What a DISASTER! No we’re not talking about the Sunak/Truss clash last night on telly. The only thing they seemed to agree on was that the last few years of government (of which they were part) was a disaster. No we are talking about our 501th scone. Let us explain.
Explosive stuff
For several years we have had the Canary Girls Café in Glasgow in our sights. The story was one we thought would interest our readers. They also made empire biscuits with the icing in the form of a Scottish saltire! Had to get one of those. The Canary Girls were the women who were employed in munitions, manufacturing TNT shells during WWI. The chemicals reacted with melanin to turn their skin yellow. … not good. They even had Canary Babies with the same yellow skin … even more not good! The lady who owned the café named it in honour of her grandmother who had actually been a Canary Girl. What with COVID and everything, we never managed to visit … but today we did. Guess what? They were in the process of dismantling the place as it’s closing for good … disaster!
They said the nearest café was only a short walk away and it was called Patricia’s. Obviously, with a name like that we had to go. Patricia’s is a nice plan but when we asked for a scone she just shook her head … disaster! Not wanting to walk any further we decided to stay and have something anyway. But first, a question:
Yes, we decided to have coffee and a mascarpone cake. They said it was the closest thing to a scone they had. We asked for their wifi. No wifi … disaster! Also no telephone and their website is also a disaster so we haven’t added it. On the plus side the mascarpone cake was delicious and the coffee was excellent.
If that wasn’t enough disasters for one day we have just heard that Boris, who for some unfathomably reason is still PM, is threatening not to go after all. We’re doomed!!
Q: what cheese would you use to tempt a bear out of a tree?
As “Priestfield” its history dates back to the 12th century but in 1681 it was burned to the ground by anti-Catholic rioters who objected to the name. What are folk like? It was rebuilt six years later and the name changed to “Prestonfield.” It became a hotel in the 1960s and in 2003 it was bought by restaurateur, James Thomson. He owns the atmospheric Witchery by the Castle restaurant and much of the sumptuousness of Prestonfield is largely due to him.
one half of the Rhubarb restaurant
It started with a post
This is the quintessential Edinburgh place to indulge and celebrate. So what are you two doing there you’re wondering?
Rhubarb was introduced to Scotland here and now adornes their plates
Well, we can hardly believe it ourselves, but this is our 500th post on allabouttthescones.com. How mad is that? Perhaps, even madder, is that so many of you have been with us as budding bloggers right from the start. That was at Palmerston’s Coffee Shop in Dunkeld back in early 2015 … incredible! We are sure you would agree that such an auspicious occasion deserves to be marked in some way. Why not a scone at Prestonfield House eased down with some Billecart Salmon champagne? We can do decadent!
Good company
one of the drawing rooms
We decided to have our afternoon tea in one of the drawing rooms rather than the famous Rhubarb restaurant. A good decision as it happens because we had the company of three lovely Scandinavian girls on their first trip to Scotland … talk about doing it in style!
Eating rotten things
We don’t normally like the sort of formal subservient service you can sometimes get in places such as this however the young chap who was looking after us was delighfult. He was Spanish and had been here six years. He explained everything we were getting in great detail but with such a strong accent that we really didn’t catch much of it. No matter it all looked fantabulous, the sight of it was quite enough, . One three tier stand with sandwiches on the bottom, cakes on top and scones in the middle. In addition there was a separate plate of savoury goods which included some haggis treats. Only one of our new found Scandinavian friends dared take a little nibble. Goodness, did they not know the celebrated status of haggis in Scotland … and these Viking types eat rotten fish, don’t they?
Anyway it probably will come as no surprise to all you sconeys to learn that this was a topscone. We weren’t able to eat all of them because we felt they were a bit on the large side for an afternoon tea, but that was our only criticism. They were beautifully soft with that crunchy exterior we love. lots of jam and clotted cream as well.
Barefoot
We didn’t think we would ever mention Thatcher twice in one post but she dined here, as did Churchill and a host of other celebrities. More importantly perhaps, Sandie Shaw once strode barefoot across these marble floors.
