Category Archives: Ordinary

did not collect any awards

Ordinary, Scones

Coffista

5 Comments

Today is a day of firsts. Certainly the first time we have been in this place, Coffista in the Fife seaside town of Leven.  We got here by travelling on the brand spam=nking new,  Levenmouth railway. Closed in 1969 but reopened just two months ago. It was a miserable wet day so what else would we do but take a train trip? And if we made it to Leven by train that would be another first. Logo of Coffista in Leven

Good advice

Actually the day started with yet another first. It happened when  the two of us went to our local station and asked for  return tickets to Leven. The girl said a Falkirk/Leven return ticket would be a few pence short of £40. However, she said she could give us Falkirk/Edinburgh tickets then separate Edinburgh/Leven tickets for a total of £33.  We don’t understand either but it was the first time we had been offered this sort of advice … great! You end up with a bundle of tickets but a saving of £7 could pay for our scones.Leven carved in stone

And here’s another first. Although  the Forth Rail Bridge has been there all our lives, we had never actually been over it. Sailed under it, flown over it  but never over it on a train. The Edinburgh/Leven part of our journey would sort that.

Regal Princess at the Forth Bridge
As we rumbled over the Forth Rail Bridge the Regal Princess cruise liner was on its way from Orkney to Le Havre. The other two Forth road bridges are reflected in the window

It has to be said that this new Levenmouth railway only adds a further two stations after Kirkaldy –  Cameron Bridge and Leven itself. Not much you might think but it’s almost unheard of for any new stations to be added to the network so we regard it as fairly momentous. Also momentous for this part of Fife which was regarded as a deprived area. People can now live in Leven and easily commute in and out of Edinburgh. Even after just two months of its existence, there  are new housing developments  being built as a result of the railway. 

Spirits

We should mention the village of Cameron Bridge,   home to the biggest disillery in Europe.  It makes  Archers, Pimms,, Gordon’s and Tanquery gin as well as Smirnoff vodka. It also helps make Johnnie Walker, J&B, Bell’s, Black & White, VAT69 and White Horse whiskies. It’s on an industrial scale. and looks more like an oil refinery than a traditional distillery.

Internal view of Coffista in Leven

Leven, a town once famous for weaving, is in the Parish of Scoonie, Might this be an omen for our scone at Coffista? Considering “scoonie” means in Pictish,  “place of the lump-like hill” perhaps not. The cafe has only been going for a few months and is run by a very enthusiastic lady who bakes everything in-house. She even makes all the  jams! It had been raining but as soon as we entered the heavens opened. It was biblical!  We were extremely lucky to have just stepped inside. A warm welcome and then promptly being asked if we would like cream and jam with our scones looked like the good Parish of Scoonie might actually deliver. By the time we took our seats however, we were informed that there wasn’t any cream. Would we like butter instead?

Entertaining

 it was entertaining just being here … there was lots of chat. One old chap, obviously a regular,  insisted on telling jokes to anyone prepared to listen. Slightly obscure jokes seemed to be a speciality but thankfully, at least  he found them funny. Another elderly group were debating the life of batteries and how they don’t last as long as they used to. Maybe batteries become more important as you get older?A scone at Coffista in Leven

The owner was very proud of her steam oven and insisted on telling us all about it. Fairly technical stuff so we didn’t understand much of what she said. However, the scones did taste a little bit like they had been baked in such a device. Perfectly acceptable  but maybe just a little bit “damp”?  The £7 we saved on our rail tickets didn’t quite cover everything but it wasn’t far off. An enjoyable visit for all sorts of reasons but eventually it was time to brave the elements again.

