Tag Archives: Renfrew

Ordinary, Scones

Coffee Jam

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Some readers seem to think that we go to a lot of trouble by travelling miles and miles just to report on a scone. It doesn’t really work like that! It just sort of happens in a completely random kind of way. This post from Coffee Jam in Renfrew might help illustrate the point. 

Clutha glass vases from McTearsThe other day we went online to bid on a lot at McTears Auction House in Glasgow. We didn’t get what we wanted. We were outbid by quite a long way … boo!. However, in the random nature of auctions another lot took our fancy. It was a couple of Clutha glass vases made by James Couper & Sons in Glasgow circa 1900. Their factory closed in the 1930s but it was situated just a couple of hundred yards from where we worked for many years.  Liberty of London named it Clutha (“cloudy” in  Gaelic) to identify the deliberately bubbly, streaky nature of the glass. Needless to say, although we hadn’t meant to buy anything like this, we somewhat randomly pressed the successful ‘bid’ button. All of a sudden, they were ours! 

Town Hall RenfrewToday we were collecting them from McTears. We had the vases safely cosseted in bubblewrap for the journey home when we realised that Renfrew, the county town of Renfrewshire, was just about a mile further west. Neither of us thought we had ever been there. Odd, because it’s right beside Glasgow airport but all the main roads seem to bypass Renfrew itself. Randomly, at the gate out of McTears, instead of turning right for home we turned left for Renfrew. Like many post-industrial towns it looks a little bit tired but hints of a glorious past abound. Not least of these is the town hall, a magnificent confection in stone,  which now houses a museum to celebrate all things “Renfrew”.

Fascinating facts

Ancient coins found in Renfrew

There was loads of things of interest. The Renfrew horde of 674 silver pennies dating from the the late thirteenth century was discovered here. It was in an earthenware jug dug up in 1963. There was a set of dominoes made by French POWs held here during the Napoleonic Wars. And, did you know that the first shots fired in the skies over Britain in WWII were fired by George Pinkerton flying a Spitfire from Renfrew. He attacked a German fighter over the River Forth. And, the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic east to west, the R34 airship, was built by local company, Beardmore & Co, in 1919. One of the crew had to parachute out to help the ground crew in the US who didn’t know how to land it. So many fascinating things that we didn’t know about Renfrew. We needed a scone and some tea to help digest it all. 
 
Interior view of Coffee Jam, Renfrew
Spare?

Randomly, on the other side of the street from the town hall was Coffee Jam. There was no evidence of scones anywhere and when we asked if they had any there was consternation! Our girl, Christy, went off to the kitchen and from there she signaled with two fingers that they had two. We signaled back with a thumbs up and some enthusiastic head nodding! When she brought the scones to our table we asked if she had baked them. No, the chef had baked them earlier but we were extremely  lucky that they had two scones ‘spare’. And with that she turned to help another customer. We were intrigued, how does a scone come to be ‘spare’?Scones in Coffee Jam, Renfrew

Each scone were quite big, nicely warmed and, although the WeWantPlates brigade would not have been happy, pleasingly presented on a slate. They were accompanied by large bowls of cream and jam. Although the cream was ‘scooshie’ the consistency was good compared to some we’ve had in the past. Sometimes it dissolves into liquid almost immediately! And loads of jam … maybe this was why it’s called ‘Coffee Jam’? We enjoyed our scones even though they didn’t quite merit a topscone. Coffee Jam has only been on the go for less than a year and  has already won awards. The owners are obviously trying very hard. We wish them all the best.

Kindred spirits

Blackboard in Coffee Jam, RenfrewWhen we went to pay we couldn’t resist asking what a ‘spare’ scone was. Turns out that they normally only provide scones with their afternoon teas.  So the ones we got were ‘spare’. Now we understand though we do think that their scones are a bit on the big side for an afternoon tea. it also turned out that Christy was a fellow photographer. she only works in Coffee Jam part time to help her sister out. Although at opposite ends of our respective career paths we had a great chat about the photography business and hers in particular … SMPhotography.Logo of Coffee Jam, Renfrew

Random thoughts

On our way home we passed the luxury liner MV Ambition which is moored in the Clyde.  It’s been hired by the Scottish government as temporary accommodation for Ukrainian refugees. There’s another cruise liner in Edinburgh being used for the same purpose. There’s not much news about this, so not sure what to think. There’s lots of news, however, about the most corrupt sporting event ever, the Qatar World Cup.  Apparently it’s actually supposed to matter! The MV Ambition made us realise that we do need to spare a thought for the Russian troops dug into hellish trenches for the winter. Of course, we need to spare a thought for the Ukrainian troops as well but at least they know why they’re there.

Hopefully you can now see how, through the random nature of our lives, a random purchase in an auction can randomly lead to a spare scone.  

PA4 8QD       tel: 0141 560 2714       Cafe Jam Insta

///paying.racks.copper