Deluded as Trump
Boris says that he will be back as PM within a year … we’ll have a pint of whatever he’s drinking! Folks who worked alongside him when he was with the Telegraph say he just made stuff up for his column. Who would have thought it? And although they knew what he was writing was completely false, the newspaper never once offered a retraction. Says it all about British politicians and media.
Colin for PM
The last time we were here they had a lot of peacocks roosting in the trees however we were told there is only one left now … Colin. We went to look for Colin to tell him that we would rather see him running the country than any of the current contenders. We couldn’t find him…opportunity missed!
The path leading to the Stables … no horses these days, it’s an events venue
A lot has happened since our last post from Gleneagles. We suppose the biggest news is that Boris has gone … though he is still here? He’s resigned but is still Prime Minister. Don’t worry if you don’t understand, confusion is a kind of Boris speciality. He’ll be absolutely gone soon but not before he has given out honours to all his equally inept buddies. We shouldn’t be thinking about this here in Coorie on a lovely day in beautiful Limekilns but it’s almost impossible to ignore. His long overdue departure would be cause for much merriment and dancing in the streets if it wasn’t for the fact that all the contenders to replace him are equally inadequate. We could easily have a situation where the country ends up being run by someone 95% of the public have never heard of. That’s democracy, UKstyle.
Scorchio
The other big news is that Scotland has become subtropical with temperatures today in Limekilns topping 32C. The government has told us that if we dare to venture out between the hours of 11 and 3 we will probably die a painful shrivelled up death. Turns out the UK is not prepared for anything. It’s either too cold, too hot, too dry or too wet. Whatever it is, prices always have to go up because of it … or is that just too cynical? However, it does make us wonder how other countries, where temperatures like this are perfectly normal, manage.
Anyway, we only had a brief walk from our lovely cool air conditioned car and were quite happy to be ushered towards a table in the nether regions of Coorie, as far away from the windows as possible. Only a few brave souls were sitting outside melting.
The Art of Coorie
As it happens, this place is almost next door to the Sundial Cafe we reviewed back in 2018.
No problem with any of these and I am the best at staying humble
Then we told you that Limekilns featured in Robert Louis Stevenson’s book Kidnapped. He chose the village as the point of escape for Alan Breck and David Balfour when they were being pursued by dastardly redcoats. Exciting stuff. but back to today. The word Coorie derives from Gaelic and means to snuggle. Its kind of onomatopoeic .. it sounds warm and snuggly. A recent book called ‘The Art of Coorie‘ teaches us to enjoy life the Scottish way through simple pleasures. That’s certainly the feeling we got here. Nothing particularly fancy or ostentatious … just a warm welcome, good food and cheery service. What more could you ask for?
Magnets
We ordered some lunch and a fruit scone to share. The lunch was perfect and so would our scone have been had there been cream … but no cream! Not to worry we thoroughly enjoyed what we had … loads of fruit and the strawberry jam was great.
Afterwards we took a wee walk along the beach but it wasn’t long before the air conditioned car was acting like a very powerful magnet. We returned home via Port Edgar where we watched loads of kids being taught kitesurfing and paddle boarding … great day for it.
The Forth Road Bridge from Port Edgar. Built in 1958 it is currently closed. The rail Bridge in the distance was built in 1889 and is still going strong
Great day for us as well. Coorie by the Coast was really enjoyable. It’s only been going a couple of years but it seems to be getting things right. We wonder if we will be able to say the same of the next incumbent in 10 Downing Street … probably not! Someone new to complain about! And we shouldn’t really complain about the weather!
The Queensferry Crossing looking towards Limekilns
Gosh, it’s a month since our last post about the Platinum Jubilee. Apologies to those who have been patiently waiting … and to those who have been enjoying the peace and quiet. We thought we should start again in style so we’ve come to Gleneagles.
View over Glendevon from the Glendevon Room
A Highland Playground
Gleneagles is one of these places, like the Connaught and Claridges, that doesn’t need to bother putting ‘hotel’ after its name. You’re just supposed to know. It’s the playground of the rich and famous. So what on earth are you doing there, we hear you ask? Okay, did you know that Gleneagles has three Championship golf courses and one nine hole course. Surely that’s way more than enough? Did you know that it has a Shooting & Fishing School an Equestrian Centre and the British School of Falconry. Did you know that it hosted the G8 summit in 2005 with the likes of Blair, Putin, Berlusconi, Bush and Chirac? All largely forgotten, apart from one, of course. That was before G8 became G7 after Russia was suspended in 2014 for being a bad boy and invading Crimea. Goodness, that seems like a relatively minor misdemeanour now!