Shelter

Because of the weather we decided against going to the beach. We would just take the next train back home, however, we arrivaed at the station just in time to see it leave without us … aargh! . Expresso martini and a large black labelAn hour to wait for the next one so, considering the weather  we made a dash for the nearest pub. Turned out to be  one of these trendy steakhouse cocktail bars that specialises in BBQs. In spite of being just a few miles from the biggest distillery in Europe they only had only one British whisky and no British beers. Presumably it mustn’t be’ trendy’ to drink British? It was Expresso Martini for Pat and ‘the’ whisky for me. What is the world coming to?

Seashell decorated wall in Leven
A seashell decorated wall in Leven

In our recent post from the Orient Express we travelled on the Edinburgh tram system for the first time.  We’re getting good at these travel firsts. Just build a railway or a tram system and, if there’s a scone at the end of it, we’ll be there!

painting of a Highland cow
A picture in the pub
Bollards

What with Gaza, Ukraine, India, UK, Sudan, and the US  world politics is just too depressing  so here’s something a little different. Recently we had a visitor who announced he was going to Edinburgh to find “the bollard”. We had no idea what was talking about but he said he only knew about it through allaboutthe scones.com. Turned out it was the Edinburgh Press Club post to which he was referring.  The bollard in question marks the centre of the city from which everything is measured. As bollards go it might even be termed a topbollard? Extraordinary, some people are interested in things other than scones!

KY8 4FG         tel: 07415 759832          Coffista

///stencil.drawn.coaching

Ordinary, Scones

Café Sunart

2 Comments

Okay, somewhat belatedly, this is the final chapter of our little Ardnamurchan adventure. Reluctantly dragging ourselves away from Mingary Castle pampering, we are heading back to the Corran ferry that brought us to Ardnamurchan.  Although It’s part of the mainland it feels very like an island. The ferries probably have something to do with it. But the general isolation of the place makes it feel quite islandish.

Education

Anyway, just in case readers think that the educational aspect of this blog is solely dedicated to scones, let us purge any such dastardly thoughts with this little snippet from Café Sunart in the village of Strontian, population approximately 300.Chemical symbol for Strontium

The chemical element No 38 on the periodic table (a new species of earth) was discovered in a mine here in 1790. It was named after the village where it was found. Among other uses, strontium atoms are used in the world’s most accurate atomic clock; “accurate to one second in 200 million years“. Who is going to be around to check? Anyway, who says this blog isn’t educational?Internal view of Café Sunart

Dancing

However, rather than chemical elements, we prefer to think of the village hall. Many years ago it was the scene of one of the best ceilidhs we have ever had the pleasure of attending. Eightsome reels and Strip the Willows galore. We wouldn’t have anything like the required energy these days.

A scone a Café SunartAll very well, we hear you say, but what about the scones? Unfortunately, they were nothing to write home about. The service was friendly enough but the place had a slightly utilitarian ambience about it. Compared to the other scones on our trip this was the most forgettable. However, the village is very pretty and it was nice to be back again.

Shortly after leaving Strontian we were back at the Corran ferry and sadly leaving the Ardnamurchan peninsula on our way home. We have had an amazing time. The Corran ferry coming in to Ardgour

Water of life

In the Olympics in Paris, the triathlon may be demoted to a duathalon. The river Seine is too polluted for swimming. Surely a damming comment on the profligate way in which we live these days. At the Ardnamurchan distillery the water is so pure they can magic whisky out of it. Pat even bought me a bottle of the Ardnamurchan Midge as a reminder of our trip … yeah!

PH36 4HZ        tel: 01967 402277          Café Sunart

///bucks.imagined.currently

 

 

 

Ordinary, Scones, self-service

Ardnamurchan lighthouse

1 Comment

Someone said “Go west young man”  so that’s what we are doing today. Ignoring the “young” bit, we are heading as far west as it’s possible to go on the UK mainland. It is, of course, Ardnamurchan and the most westerly point there is at Ardnamurchan lighthouse. This is as close to America as it’s possible to get on the British mainland. So we feel obliged to interrupt this post with the news that Joe Biden has bowed to the inevitable and pulled out of the Presidential race.

