisdom Trevor would be dispensing these days while helping folks cross the road. We suspect that he would be so disgusted with the state of the world that he might mutter nothing more than “look left, look right”. Trevor would have known where to get a hydrangea. We miss you Trevor!

FK16 6BY tel: 01786 842304 Simply Sarah’s

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Surprise 1

Surprise 2

Surprise 3

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Whisky Galore

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Awkward questions

Facts and figures

Differentiation

Cognitive development

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Inscriptions

Power

Mad

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A tiny ray of hope

A slip of paper

Baristas?

A happy place?

Quick draw

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Trevor Davis

by Bill and Pat Paterson and is about finding good scones throughout the world, with a little bit of politics