The Glendevon Room, the scene of the G8 dinner hosted y the Queen …. and now our scone
Of course, none of that is of any interest to us, we are only here for the scones. Having said that, we also have a very special Canadian with us (Pat’s brother) who we are determined to introduce the genteel refining intricacies of taking afternoon tea. You know what those Canadians are like … bit rough around the edges! What better place to do it than this? If they can’t do a decent afternoon tea here then there is precious little hope left for the world. Okay, he only wanted to be out on one of the golf courses rather than doing this but, much to his dismay, we stuck to our guns.
Friendly service
There are over 1000 staff servicing the 232 rooms so expectations were high in terms of service. We were not to be disappointed. In fact, in many ways our expectations were exceeded.
top tier of the sweet stand
The staff looking after us, of which there were many, were all great. Not only did they take the time to explain all the sandwiches and other delicacies we were getting but also took the time to answer our questions about the hotel and all the people who have stayed there. Some, even more famous than us! As you can imagine, a stay at Gleneagles is not exactly cheap, quite the reverse. So the staff were impressed to hear that my dad had been a guest here for six months. Eventually I had to divulge that it was when the hotel had been turned into a hospital during WWII. He was recuperating after a bad motorcycle accident.
the Ballroom but no dancing today
Anyway, back to the scones. Forgive us if we go In to slightly more detail than usual. Before you get anything here they give you a little champagne glass into which they pour some iced tea … very nice. That’s followed by an amuse bouche of tomato consommé … very nice again. Then they bring the savoury three tier stand BOTTOM TIER Perthshire smoked salmon with sweet dill mayonnaise sandwich + egg mayonnaise with mustard cress sandwich + Tweed valley roast beef with nasturtium butter sandwich. MIDDLE TIER vol-au-vent with red onion marmalade, goats cheese broad bean, radish, carrot and candied walnut + toasted pickelet with white crab meat and creme fraiche + Hardwick lamb sausage roll with lovage emulsion and choucroute. TOP TIER pea, cabbage and potato croquette + toasted charcoal baguette with pickled cucumber smoked trout and golden beetroot. No scones!
Peachy
Then, only then, when you have stuffed yourself with all this deliciousness do they bring out the next three tier sweet stand. Argh! But at last we caught our first sight of the “soft and fluffy” buttermilk scones. Would we have room for them let alone everything else? The scones were indeed soft and fluffy as described but with a slight crunchiness as well … perfect. They came with loads of jam and clotted cream, all beautifully presented. A very easy topscone. Sitting here in our secluded little alcove gazing out across the croquet lawn to the sunlit hills of Glendevon you could easily think that everything is absolutely peachy with the world. You would be completely wrong, of course, but just for a moment …
Needless to say we could not get near finishing everything that we had been presented with … even when it was washed down with copious quantities of Glendevon blend tea. And this being Gleneagles, even our ‘doggy bags’ were posh. A custom made handbag style box in which we could transport our leftovers back home. Did our Canadian feel enlightened by this experience? Of course he did … a “soft and fluffy” scone at Gleneagles … who wouldn’t be?
ps: if there is anywhere in Scotland that can rival Gleneagles for culinary expertise and originality it is the Oystercatcher restaurant in the lovely little village of Portmahomack. And guess what, our Trossachs correspondents are on the loose again and that’s exactly where they are. As well as a fabulous dinner the previous evening they sent us a picture of their breakfast … Scallops-o-Scone.
Scallops-O-Scone at the Oystercatcher
They also reported on a scone they enjoyed in the company of members of the Portmahomack Salsa Drumming Band in the Carnegie Hall Cafe. The last time we reviewed this place was back in 2016 … too long ago.
Salsa Drumming, Portmahomack 2016
Our correspondents sound like they are having a brilliant time … we need to go back.
