Category Archives: Uncategorized

Trakai Island Castle

11 July 2016 billpaterson1@me.com 1 Comment

What are our Trossachs correspondents like?? A couple of weeks ago it was Gibraltar, then Stronachlachar and now, Vilnius, (we are prepared to bet that that is the first time these three places have ever been mentioned in a single sentence). We thought our own scone efforts were pretty good but this is definitely above and beyond. It all depends on the scones of course.

Searching for scones

Well, .. in spite of their best endeavours, scouring Vilnius from top to bottom, not a single scone was found … zilch. At one point they excitedly crossed the street because they had seen these in a café window. They turned out to be some sort of crème brûlée thingys. Easy mistake to make. They did however come across signs of support for our own Nicola Sturgeon.

Did they give up? Not a bit of it. Undaunted, and taking inspiration from our Aussie correspondents who recently reported from Eilean Donan Castle, they elected to try and find an equivalent. And they did, about 20km west of Vilnius. Trakai Island Castle on Lake Galvė, like Eilean Donan, is situated on an island and joined to the mainland by a bridge. It dates from the 14th century. After falling into serious disrepair it underwent a major reconstruction program which was only completed in the 1960s. Unfortunately, yet again there were no scones. There were, however, reminders of home. The Lithuanians have a haggis equivalent, vedarai, and seem happy to compare it to the genuine article.

Incomprehension

What of Lithuania itself and its people? We can do no better than quote directly from our correspondents report: “the very clear message here (Lithuania) is that all generations cannot understand how or why the UK voted for Brexit. They also know quite clearly that Scotland voted to Remain. This is a small country of just under 3 million, reveling in it’s independence and EU membership. Is everything perfect.? No, many of their young people are working in Scotland and sending money home.

However, they are confident about their future, have an education system where children are educated in Lithuanian and English and are generally very positive about being members of the enlarged European family. We have experienced none of the xenophobic rhetoric of Farage, Gove and Co. We note that Gove has got his just deserts and that the UK will now have a woman as Prime Minister. Lithuania already has one and of course we have Nicola. Let’s hope that the UK does not repeat the last occasion we had a female Prime Minister. A model of whom we saw in a street market in Trakai today”.

Scotland and Lithuania

Once again we are indebted to our Trossachs correspondents in spite of the dearth of scones. It seems that Lithuania has much in common with Scotland. A high degree of national pride and a philosophy that foreigners are welcome and considered an asset. Of course Scotland has a vast array of riches compared with Lithuania, not just scones! Unbelievably though, Scotland, still has all it’s major decisions made by another country with very different interests? You can almost see the open-mouthed incredulous look on Lithuanian faces. They must think we are mad … or stupid, or both!

Lithuania tel: +370 528 53946 Trakai Island Castle

BREAKING NEWS: Our correspondents, still in Lithuania, have decided that they are not going to find any Lithuanian scones comparable to our own. However, they have managed to find a sort of scone equivalent in a café called Kmyninė just east of Vilnius city centre. They were served by a lovely man and woman who have had the café for just over a year and made them feel very welcome.

Lithuanian scones

Once again quoting directly. “It is one of many great initiatives, we have experienced, where hard working young people are making a real fist of it in challenging circumstances. It is hard for us to comprehend how the poisonous narrative of the Brexit campaign managed to persuade the UK electorate that these fine young Europeans are a threat to our society and values. At least they know that they are welcome in Scotland”. But what about the Lithuanian scones? “There was no jam,cream or butter but these offerings were delicious. crisp on the outside, soft and tasty inside with a lovely nutty flavour. A bit like Ma Broon’s rock cakes”. So there you have it, another first for allaboutthescones.com. If in Vilnius and crave a scone, your best bet is to head to Kmyninė.