Plonker

We have listened to the endless speculation about what happens next but, for us, the most noteworthy  thing about the whole situation is Trump’s comments about Biden. Only a complete plonker could be soooo ungracious. It’s beyond comprehension that a country like the US could only find Biden and Trump as Presidential candidates … unbelievable! It will be interesting to see what happens now, not that anyone cares much in Ardnamurchan.Map of Ardnamurchan

Not as interesting, however, as this post.  Today we are taking the ferry from Tobermory to Kilchoan. We joined the queue for the 9.30 and guess what, when it was our turn it was full. We couldn’t get on. The only consolation being that we were car no1 for the next one at 11 o’clock.

The ferry at Tobermory
First ferry was full of cars and the second one looked like it might fill up with foot passengers

After a walk around the town we returned only to find a horde of foot passengers.  The boat was so full of passengers it looked as if there might not be enough room for cars. And you think America has problems! It all got sorted, of course, and we were on our way at last. Turned out that all the cheery passengers were going to the annual Highland Games at Kilchoan.

Oil painting of Ardnamurchan lighthouse
A dramatic painting by G Scott Grier of the lighthouse

We disembarked and headed off across more miles of single track roads … the sheep seemed no less indignant. You go until you can go no further; you are at the end of the road and at the lighthouse. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was very windy with gusts that stopped you in your tracks.

The fog horn at Ardnamurchan lighthouse
Pat at the fog horn, desperately clinging on to avoid being blown off to America.
Surprise

To our surprise there was a visitor centre which sold all sorts of memorabilia … and a cafe with scones!The cafe at Ardnamurchan lighthouse

Being in out of the wind was a huge relief although Pat seemed to actually enjoy the wind more than she should … she found it invigorating. The cafe at Ardnamurchan lighthouse

Manners

Nevertheless, cobweb free we ordered a scone from a chap who was cheerfully manning the centre single handedly. A scone at Ardnamurchan lighthouseThis used to be a stable block. Lovely stone walls and cobbled flooring. It also has an outside seating area however today our scone along with everything else would have disappeared immediately in the wind. Maybe our scone could have nlown over and hit Trump on the head and knocked some manners into him. Having said that our scone was lovely and light so that probably wouldn’t have worked. 

Our visit here was really enjoyable. The climb to the top of the lighthouse involves 152 steps and two ladders. We thought about it for at least a nanosecond, the scone was quite enough for us.

PH36 4LN        tel: 01972 510210       Ardnamurchan Lighthouse

///depths.perusing.gossip

ps: on our away to the lighthouse we came across one of these little honesty shops. Just leave the money for whatever you took. There was even a little bowl of money so that you could take your change … wonderful!An honesty shop on Ardnamurchan

 

Ordinary, Scones, self-service

Compton Acres

2 Comments

Compton Acres isn’t exactly local for us. Indeed, it’s about as far away as you can get in Poole in Dorset. We are visiting our family here on England’s south coast. Compton Acres is a 10 acre ornamental  garden with a restaurant/café. While the parents were working we decided to take ourselves and entertain our grandchildren there.

Personalised SatNav

It’s only a five minute drive from their house but our granddaughters, aged nine and eleven, insisted that we switch off the car’s SatNav because they knew where it was. They would act as our own personal GPS. They then proceeded to impersonate our GPS lady. The main problem was that there was two of them and they couldn’t agree. One would say “at the end of the street turn right” but the other would say “no, it’s left“. Suffice to say that after a couple of circuits of the town they eventually agreed to let us turn on the car’s GPS. As it happened we were actually almost there. If we had left them for another minute or so we might have had a triumphant chorus of “you have reached your destination” .Internal view of Compton Acres

