Pat was making her first batch of strawberry jam when we got pinged by our Bathurst correspondents. They have been continuing their scone adventures in New South Wales.
In their own words:
We went for a drive last Sunday to Millthorpe, a small town about 40 km west of us in Bathurst. Normally, on a Sunday it would be choker-block with weekend trippers from Sydney, but with the Greater Sydney lockdown, it was nearly deserted. We managed to get a seat in The Old Mill.
So, of course, we ordered a scone. They looked pretty good in the glass cabinet, and also on the plate when our serving arrived. Quite large, nicely golden brown on top, our mouths watered.
But…….the scones tended to disintegrate as we tried to cut them up, lots of crumbs, nothing you could spread the jam and cream on. On the plus side however, the strawberry jam was delicious, homemade with whole strawberries. On the minus side, it looked like the cream came out of one of those squirty bottle thingies.
Ah well, it does you good to get out occasionally!
Unspreadable scones are unforgivable but it does serve to show the travails of being a dedicated sconey, no matter what country you are in. 
Millthorpe was originally called Spring Grove when it was first set up by a convict overseer in 1834. It wasn’t until 1884 with the building of a flour mill that the community, by a very narrow margin, voted to change the name. Aw well, we liked Spring Grove. We should have been there, maybe we could have swung the vote.
Democracy
Anyway that’s democracy! The House of Commons Library Research Group has just found that Scotland gets a very poor deal as a result of being part of the UK. They found that Scotland would be much better off as part of the EU group of small nations. Heyho, tell us something we didn’t already know. We wish we have democracy in the UK it would make such a difference. But, of course, it doesn’t make an iota of difference what Scotland votes for .. on anything!. We have also discovered that the BBC is now only spending a measly 51% of the fees raised in Scotland in Scotland. Oh gosh, we thought that the diabolical poor service provided by the BBC meant that they were spending loads of money here. Don’t tell us it’s all getting spent in England!?
Only hours to go before the Euro Finals where England are playing Italy. If you didn’t realise that you must have been living on the moon for the past month. Again, we are constantly told that the entire country (meaning UK) is behind the England team. What country is that then? The media don’t seem to realise that the UK is not a country, or a nation for that matter. It’s a collection of countries but unfortunately it is run by a a group who, in former times, would have undoubtedly been exported to Australia. We wish England well but are dreading them winning and having to face another twenty years of nonsensical idiotic jingoism and punditry. The Queen wishes them well though she probably thinks it’s the England croquet team.
Pat’s strawberry jam was a resounding success. Now she is pickling them as well. Pickled strawberries, who would have thought? Nice on our nasturtium salads.
Many thanks, once again, to our ever faithful correspondents, what would we do without you?
NSW 2798 tel: +61 2 6366 3188 Old Mill
///pocketbook.wiping.nastily