Tag Archives: Napoleon

The Courtyard Café revisited

18 August 2022 billpaterson1@me.com 5 Comments

The last time we were here at the Courtyard Café in Fintry was in 2016. Back then we said we liked everything about the place and that we would love to come back … so we have. This is ‘the Courtyard Cafe revisited’, would it still be as good?

Quite often we just get in the car and see where it takes us. Today is one these days. We took the road to Carron Valley which as well as being a lovely drive is also Falkirk’s water supply. In spite of the dire warns of impending disaster down south due to drought, the reservoir looked pretty full to us. We were reassured.

Not far beyond the end of the reservoir you come to Fintry a lovely little village nestling in the Campsie Fells.

Waterloo and all that

Remarkably, the village has a connection to Napoleon and the Battle of Waterloo. Over 200 years ago, Peter McNee, a local teacher, was concerned about the living conditions of the local mill workers. He protested so loudly, he was eventually obliged to leave Britain and settle in France. There he changed his name, joined the army and quickly rose through the ranks. As Marshall Ney he became Napoleon’s right hand man. After Waterloo he was executed by firing squad in spite of Wellington pleading for clemency. Rumour has it, though, that his death may have been faked. Gosh, he might be in the café?

Internal view of the Courtyard Café, Fintry — The shop area where they sell their own milk, ice cream and other farm produce

Once you have parked and walked past the neat orchard and the beautiful chicken enclosure you just get the feeling that this is a well run place.

Wallpaper at the Courtyard Café, Fintry — Wallpaper at the Courtyard

Our window at the Courtyard Café, Fintry — The window at out table … the walls must be a metre thick!

It was going like a fair but they managed to find a table for us quite quickly. We had noticed on the way in that the scones were quite big so we decided to share … but only after a delicious light lunch. When our scone arrived I was a bit disappointed. It looked a little bit on the solid side. What do I know? It was fab! The texture was great and the whole thing was incredibly light. Along with plenty jam and cream it was an easy topscone. We will be back!

Questions

We left Fintry and decided to go home via Kippen where we visited the Rhubarb & Lime Coffee Shop. We reviewed it in 2016 as well. It was just the same, friendly people, and after buying a couple of bottles of Italian wine we were on the road again. On the way I thought it would be a good idea to get off the main road and go through some of the local villages. We turned off the A811 into what was signposted as Glinnes Road. Almost immediately it turned into single track with passing places. Undeterred we kept on going even though it was obvious we were heading in the wrong direction for home. Then there was grass in the middle of the road. Pat asked “where exactly are we going?” Always difficult when you have no idea. She’s asked the question many times before and is still waiting on a satisfactory answer.

Pat opening gate on Glinne's Road — My trusty helper opens the first of several gates

Eventually, many bumpy miles later, we emerged into Balfron, a village we’ve never visited before. Needless to say, there are much easier ways to get there. Just before we reached the village we came across Lou’s Bake Stop. Lots of fresh baking, coffee and cold drinks … just leave the money in the basket … fab! We like these honesty places.

Honesty

Scotland has just had the pleasure of a visit from Liz Truss, one of the contenders to become PM of the UK. She promised to work flat out for Scotland. This, in spite of saying a week before that the best thing to do with Scotland’s elected representatives was to ignore them. Maybe she should spend some time in Lou’s Honesty Hut.

We got home. We always get home … eventually!

G63 0LN tel: 01360 860132 The Courtyard

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Scones, Top

McMoos Café

5 March 2020 billpaterson1@me.com 3 Comments

The coronavirus plague continues. We have been told that the best way to counter the infection is to wash your hands while singing God Save The Queen. Surely that’s equivalent to telling folks to get under the table in the event of a nuclear attack? We are still braving the virus, however. We travelled a whole four miles to the Hippodrome Cinema in Bo’ness. Perhaps a cinema in the middle of the day is not the best place to be midst plague – quite a bit of snoring …. or was it death rattles?

On this occasion, the movie was Emma, an adaption of Jane Austen’s 1815 novel. When we came out after the film, lo and behold, what was directly opposite the cinema? A new café no less! It is right next door to Brian’s Café and in the same street as 1884, both of which we have reviewed previously. It was called McMoos … don’t ask!

External view of the Hippodrome Cinema, Bo'ness — The Hippodrome opened in 1912 – it is Scotland’s oldest surviving cinema

But first, the film. If you like costume dramas this is the film for you. The costumes and settings are fabulous. The main character, Emma, is a beautiful overprivileged twenty one year old snob who likes nothing better than messing with other people’s love lives. The film gently follows her interfering ways (hence the snoring) until eventually, she falls foul of her own meddling. Suffice to say, like all such dramas, she gets her man in the end. It’s beautifully filmed and an easy watch.