Monsoon

Compton Acres is the sort of place that thrives on bus parties on day excursions. It was very busy. Nothing for it but to join the queue at the self service counter. A scone at Compton AcresIt didn’t take too long, however, and we were soon kitted out with a fruit scone to share and hot chocolate and brownies for the girls.  The scone was excellent and could easily have been a topscone if it hadn’t been self-service. It was so busy that we invited two elderly ladies who were having difficulty finding a table to sit with us. They were a delight and had great chat. Having already been round the gardens they warned us that it was very slippery underfoot in places. Unfortunately, by the time we have finished our scone the rain was torrential. We decided to leave our tour of the gardens until the weather was less monsoon like.External view of Compton Acres

News

In these days of wall to wall bad news one of the benefits of being away is that we hardly get any. Too busy with other things. We can, however, report that the Labour Party is now in government. People are waiting to see if they can make less of a mess of it than the Tories. Hard to see how they could be worse so fingers crossed! Of course, the news that Donald Trump had been shot also filtered through. America seems to be even more divided than the UK and that’s saying something. Hopefully some sort of common sense will prevail and the US, like the Donald’s ear will be able to heal itself.

Much greater than all of that, of course, is the fact that England’s footballers were beaten by Spain in the final of the Euros. The post mortem will go on and on and on. The last team to beat Spain was actually Scotland but we weren’t going to mention that … oops!

Lola at Compton Acres
Trying to take a picture of a cup and photobombed by one half of our GPS system

Making our way back to the house you will be delighted to know that our new personalised GPS system actually worked. It shows great promise if you can put up with the nonsense that goes with it.

BH13 7ES       tel: 01202 700778          Compton Acres

///loads.crunch.wishes

Ordinary, Scones, self-service

Hopetoun Garden Centre

3 Comments

We visited Hopetoun Garden Centre back in 2018 and although it’s only a 15 minute drive away we haven’t been back until now. There are just too many garden centres closer to home. This is a good one however, with lots of architectural stuff. If you are looking for a statue of the Three Graces you’re in the right place.

Elections

On a week where the Great British Public go to the polls to elect our government for the foreseeable future there were several thought provoking signs amongst the plants here.  Having been bored to death by the efforts of those  campaigning to be our next Prime Minister, this sign seemed to strike a cord.A sign at Hopetoun Garden Centre

Rearranging the calendar

This one at the entrance commemorates a non-event in 1782. Could July 4th 2024 be another?

A sign at Hopetoun Garden Centre
It was a Wednesday

Nothing definitely happened from the 2nd to the 14th September 1753 mainly becuase these days just didn’t exist. They had to disappear to bring Britain into line with the rest of Europe that used the Gregorian calendar. There were riots by folks who thought the government had shortened their lives by eleven days.  Can’t imagine that people with birthdays on any of the missing days would have been too happy either. This was also the year in which Britain declared January 1st to be New Year’s Day; something Scotland had done 153 years earlier, in 1600. We like a party!Internal view of the Orangery tearoom at Hopetoun

Bottoms

Anyway, all this nothingness is not advancing your sconological knowledge one iota. A scone at the Orangery tearoom at HopetounThe café area is large and called The Orangery. It’s self-service and we were lucky enough to get the last cherry scone.  There was plain and fruit but we thought the cherry one to share suited our mood. No cream but a nice little pot of jam and some Irish butter completed the ensemble. I usually get stuck with scone bottoms as Pat snaffles the tops. On this occasion, however, she offered me a portion of the top so I could experience its delicious crunchiness. It was really nice and potentially a topscone had everything else been in place. A sign at Hopetoun Garden Centre

We have our election in four days and the US has theirs in four months. The prospects there might even be worse than the UK’s. One candidate doesn’t seem to know what day of the week it is and the other refuses to believe it’s Monday because he  thinks it’s a conspiracy by Tuesday people. Does the world need better than this right now … yes it does!