Vilnius tel: +370 640 49042 Kmyninė Food & Groceries FB

Scones, Uncategorized

A Ton Of Scones

11 March 2016 billpaterson1@me.com 4 Comments

Motorcyclists often refer to ‘doing a ton’, meaning 100mph, so this post is the scone equivalent. Not reviewing a particular scone but rather 100 scones; a ton of scones .. as a pie. Our last post from Liberty was our 100th so we thought it was time for some analysis. Bearing in mind our limited mathematical dexterity, 100 makes it easy to work out percentages. Our first post was Palmerston’s in Dunkeld almost exactly one year ago which works out at almost one scone every 4 days. How’s that for dedication, and amazingly, we are just as sylph-like as ever .. or at least Pat is.

The Results:

75% gained no accolade or categorisation other than they were just fairly ordinary or self service scones. That does not make them bad. In fact many of them were very good, but not good enough for an award. Notably the Biscuit and the Bingham Hotel just missed out on a topscone award.
Wee Blether

Annoyingly the Corinthian had superb scones but abysmal service, otherwise it would have had a topscone award. 1% of this category, the Buckhaven scone, wasn’t even a scone. Some, like the Wee Blether were just great fun.
21% gained a topscone award. We think this is rather good but like the ordinary scones not all were equal. If we were to select our top three topscones it would be Fonab Castle, the Olympic Studios and the Dormy.
Ardanaiseig

The other 18 topscones were all excellent but not quite as good as these three. Some locations like Ackergill Tower and Ardanaiseig were fabulous. Our most expensive scone was undoubtedly Claridges but what an experience!
1% was classed as ‘foreign’. The Duke was based on information from our Iberian correspondent.
2% was classed as ‘homemade’ … made by friends and not sold commercially. One, Dan’s was so good it got a topscone. The other was on Nicola Sturgeon making scones but we didn’t taste them so couldn’t give them an award, though we are sure they would have been first class.
4% were classed as ‘weird’. This did not mean they were in any way bad. They were just weird. The ‘thunder and lightning’ scone at Mother Murphy’s was memorable as was the ‘bacon and cheese’ scone at Habitat.
22% were self service scones. In itself this did not make them bad but none of them made topscone This was partly because it is about the whole experience and waiting in a queue is never as good as being waited on.
8% were island scones … The Puffer on Easdale being the best.
The Puffer
11% were English scones. Difficult to say if English scones are better than Scottish, they certainly have some odd ideas about the prioritisation of jam and cream. Might need further investigation.

A Dash of Politics: Our rants have probably got progressively more and more ranty as the year passed. Sincere apologies to all, but it makes us feel better!

Summary: All in all it has been a wonderfully enjoyable year. There are some places we won’t be rushing back to, either because they were too bad or too expensive. The vast majority, however, we would happily visit again .. which is great! Many thanks to our benefactors who have treated us to the odd scone here and there and thanks to our correspondents who have shared their scone stories with us. Thanks are also due to the places we have visited who, by and large, have enjoyed the reviews and given us lovely feedback. Will there be another ton? We shall see!

self-service, Uncategorized

Dobbies unvisited

3 January 2016 billpaterson1@me.com 2 Comments

Hope you all had a great time over the holidays and are looking forward to another year of sconology. In fact we thought that the symptoms of scone withdrawal might be reaching fever pitch so have opted for a slightly unusual but quick fix for you. Not based on a visit to some cafe deep in the nether regions of the Scottish countryside but rather on some scones we received as a gift over the festive season. Such are the fringe benefits of being sconeys.

Morello cherry and Port jam

Our benefactors had purchased them at Dobbies Garden Centre in Stirling complete with a range of jams. Don’t worry, we realise that for a full and proper report we actually have to go there. And since we take our responsibilities seriously, we promise to do that before 2016 is out. In the meantime, hopefully this will suffice. I elected to try the cherry scone (family size) and Pat dutifully warmed it in the oven and whipped up some cream to go with it.

