In 1068, Scotland’s only Royal Saint, Queen Margaret was fleeing to Europe to escape England’s William the Conquerer. She didn’t reckon, however, on her ship being blown off course and landing in Scotland. She probably didn’t reckon on marrying the King of Scotland, Malcolm Canmore, as a result. Having eight children by him, three of which became Kings probably didn’t enter her head either. Not many women give birth to a King, never mind three! But she did! Funny how life can be dictated by totally random events.

Pilgrimage

Margaret, was a good soul, however and, when she wasn’t propagating Kings, was concerned about the difficulties pilgrims encountered trying to get from Edinburgh to St Andrew’s Abbey. to be close to Andrew’s saintly bones.

She decided that there should be ferry service established across the river Forth to short circuit an otherwise long and tortuous journey of four to five days. It wouldn’t have entered her head that ten centuries later there would be a railway bridge and two road bridges in exactly the same spot as her ferry. The only thing missing nowadays is the pilgrims but back then they would have been extremely grateful to reach Ceres. The last stopover before the final seven miles to St Andrews itself where they could see the holy relics. There seems to bits of St Andrew scattered all over the world so he must have been a big guy and had twice as many bones as anyone else.  We are here as well but at the Village Cafe in Ceres for the scones … a kind of pilgrimage!

Community in action

Actually, we just stopped off in the village because it’s rather beautiful and olde-worldy. Ceres (pronounced ‘series’) has a lovely village green and also hosts the oldest Highland games in Scotland. They’ve been held every year since 1314. When we came on the Village Cafe, of course, we had to visit. What a place! Tiny and nothing fancy but run entirely by the community. There were some very cheery ladies inside who welcomed us like long lost friends. A lovely day so we sat outside and watched the tractors going to and fro. Some of them are gigantic compared to the tractors we used to know as children.

Anyway we were soon sorted with a scone and some tea. All the while we could listen to the happy banter between the ladies and the locals going on inside. When we asked if one of them had baked the scones they said they hadn’t but offered to take us down the street and show us the house of the lady who had? It was that kind of place. We declined and concentrated on our scone. It would have been great if had been a topscone but sadly it just fell short. Never mind we thoroughly enjoyed our visit.

Money down the chute 

Later, we were strolling round the village when we came on a wall with plants for sale at the Parish Church. There was a sign saying “Please place money in chute opposite“. Sure enough on the other side of the road there was a chute (a 4” drainage pipe) which dropped about 15 feet into a flower pot in the garden below. We bought a nepeta plant for 50p. Not because we wanted one, we just wanted to put some money going down the chute.

What’s in the news? Nothing … except vastly overpaid football pundits spouting complete nonsense about the England vs Germany game later today. All other news has been cancelled … it could make you weep!

Helpful hint

Did you know that if you place a cross in the shape of the St Andrews cross (that’s an X) on your fire surround it stops witches coming down your chimney? It’s okay, don’t mention it 

KY15 5NA.       tel: 01334 828560        Village Cafe FB

///graph.giggled.rally

ps The Pedant has been in Kineton in Warwickshire and sent this picture of a K6 telephone box. Unfortunately he couldn’t access the manufacturer’s plate on the back because of nettles. Goodness, you just can’t get correspondents prepared to go that extra mile these days!