EH52 6QZ                tel: 01506 834433           Orangery

///emotional.zone.driftwood

Our Trossachs correspondents have reported from the good ship Fingal, a floating hotel which we reviewed back in 2019. Back then the scones were round and excellent but evidently they are now square.  Scotland is rightly proud of its square sausage but we have never come across square scones before. In 2019 we thought Fingal was perfect for itinerant millionaires so we had better start saving if we want to sample square scones for ourselves..Square scones at Fingal

Ordinary, Scones, self-service

Mill Café

5 Comments

The Mill Café is not the building in the title picture, but it’s in there somewhere! The building is obviously part of the Sterling Furniture Warehouse which started life in 1846 as Devonvale Mill. Producing tartan to begin with it has seen many incarnations in its time. Since 1974, however, it’s been this furniture warehouse, the biggest in Scotland. The Mill Café name obviously hints at its original use.Logo of the Mill Café

We are here because we thought we should buy a new chair. We don’t know how many chairs they have here but it must run into thousands. There’s a danger for some, or me in particular, to become ‘chair blind’ … they all start to look the same. When that happens you can become distracted by other things. For me it was these standard lamps.Standard lamps at Sterling Furniture

I was gently but firmly reminded that we already had more than enough standard lamps. and ushered off towards the café.Internal view of the Mill Café

Fruit scone no more

In keeping with the size of the warehouse the Mill Café is not exactly small. It’s self-service but quite efficient. A scone at the Mill CaféWe were soon equipped with a light lunch and a plain scone to share. All the fruit scones had gone. We were told that the fruit scones always sell out very quickly. You might think it should occur to them simply to make more. It’s a wee while since we last had a plain scone so that was to be today’s scone adventure. It was actually very nice. Although not crunchy it had an overall nice consistency and was quite light. Self service, no cream and no hope of a topscone but enjoyable nevertheless. External view of the Mill Café

Poor choices

“Chair blindness” is one thing but we are also developing “promise blindness”. All parties are issuing a great vomit of promises which anyone with half a brain knows they can’t keep. The Tory leader has tried to illustrate his deprived millionaire upbringing by saying that he didn’t have Sky television as a child … diddums! The Labour leader, like a child desperate for friends, continues to welcome a host of unsavoury characters to his side.The LibDem leader is actually just a big kid. And we wouldn’t insult children by drawing a comparison to the Reform Party leader. Aaaargh, the General Election is just a couple of  weeks away! Thank goodness in Scotland we have other parties to vote for.

Across the pond we have the delightful prospect of Biden, with a convicted criminal son running against another convicted criminal. Russia and China begin to look remarkably sensible in the circumstances.

We didn’t buy a chair … waiting for our sight to return to normal!

FK13 6NS          tel: 01259 755191            Mill Café

///verges.habits.stupidity

Ordinary, Scones

Stockbridge House

11 Comments

If you don’t want to be taken down a wee memory lane, look away now! We’re back where we started over 50 years ago.

In our previous post from The Dean we walked through Dean Village along the Water of Leith and came to Stockbridge where we used to live. If you carry on walking eventually you end up in the Port of Leith and the open sea. When we started our married life Stockbridge was relatively cheap compared to the rest of Edinburgh. However, even back then it was termed “up and coming” and now it’s well and truly “up”. With its cafés and bars it is seen as one of the trendiest locations in the city. At that time I worked along the road at the Western General hospital and Pat worked in Stockbridge House.

Plaque commemorating the opening of Stockbridge House
I just happened to be standing there but the Queen Mum shook my hand … haven’t washed it since
Get it right!

In some of our flights of fancy we like to think that we played some small part in the rise of Stockbridge’s desirability. Adding a sense of style and that certain ‘je ne sais quoi’. Seriously though, we lived round the corner from the notorious Madam Dora’s establishment in Danube Street. Covered in pictures of the local Tory candidate her handsome Georgian townhouse was very easy to spot at election time. Famously she paid her fines in cash from her handbag during her almost monthly court appearances and used the witness box to publicise her service. She implored the journalists to get her address exactly right. After a spell in prison, aged 76, she died and the business died with her.