Don’t think you could ever call us Royalists. That system of privilege and patronage seems better suited to a bygone era and totally at odds with modern day life. Odd as it may seem, we have actually met most of the Royal family (all except Andrew … phew!) and they all seem like really nice people. We’re pretty sure they do not want to spend their lives under the microscope of public and media scrutiny so why oh why are we allowed to do it to them? The fact that the Queen is celebrating her Platinum Jubilee is, of course, a personal triumph for her but given that all other news has apparently been cancelled we’re glad it only happens once every seventy years.
We’ll do anything!
Not wanting to appear too curmudgeonly, however, we ordered a Platinum Jubilee box from Haar At Home in St Andrews. Haar is a restaurant run by Masterchef Finalist, Dean Banks and we use it from time to time. You order it online and then it just appears at the door. It’s a kind of magic! The box had all sorts of stuff – smoked trout, a variety of cheeses, olives, chutney, pickle salad, chorizo, cheese and leek bread, caviar … and, wait for it, scones with jam and clotted cream. Okay, okay, it’s pathetic, we’ll do anything for a scone.
There was far too much just for just the two of us so we had the pleasure of the company of our Trossachs correspondents to help us out. They did an excellent job though the meal was not without its difficulties. Do any of you have problems accessing your caviar? We did! Try as we might we simply could not open the tin … imagine, so near yet so far. It became hilarious as the four of us came up with ever more incredulous ways of tackling it. Eventually the answer was to go to the garage and get a set of grips. The tin had to become pretty mangled before the top reluctantly popped off. Was it worth all the effort? Yes, everything was lovely and well worth the platinum amount of money we paid for it.
Uncategorised
Anyway we know that none of you are actually interested in our caviar traumas … just scones, right? Well, they came with a generous tub of strawberry gin jam (I wasn’t driving) and another of clotted cream. The scones were really nice but a little on the big side for our taste. The chances of Charles being on the throne for seventy years are slim to say the least so none of you will ever get to sample a Platinum Jubilee scone ever again. Devastating, we know! In these circumstances we didn’t think it appropriate to categorise them. Good fun though!
In case you are wondering, this is what our Platinum meal looked like
I regard Angus as my home county having spent my early childhood in Glen Isla. These days, however, I am only in Angus on rare occasions. That said, here we are today in Caffe Barista in Arbroath. Many a summer holiday was spent here in the caravan park but today we are just passing through.
Declarations
The town is well known for its smoked haddock … the famous Arbroath Smokie. Wonderful on its own in much the same way as you would eat a kipper or alternatively it could be used to make that soup of all soups, Cullen Skink … yum. Arbroath, of course, is also a great place to declare things. In 1320, in Arbroath Abbey, a group of Scottish nobles did just that.
Declaration of Arbroath ritten in Latin and sent to the Pope. They knew how to declare things back then
The intention was to assert Scotland’s status as an independent, sovereign state and defend Scotland’s right to use military action when unjustly attacked. Oooo, do we hear echoes of Ukraine?
Little did they know that a few hundred years later, in 1707, Scotland’s nobles would sell the country down the river in return for English bribes. Heyho, here we are, another couple of centuries on, still struggling to reverse that ludicrous decision.
Guys and Dolls
In Caffe Barista the declarations were of a different type “Hi guys, how are you today? What are you having guys? Was everything okay guys?” Pat, more of a doll than a guy, weathered the onslaught manfully! We just wanted a cuppa and a scone to share. The choice was plain, plain or plain, so plain it was!
It came with butter and jam from somewhere that couldn’t be determined. This being Angus, it was ironic that we had just driven through mile after mile of strawberry and raspberry fields and yet the jam here came prepackaged in plastic, probably from some foreign land. The scone itself was reasonable enough but a country mile away from a topscone. We left suitable refreshed with “Bye guys” ringing in our ears.
A rare opportunity to combine scones and telephone boxes
Bailing out
It is also ironic, given that in 2014 we were told there was only a dribble of oil left, that the UK government is yet again being bailed out by Scotland. It’s late conversion to a windfall tax on energy companies will raise billions, 95% of which will come from Scotland. Things have got so bad for Boris we wouldn’t be at all surprised if, one day, he simply walked away. However, he could also be developing a Putinesque inability to foresee his own inevitable downfall. The latter is perhaps the most likely.