No scones

The most surprising thing about the film was the complete lack of scones. We thought there would have been at least one scene with those aristocratic types taking afternoon tea in a wildflower meadow surrounded by a dozen or so servants. Then we remembered that afternoon tea wasn’t invented until twenty-five years later. 1840, that’s when the Duchess of Bedford felt she couldn’t make it through to her evening meal without a mid-afternoon snack. Pity really, however, although no scones were featured we still enjoyed the film.For scones, we had to go all the way across the street to the aforementioned McMoos. It’s only been open a short time and as our friendly waitress explained: “We are still finding our feet“. Our scones were held back until we had finished a light lunch, then she returned and asked: “Would you like me to pop your scones in the oven now?” Nice.

The scones were quite big. Not baked on the premises but we were assured, that they had been “Baked this morning by our own special baker“. We got a lovely little bowl of blackcurrant jam and some English clotted cream and Danish butter. Don’t you think that with a very Scottish name like McMoos, the butter at least could have been Scottish? Anyway, the scones were really good. And because they are still ‘finding their feet’ we put lapses in scone accoutrements down to inexperience and awarded a topscone. Well done McMoos, we wish you well.

Relationships

In 1815, when Austen was writing Emma, the Duke of Wellington was busy giving that French upstart, Napoleon, a jolly good seeing to at the Battle of Waterloo in Belgium. Did you realise that at one time our relationship with Europe was difficult?

View from McMoos in Bo'ness — View from McMoos

EH51 0AA. tel: 01506 828983 McMoos FB

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Ordinary, Scones

1884 Bo’ness

14 December 2018 billpaterson1@me.com 7 Comments

Today we are at 1884 Bo’ness. Readers will be aware that from time to time, we go to the cinema. More often than not we go to the Hippodrome in Bo’ness, Scotland’s oldest picture palace. And, more often than not, we go in the morning, just because we can! We are not quite sure why, because on the face of it it is a perfectly normal thing to do, but it still seems vaguely sinful. It’s not so much going in, it’s coming out when it’s not even lunchtime!

Anyway, us sinners went to see Mike Leigh’s Peterloo today and we had no worries about coming out before lunch. At two and a half hours, it’s something of an epic. It’s all about democracy in 1819 and the British government’s attempts to drown it at birth. They did not want common folk getting ideas above their station like the dastardly French. Four years earlier us Brits had given Napoleon a jolly good thrashing at the Battle of Waterloo and, sadly, our ruling classes looked on the Peterloo Massacre of its own people in a similarly triumphant light. This was amply illustrated by the fact that it actually took place at Petersfield in Manchester but was adapted to Peterloo as a warning to other potential upstarts.

Democracy

Anyway the take home message of the film was that we’ve not come very far in the intervening centuries. The UK is still the least democratic of all European states and, of course, democracy has yet to be discovered in Scotland.

After almost three hours of fairly intense viewing however, sustenance was definitely required. Just a short distance from the cinema we came across 1884 Bo’ness, a new café /restaurant. It had only opened a few weeks previously. The rather ancient looking exterior belies its nice modern welcoming interior. It does everything you would expect of a ‘kitchen grille’ but, of course, scones were the main attraction for us. When we asked why it was called ‘1884’, we were told it was because it was carved in stone on the outside of the building. It’s construction date. As good a reason as any and for brother and sister owners, David and Kirstie Stein it’s become rather habit forming. They also run very successful businesses, 1807 in Linlithgow and 1912 in Bathgate.

We decided on a fruit scone and opted for their offer of it being toasted. It was wonderfully warm when it arrived and came with plenty prepackaged jam, butter and whipped cream. It would have been nicer to have had a dish of jam, a pat of butter and some clotted cream but that wasn’t to be. Sadly, no topscone but we enjoyed everything about 1884 Bo’ness and would certainly return on our next cinema visit.

1884 and all that

While this building was being constructed in 1884 there were other things happening elsewhere.

Here in Scotland, in scenes that must have been reminiscent of Peterloo, Royal Marines and police arrived in naval vessels at the tiny village of Uig on the Isle of Skye to help a landowner evict crofters from his Kilmuir estate.
Otto von Bismarck declared South Africa a German colony.
In the US, Alaska became a US territory and on Coney Island the first roller coaster went into action with a thrilling top speed of 6mph.
Batchelor, Grover Cleveland became President of America in spite of admitting to fathering a child in his youth. It gave rise to the chant used against him “Ma, Ma, where‘s my Pa? Gone to the White House, Ha, Ha, Ha!”.
John Harvey Kellogg, patented “flaked cereal” (cornflakes) which he intended as a ‘healthy, ready-to-eat anti-masturbatory morning meal’!
In France the Statue of Liberty was presented to the US and Claude Monet painted “La Corniche near Monaco.”
In the UK, Greenwich was accepted as the universal time meridian of longitude though France refused to accept it for another thirty years.
The Gaelic Athletic Association was founded in Ireland

Cornflakes

From this list we can reasonably deduce that the world has always been slightly mad. Though perhaps not quite as mad as it is today. The EU has sent Theresa May packing. Her attempts to bring about an acceptable Brexit deal seem almost as futile as Kellog’s ambitions for his breakfast cereal.

Wall decoration in the form of a cows skull at 1884 Kitchen and Grill, Boness — wall decoration at 1884

EH51 0EA tel: 01506 829946 1884 Kitchen and Grill FB

Scones, history and a dollop of politics