Respectability restored

Now, Danube Street with its £1-2 million houses is the epitome of  respectability again, Even in our more modest little street, Leslie Place, our one bedroom flat would now cost about £300,000. A far cry from the £4,500 we paid for it. Nowadays, if we were starting over again we probably wouldn’t be able to do it here. From our flat, we could look out the back window and see Stockbridge House where Pat worked.  We thought we should see if it was still there.

LifeCare logoIt was always a facility for the elderly but now it has been renamed LifeCare. Apparently something to do with going from charitable status to a public limited company.Internal view of Stockbridge House

There’s a cafe called CafeLife where they were just finishing an afternoon tea event when we arrived. We were welcomed in, however, and shown to a table where they gave us tea and a cheese scone to share.CafeLife logo

It was nice to see it still operating for the benefit of the elderly and they obviously felt that we now qualified to receive some of these benefits.  No topscone but great to explore the place again and chat to the  wonderful staff.A scone at Stockbridge House

Don’t Pisco Me Off

After that we thought we should check out what used to be our local pub, the Rag Doll. Back then we were well embedded here. On occasions we even held the keys for the owner if he was away on business elsewhere. Trusting or what?External view of the Rag DollHowever, after we moved to Northern Ireland the pub was sold and over the years has had many many incarnations under different names. Imagine our surprise to find it called the Rag Doll again. We were delighted.Internal view of the Rag Doll

Like the area, it has gone upmarket as well and is probably more of a cocktail bar than a pub now. We arrived just as it was opening and had a great chat with the new owner. When he took it over a few months ago he wisely decided to reinstate the Rag Doll name. To celebrate, we had to have a couple of drinks.

Cocktails in the Rag Doll
In the tall glass Pat had a ‘Lothian’s Calling’ (Edinburgh gin, Fino sherry, Lemon,Sugar syrup,Orange bitters) and I had a ‘Don’t Pisco Me Off’ (Pisco, GB Peche,JerezXeres sherry, Acid, Sugar syrup, Plum bitters, White wine)

In case you’re wondering Pisco is an unaged brandy obtained from the distillation of fermented Peruvian grape musts; we didn’t know either. Great fun, we wish the Rag Doll a massive amount of luck going forward. We did warn you it was a trip down memory lane!

Washing our hair

We’re on tenterhooks waiting for the first TV Leader’s Debate later this evening … NOT! A Sunak/Starmer debacle for which we could probably write the questions and, although there won’t be any meaningful ones, we could probably write the answers as well. The only surprise is that Nigel Farage isn’t taking part. He doesn’t represent anyone but the media seem to love giving him airtime. Who knows, we might have to wash our hair when it’s on.

EH4 1JB        tel: 0131 343 0940              CafeLife

///mash.found.burns

Ordinary, Scones

The Dean

7 Comments

We used to live in Edinburgh, very close to Dean Village. The village lies along the banks of the Water of Leith and although it is almost city centre it feels like another world. A while back we became aware of a cafe called Café Braw (“braw” is typical Scottish understatement meaning “excellent”) and made a mental note to visit. Today we are doing just that. However when we got to where we thought it should be we couldn’t find it. We had to stop and ask a passerby. He just pointed to The Dean which we were standing outside. It had changed its name!

Dean Village
The Water of Leith running through the village

Anyway, we hade been looking forward to Cafe Braw but were sadly disappointed with The Dean. It’s tiny. Only two stools to sit on inside and not much more outside. A scone at The DeanIt was a lovely day so sitting outside wasn’t a problem, however, for the entire duration of our visit we were regaled by the thoughts of the owner. He stood on the pavement talking loudly to the couple at the next table who he was presumably trying to impress. Obviously we weren’t worth impressing because he never said a word to us. Perhaps the day could have been saved by the scones but sadly no. They were decidedly average. Coffee was nice though!Dean Village

Neuks and crannies

Anyway, although The Dean was disappointing the main purpose of our visit was to walk along the Water of Leith through Dean Village.