World records
We cannot leave Arbroath without mentioning the world record held by the local football club, affectionately known as the Red Lichties. In the Scottish Cup of 1885 they beat Bon Accord of Aberdeen 36-0. They had a further seven goals disallowed for offside. Of course that means that Bon Accord must also hold a world record but nobody seems to mention that?
Anyway must get back home and start planning our Platinum Jubilee celebrations??
We hear a lot about oligarchs these days but they are by no means a new phenomenon. In the 19th century, Glasgow had oodles of them but back then they were known as shipping magnates or tobacco barons. Sir William Burrell was one such shipping magnate and he is responsible for the place we are in today, the Burrell Collection in Pollock Park, Glasgow.
He had enough money to buy anything that tickled his fancy and, in his case, it was art that did the tickling. Buying his first piece aged fifteen kick started a life obsessed with travelling the world and shipping artefacts back to his home town of Glasgow. Because he had lots of big ships he wasn’t put off by size … everything from paintings, stained glass, tapestries to huge chunks of ancient buildings. We were last here at the Burrell Collection many years ago as guests at a dinner laid on by Astra Zeneca for the Scottish Therapeutic Endoscopy Workshop. A great night but, typically you might say, we didn’t do culture … only eating and drinking. This time we have a few hours to look around at the exhibits. There are a lot!
One of may doorways on display. This one was made in 1100 to form the entrance to a church at Montron in France. Shipped back stone by stone.
Wisdom and understanding
If this post contains more than the usual amount of illustrations it is simply because the building and the objects it contains just beg to be photographed. It is amazing.
The Luohan that Came from Afar. A Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) statue from south east China. Luohan means ‘one who is worthy’ and developed wisdom and understanding. That could easily describe this blog?
We were here early in the morning when there were few people around but by the time we left it was very busy indeed.
the tearoom
It has just recently reopened after a major revamp with lots of things for kids to interact with and opportunities to learn about other cultures. We are running the risk here of making this blog educational and interesting so perhaps we should just get on with the scones.
Catching up
We are not complete scone philistines though … that’s not the only reason for our visit. It was catching up with an old friend we hadn’t seen for many years that had actually brought us here. There were scones though … fruit and plain. They have a system. You have to find a table then give the table number when you order at the counter. Then they bring it over when it’s all ready. Everything was nicely presented and the scone came with plenty jam and butter. It was nice and we thoroughly enjoyed it but it wasn’t a top scone … pity!
Homeless
Child with rattle. Can you imagine getting your kids ready in the morning if they were all dressed like this?
Burrell believed in free education for all and in 1944 he gifted his entire collection to the City of Glasgow. It was so big, however, there wasn’t any where in the city capable of housing it. It needed its own building so a competition was launched that culminated in being opened by the Queen in 1983. The setting in the beautiful countryside of Pollock Park is perfect. Huge windows give a fantastic backdrop to many of the exhibits and it’s all completely free for anyone who wants to visit. Good old Sir William!. For us the takeaway message from our visit was clear. Today we think of ourselves as being terribly advanced.
The Warwick Vase. This is a replica of a Roman original made in the 1st century.
Smart phones and rockets to the moon and all that. But actually, we haven’t really come that far. A thousand years ago they were doing things that we’d find hard or impossible to replicate these days. The workmanship and scale of some of the artefacts is mind blowing. No idea what value would be put on the Collection … probably too vast to contemplate.
A wall tile featuring a gazelle and a mountain goat. Made in Iran in the 13th century
Messes
When you look at the mess the world is in today it is not difficult to agree that we haven’t progressed that much. The UK has been responsible for creating a lot of the global messes and with Boris at the helm it has ended up in one almighty mess itself. If we were being generous we would say that he has had a lot on his plate … but we’re not! We are all heartily sick of the goings on in 10 Downing Street during lockdown and today the long awaited Sue Grey Report cames out. It hasn’t improved things. Boris, may have unwittingly discovered the holy grail on how to keep your job. Just make such a mess of it that no-one else wants it.