With cherry scones however there is that ever-present problem .. a suitable jam. Strawberry just does not seem right, but, as luck would have it, we had also been gifted a pot of Morello Cherry and Port jam, the perfect accompaniment. In spite of these scones having been in the freezer for several days everything was absolutely delicious. A topscone award however will be reserved until we have actually visited Dobbies.

Awards

Ah yes, awards. We know that many of you will have been shocked, after scouring the New Year Honours lists for our names only to find them absent! This came as a bit of a shock to us as well. The last time we spoke to the Queen (not that long ago) we convinced ourselves that there was a slight nod which seemed to indicated that she was going to see us alright. If you know what we mean, wink, wink, nudge, nudge! Obviously we mistook the body language. For all we know, even though we did our best to put her at her ease, it might have been a slightly clumsy attempt at a curtsy.

Anyway, as it turns out, it saved us the anguish of deciding whether or not to accept. Given that we would find an OBE or anything else with ’empire’ in it a tad difficult to take. An OGE; Order of the Glasgow Empire is more our style. We did notice that the list consisted of the usual worthy and unworthy individuals. Always good to see people who give selflessly of their own time to helping others less fortunate getting some recognition. However, it also seems slightly galling that people such as politicians and civil servants should get these awards as well. Simply for doing their jobs. Equally so for sports personalities and the usual catalogue of luvvies and thespians. Surely they get enough gongs and awards already?

At least Jon Snow, one of the few principled journalists left in the media had the good judgement to turn his OBE down saying he could not accept awards from those he was paid to investigate. At least he realises that stultifying criticism is what it is all about. Surprised though that BBC Scotland were not in line for some sort of award. They have taken on the mantle of the only effective opposition to the SNP led government at Holyrood.

Now if this all sounds a bit like sour grapes let us assure you that it is exactly that, The benefits of making, presenting and eating scones and the role scones have played in creating this wonderful country needs to be recognised sooner or later. Sooner would be good .. before we both turn into humpty dumpty lookalikes. Many thanks to the wonderful people who gifted these scones … you know who you are. We will be back on the scone trail very soon, Happy New Year to you all.

ps for those who were unable to find the Buckhaven scone in the last post. It is 4 down and 4 across from the left on the header image.

Scones, Uncategorized

Magnificent 7

3 April 2015 billpaterson1@me.com

Out for breakfast this morning to Cafe Nero, they don’t do scones. Why is it that scones are not acceptable at breakfast? Don’t know but they just aren’t! Anyway this is the Magnificent 7

The debate

News is all about the election broadcast last night between the seven big scones. It kind of ended up as the three ladies socking it to the Wastemonster three with UKipNige throwing wee tantrums in the background. There was Natgreen (sounded like she would like her scones barbecued). LibNick (not sure what to do about scones). UKipNige (only English scones, please). RedEd (any jam as long as it’s red). YakidaaLeanne (likes Welsh scones). NatNic (makes her own Scottish scones) and of course PoshDave (never had a scone without jam and cream). Anyway it was all quite civilised, UKipNige came close to throwing all his foreign scones out of the pram a couple of times. One very eloquent lady in the audience, Victoria,(haven’t heard the last of her), gave posh Dave a hard time about soldiers sleeping on the street.

Who won? Goodness knows! I am sure the London based press i.e. almost all the press, will declare for PoshDave. However NatNic managed to pull off the amazing feat of increasing her party membership by over 1500 in the course of the debate. Don’t know if any of the others came close to that. Maybe their memberships were going in the opposite direction?

Perhaps predictably The National came out for NatNic and Scottish scones …

but we were really surprised to find The Times agreeing. Mind you I think they ran a completely different story in the English edition. Two faced or what?.

Jam and cream

Lord Ashcroft’s latest poll also shows that NatNic and the SNP would win a third of seats if they stood in England?? Extraordinary times indeed. Anyway off to Englandshire tomorrow to do some scone testing in the deep south. Will UKipNige be right about English scones being the best? Will there be more jam and cream the further south we go? You will, of course be first to hear the findings.

Scones, history and a dollop of politics