Dean Village
Pat just had to go down here to make sure the washing was hung properly

That’s something we didn’t do enough of when we actually lived here. Work, and stuff like that got in the way. Normally there’s not that much water however recent rains meant that today it was quite swollen. The village itself is very quaint with all its tall buildings piled up along the river as well as loads of little courtyards and other neuks and crannies. It is now a major draw for tourists and perhaps testament to what could be achieved before town planners got their hands on everything. Soon we came to Stockbridge and the street where we used to live as a newly married couple starting out on life’s adventure. It was nice to be back but that’s another story and another scone. Dean Village

Wisdom?

Donald Trump, unsurprisingly, been found guilty. Equally unsurprisingly that has set the cat among the pigeons. You couldn’t make it up. Wisdom isn’t a word you could ever associate with Donald but here at home we are faced with supposedly other wise politicians fighting for our affections. Falling over themselves to promise us the sun, the moon and the stars. Like Donald they all presumably think they have sufficient wisdom to govern over the rest of us, the unwise. Perhaps they could all do well to heed the words of Joe Corrie.

Born in 1894, Corrie was a coal miner and poet  from Slamannan. A village just a few miles from our home. Most of his poems are written in the Scots language so we hope that our non-Scots readers will understand. Or, at least catch his drift. The poem starts with him  comparing philosophies of Plato,  Soloman and Socrates  but ends with these four salutary lines.Poem by Joe Corrie

St Bernard's well, Dean Village
St Bernard’s Well on the banks of the river featuring the Greek goddess of health Hygeia

An inscription over the doorway on the well  reads “Bibendo Valeris”, meaning; drink and you will be well. We’ve tried to follow that advice and we feel very well!

EH3 9BH          tel: 07930 146671               The Dean

///depend.joined.units

Ordinary, Scones

Saline Shaw

3 Comments

Logo of Saline ShawYou know how these days farmers cannot just be farmers, they nearly always have to have another string to their bow. Naively perhaps, we believed that farmers should always be able to earn enough to live on just by farming. That no longer seems to be the case, however, so perhaps we should be grateful. Many of them have chosen to open farm shops and cafés like this one at Saline Shaw. After all, each one presents another scone opportunity.External view of Saline Shaw

Saline Shaw is a perfect example of how to do it well. Not only do they have nice clean premises but they seem to have been able to foster a great team spirit among the staff. We were looked after by a young lass called Rebecca who was very busy looking after all the outside tables but still managed to be very attentive and friendly. 

A scone at Saline ShawThe whole enterprise was begun in 2020 in the midst of the COVID pandemic . Not the easiest of starts but they certainly seem to have found their feet now. Rebecca soon had us fixed up with some fruit scones and tea and coffee. We liked what they did with the jam and cream … both in little refillable jars, no packaging wastage here! Although not a topscone they were very enjoyable. It was lovely to sit outside in the sunshine looking over to the Ochil Hills in the distance. We felt far removed from the horrors about to present themselves over the next six weeks in the run up to the General Election. 

4th July

The only advice we can offer is “don’t watch the news”! That is not unless you want to be bombarded  with enthusiastic but vacuous statements from each of the parties. They will be explaining how they alone can guide us all to vast sunlit uplands where everything in the garden is just rosy. With the UK’s astronomical debt levels, don’t expect any similar statements indicating how this miraculous state of affairs is going to be achieved.  One is as bad as the other. For Scotland, the 4th of July date of the election has been seen by many as an opportunity for Scottish Independence, just like America’s. However, there is a fundamental flaw in this comparison.  America, of course, should quite rightly celebrate gaining its independence from Britain. Scotland, on the other hand, is merely trying to regain its independence.Internal view of Saline Shaw