We’ve only made a mess of our table at the Burrell Collection. But it was wonderful to catch up with an old friend and at the same time get ‘cultured’. Having said that, ‘culture vultures’ we are not but this is a fantastic place. You should all visit if you get a chance.
All good things must come to an end so this post finds us on our way north again after a fab time on the south coast. It’s bitter sweet … good to be heading home and at the same time sad to be leaving family behind. All we have to do is reverse the road trip we did to get down here. We’re taking a slightly different route and our first stop is in Warminster in Wiltshire … at the Coffee 1 café to be precise.
Warminster High Street
In 1086 the Doomsday Book refered to the town as Guerminstre. so it’s not hard to see how it ended up as Warminster. It may be famous for many things but after this post it will also be famous for its lack of tearooms – one closed for refurbishment, one a huge chain that doesn’t do scones and this one. And this one didn’t do scones either! “We might have them in again for the summer” they said. Scones are not swallows for goodness sake, they’re not migratory. They are perfectly happy to be eaten all year round. (Please let us know if you sense we are getting grumpier, it’s difficult for us to tell).
Also, only one toilet in the entire place, what’s that all about? Do you know how long a woman (or a man) with a baby can be in a toilet? If you need to go it can seem like an eternity and unfortunately for us there were several women with babies ahead of us in the queue. We’re not sure what should be banned – places with only one toilet or women (men) with babies? Okay, we do sense an increase in grumpiness!
Sconeless
In the absence of scones we had little choice but to opt for a teacake. A poor substitute but what can you do? As it turned out our teacake was rather good and they had even toasted it for us so we really have a cheek to complain. But it wasn’t a scone!! If you ever find yourself in Warminster, be warned, it is a sconeless place!
Song contests
Walking through Warminster we came on a rather nice little arcade. Warminster folks are obviously getting geared up for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
Elsewhere things are gearing up for that surreal of surreal things, the final of the Eurovision Song Contest. As if the planet didn’t have enough problems, it’s being broadcast across the world tonight. Russia has been banned … is this the reason for Putin’s inexplicable fury?
Having been in Poole for a few days now we are getting to know the place quite well. Did you know that this town has produced some of the most beautiful women in the world? Yes, not a lot of people know that! How else would you explain the fact that two of the five British Miss Worlds have hailed from here? It’s also renowned for attracting the rich and famous … we’re here after all! On Panorama Road the property price-per-square-foot has exceeded that of waterside streets in Miami and Monte Carlo.
Resisting schoolboy humour
We don’t want to start any arguments but today we are trying to circumnavigate the largest natural harbour in the world, Poole harbour. Other places have tried to claim this title e.g. Sydney harbour. But that claim is usually made by Aussies and we all know what they are like when it comes to bragging! Poole harbour has an area of fourteen square miles and a coastline that extends more than one hundred miles. It also has a single access to the sea … the very definition of a ‘harbour’. Rest assured, if you heard it on allaboutthescones, it’s correct! The harbour is fed by four rivers, the main ones being the River Frome and the River Piddle. The Piddle is actually quite a bit bigger than you might expect!
The High Street, Swanage
Fossils
Circumnavigation involves quite a long drive (not by Australian standards obviously) but it cannot be done without ending up here in Swanage. This is the first town at the eastern end of the Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site. But with no time to go scavenging for fossils we ended up here at Gee Whites scavenging for scones. It’s an odd sort of place. They have a roof terrace but it wasn’t open. In fact, there did not appear to be any inside seating at all. So outside it had to be … at the mercy of the seagulls. We ordered tea and a fruit scone at a sort of kiosk window. When we asked if the scone came with jam and cream “That’s a cream tea if you want that” was the reply “Okay, can we have a cream tea then?” We triumphantly transported our ‘cream tea’ to a table by the water’s edge.