Couldn’t have found a better place than Saline Shaw to reflect on all this. We bought some herbs from their plant section and headed for home. Okay, okay, we watched the tv news only to find that Sunak has promised to bring back National Service for all 18 years olds. Nothing like teaching folk to kill other folk to regain some backbone and  give the country a sense of pride. Oh, and replenish the military numbers so devastated by his own government’s cutbacks. Or, are we being too cynical?Sign for Saline Shaw

KY12 9UG          tel: none           Saline Shaw

///universes.published.slope

Ordinary, Scones

Cafe Circa revisited again

5 Comments

Today we became victims of the cashless society. Not here at Cafe Circa, but at a nearby Community Plant Sale in the village of Doune. We were never sure if the whole cashless thing would ever become the norm, however, when our local pub, which has barely changed in the last two hundred years, suddenly started taking cashless payments  we knew it was either the end of the world as we knew it or the beginning of a slightly scary new one. The latter turned out to be the case. We should probably have guessed that an event like this wouldn’t take cards but we didn’t. They had a very long table laden with lots of sapling tomato plants … eight different varieties. Unfortunately, when they were setting up, all the labels had fallen out so nobody knew what was what. Buying would have been the tomato equivalent of Russian roulette … kind of!

We would have loved to have supported this event more but the upshot was that we were only able to buy as many plants as our rather meagre cash reserves allowed. And that didn’t include tomatoes! At the end of it all we didn’t even have enough cash left to buy a cup of tea and a scone in their makeshift cafe … disaster!

House full
Wall plaque at Cafe Circa in Doune
On the wall of the Antique Centre, the crest of Clan Stewart … a pelican feeding its young. Nearby Doune Castle was the seat of Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany. It’s the only pelican we’ve ever seen in Scotland but unfortunately doesn’t count among our birdwatching friends

Forced to retreat we ended up, just a hop skip and jump along the road at Cafe Circa in the Scottish Antique & Arts Centre. The first time we reviewed Cafe Circa was back in 2015 and then again in 2021. It was time for an update. Prior to our scone, however, we went all round the Antique Centre. They have loads and loads of stuff and even though cards weren’t a problem, we didn’t buy a thing. Don’t be fooled, rather than indicating that there was nothing worth buying it simply lets you know that our house is already full of stuff bought from here in the past. Internal view of Cafe Circa in Doune

It was a lovely day so we sat outside in the courtyard. It’s interesting to watch everyone leaving with their purchases. eager to get home and try them out in some pre-imagined spot in their houses. A scone at Cafe Circa in DouneWe soon had a scone as well as a couple of coffees. Service was good but a slight problem here was that we never saw the same person twice, It seemed to take four different servers to deal with our miniscule order … heyho! Don’t think we have ever awarded a topscone here and today was no exception, perfectly enjoyable but not quite up to the mark.

Eurovision

Society has changed in more than simply becoming cashless. We had the dubious “pleasure” of watching the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo, Sweden. We are well aware of what Eurovision is so don’t really know why we watched it … just some sort of masochistic curiosity. The songs were almost all uniformly forgettable and often  completely obscured by totally over-the-top presentation.  The inclusion of Israel caused a few problems. Considering Russia wasn’t allowed to compete it’s difficult to see how the organisers managed to justify that decision. Heyho, it was pretty difficult to justify any of it really!

Apparently it was the first non-binary Eurovision. We weren’t sure what that meant but it all became clear when we looked it up. By comparison, a cashless society seemed really easy to understand. Anyway this year Switzerland won with a song by Nemo called The Code. Runner up was Croatia with Rim Tim Tagi Dim sung by Baby Lasagne.

Perhaps we are just getting old when we look back nostalgically at the likes of Pearl Carr and Teddy Johnson … and that was pretty awful. Don’t worry if you missed it!

FK16 6HG        tel: 01786 841683         Cafe Circa

///tramps.cleansed.landscape