View from our seat … some folks fishing for crabs
This was not at all unpleasant. Although overcast it was warm and nice to sit and watch all the activity that typically goes on in all such seaside places. Rather oddly the jam and cream came packaged together in a little plastic tub. Perhaps that should have given us an early warning on the scone. It was a disappointment and worst of all it had a soggy bottom and we all know that soggy bottoms are never desirable. Inevitably perhaps, It became fodder for some of the man-eating seagulls that surrounded our table. One gull swallowed what was left in one gulp. We were impressed by its swallowing skills but mostly by its ability to fly off afterwards. It seemed to thoroughly enjoy it so maybe we’re just getting too fussy?
Another cruise
In spite of this scone setback we were happy to be in Swanage, a place we never ever expected to visit. It had taken us a good hour or so to drive round to here but to complete the circumnavigation we had to take the Sandbanks Chain Ferry across the 242 foot harbour entrance. Another four minute cruise for Pat, I know, I spoil her! First time on a chain ferry and it meant that we were home in no time at all … brill!
Unexpected consequences
Finland has applied for NATO membership after many years of steadfast and proud neutrality. The 830 mile border with Russia will achieve the exact opposite of what Mad Vlad intended and couldn’t have been achieved without his crazy invasion of Ukraine. Funny the way things turn out sometimes!
Our time in the soft south is coming to an end. Shortly we will be heading back to the wild and woolly north.
First leg of our road trip completed, we couldn’t get a more extreme contrast between our last post from Tebay Services and this place, Branksome Beach Café. One set amongst wild rugged moorland and the other on a beach looking out towards the Isle of Wight.
A different life
We are visiting our daughter’s new house. It’s big compared to the tiny one her and her family had in London and it’s in a very quiet street in a beautiful forested area. Without having to go on any roads at all you can take Branksome Chine (a very pretty wooded gully) down to the beach. The path drops you out right at Branksome Beach Café … how neat is that?
View from our seat on an overcast but warm day. France just over the horizon
Indoor beaches
In the 1930s Branksome Beach Café was Britain’s first functioning solarium. Intended to provide a year round sunbatheing facility it had an indoor beach complete with deckchairs behind huge glass windows. Now the sand and deckchairs have long gone and it has developed into one of Dorset’s landmark cafés. It also makes a claim to be the home of the rock cake! My mother made rock cakes in such a way that you never had to question how they got their name.
Bill board outside the café and an actually rock cake … neither to scale
Such a claim obviously requires testing so we got a one to share with everyone at our table. Whether the claim is true or not doesn’t really matter .. it was delicious and not too rock like! Luckily, they are not claiming to be the home of the scone … that would be simply ridiculous!
Local produce
Of course, we had to test the scones. We were sitting outside on the terrace overlooking the beach but on the way in we had noticed the scones. They were quite big so having already scoffed some rock cake we opted to share one. It came complete with a pot of jam and the ubiquitous Rodda’s Cornish Cream. Since we are relatively near Cornwall we have dropped our customary objection … it’s a local product down here!.We’re sure that the excellent service, the views out over the beach and the sea were all contributory factors in our decision to award a topscone. Well done Branksome Beach Café.
Prince Charles substituted for the Queen today at the State Opening of Parliament. It said nothing and perhaps the biggest news was that Kate, Duchess of Cambridge had travelled to Manchester on a charter flight in a Michael Kors outfit. Goodness, she’s almost common! Somehow all the pomp and pageantry seems hugely incongruous in times where more and more people are being forced to use food banks. Not that we have much room to talk, sitting here eating rock cakes and scones by the beach.
ps: our fabulous Toowoomba correspondents have sent us scone pictures from Angie’s Country cafe in Toogoolawah. Hands up everyone who knows where that is! Okay not too many.Presentation looks good as does the scone so if you ever find yourselves in Toogoolawah you know where to go.
by Bill and Pat Paterson and is about finding good scones throughout the world, with a little bit of politics
They said the nearest café was only a short walk away and it was called Patricia’s. Obviously, with a name like that we had to go. Patricia’s is a nice plan but when we asked for a scone she just shook her head … disaster! Not wanting to walk any further we decided to stay and have something anyway. But first, a question:
Yes, we decided to have coffee and a mascarpone cake. They said it was the closest thing to a scone they had. We asked for their wifi. No wifi … disaster! Also no telephone and their website is also a disaster so we haven’t added it. On the plus side the mascarpone cake was delicious and the coffee was excellent.
