Tag Archives: Rhodda’s cornish cream

Scones, Top

Fletcher’s

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Well, we have barely recovered from the tarts at the Original Maids of Honour in London and here we are back in Scotland doing a bit of scone foraging. We are at Fletcher’s in Stirling for afternoon tea. The first thing you notice is the building itself. It’s impressive for a restaurant but when you learn that it was originally the Bank of Scotland it starts to make sense. Most of the banks had very expensive elaborate buildings at one time but now they have almost all been given over to pubs and coffee shops. A sign of the times perhaps. Some people lament this change however not having been in a bank for more than thirty years  we are at least partly to blame.  That said, we have been in quite a few old bank buildings but for scones. In our eyes this is progres!Internal view of Fletchers

Anyway this is a family run business and has only been going for a year or so. Previously it was called Cook’s. It has seven bedrooms and a seventy cover restaurant so it’s no small affair. 

A long way to come

A glass of bubbles set us up nicely for whatever was to follow. It all came rather nicely presented in a traditional cake stand bedecked in flowers …. nice touch. Afternoon tea at FletchersYou all know by now that we aren’t fans of big scones in an afternoon tea. By the time you’ve eaten the sandwiches a couple of large scones is the last thing you need. We needn’t have worried, the scones were some of the smallest we have ever come across. Needless to say everything was first class and the scones had a superb crunchiness which we like. Even the cream, the ubiquitous Rhodda’s was very nice though it would have been nice if it had been a little more local than Cornwall. Hey, is this not what they are going on about in COP26? Transporting stuff for hundreds or even thousands of miles for no good reason.Scones at Fletchers

Scandal

This is the last day of COP26. World leaders have come and gone. Grandiose statements have been made but little real progress has been made. Scotland lost part of its soil – officially designated UN territory for the duration of the event. The UK also made a shocking discovery. Not only does it have a blithering idiot as its PM but a corrupt blithering idiot to boot. Was anyone surprised? The Tory scandals surrounding Owen Paterson and Geoffrey Cox have diverted attention from COP26 to the point where the PM had to stand up in front of 196 countries and deny that the UK was corrupt … brilliant!

A highland cow at Fletchers
hair by Boris

Anyway, in spite of our cream having come a long long way to land on our scones, Fletcher’s got a well deserved topscone.  Great to see a bank being used for something worthwhile.

 

FK8 2DT      tel: 01786 478297       Fletcher’s

///boxer.amount.latest

Ordinary, Scones, self-service

London Wetlands – Revisited

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From one nature reserve to another. Our previous post was from Vane Farm in Scotland and this one is London Wetlands – Revisited. We have reviewed its scones before but that was back in 2016, just a few weeks after the EU referendum. Back then we reported that London, like Scotland, voted overwhelmingly to remain and that feelings were running pretty high. A nation divided! This time we can report that nothing has changed in the two intervening years except that now we have only a few months to go before having to apply for a visa to visit France … arrgghh!. There is an air of disbelief that, even though the vote was won on the basis of momentous lies and Mr Brexit’s, (Arron Banks), colossal and suspicious funding  of the Leave campaign, we are still no nearer knowing what the consequences of leaving will be.

Brexit scones

Enough! … what about the scones, will they be affected by Brexit? We are here at the Wetlands because we had to deliver a certain mini-person back to her home which is just a short walk away from here. Nothing stands still here and we found many new additions to the already superb attractions on offer. It is still the only wildlife reserve we know of that has a three story bird-hide with a lift. Lego animals at London Wetland Centre

At Vane Farm we had to take part in a Halloween based competition but this time our task was to find all the animals in the reserve made from Lego. We had to find the animal then mark down the number of lego bricks it took to build it e.g. do you know how many lego bricks it takes to build a life sized flamingo? Thought not! We had added a four year old to go with our five year old mini-person so, with two mini-people, we had lots of valuable assistance. Interior view of London Wetlands Café

Extra health

Assistance also came in the form of a scone when we took a break for lunch from the beautiful but bitterly cold weather outside. The self-service cafe had also undergone a makeover with a brand new colour scheme and seating arrangement. It’s always busy, busy! A scone at London Wetlands CaféThey have a counter where kiddies can fill a small plastic bucket with anything they want, mostly healthy options, for £5. Good fun for them and simplicity for grown ups. Talking of healthy options, the scones were blueberry with a little pot of strawberry jam … lots of fruit in both. We passed on the Rhoddas Cornish clotted cream. The blueberries made the scones wonderfully moist so that they hardly needed jam. However, we used it anyway … just for extra health! Not quite topscone material but very enjoyable nevertheless.

Interior view of London Wetlands Café
even the birds come in to eat!

 

We covered almost the entire reserve and the flamingo was the only one we couldn’t find. Eventually after much to-ing and fro-ing we discovered it. It was in the middle of the shop that you have to go through on the way out. A bit sneeky! Interior view of London Wetlands CaféAnyway, for your information, it takes 3100 lego bricks and 80 hours to build a life sized flamingo. Remember, you only get this sort of essential information on allaboutthescones.com! No lollipops this time for completing the competition … boo! Just the chance to win a place on a lego animal building course.

Abominations

Suffice to say that the Conservative and Labour parties may well be better employed going on one of these Lego courses for all the good they are doing elsewhere. Goodness knows what sort of horrific monsters they would produce though! In answer to the other burning question, we think scones will benefit from Brexit. And we say that as staunch Remainers. Logic dictates that once we have stopped all foreigners coming into the country and selling their rubbish food (croissants and the like) in cafés across the land, we will only have quaint little chintzy tea-shops selling scones and other civilized British food. An added bonus will be the removal of the acute accent from the word café … and all other such abominations! Hurrah …  ‘Cry God for Harry, England, and Saint George!’

SW13 9WT      tel: 020 8409 4400        London Wetland Centre

Ordinary, Scones

Scottish Storytelling Centre

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The few readers who actually pay any attention to these blog posts will be very aware that the person we would most like to invite to one of our dinner parties would be the ‘Master of Life’, Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham. Indeed, four of our previous posts have come about as a direct result of Graham’s stories: Stuarts of Buckhaven, Liz MacGregor’s Coffee Shop, Brodies of Moffat and The Gallery Café.

Friedrich Engels, Oscar Wilde and Buffalo Bill were among his many friends. One of the finest authors in the English language, Joseph Conrad (who could never be described as having led a dull life) commented on Graham “when I think of you I feel as tho’ I have lived all my life in a dark hole“. Graham died in 1936 but in Argentina he is still regarded as a national hero, affectionately known as Don Roberto. In Scotland, being directly related to King Robert II, he had the best claim to become King of Scotland. Perhaps it is appropriate that we end up here, in the Scottish Storytelling Centre, to hear stories about him.

Important scones

The Cunninghame Graham Society, which is dedicated to promoting his memory, had organised a talk about the great man. Okay, okay, we hear you cry, “but did he like scones?” In all the literature written about Graham we have not come across any reference to scones. However he was a man of exceptionally high intellect and good taste so he would undoubtedly have placed great importance on them.

We had never heard of the Storytelling Centre but when they said it was part of John Knox’s house  on the Royal Mile (the white building centre stage in the title photo) we knew exactly where it was. And what a fantastic place it is. A modern complex of exhibition and performance areas dedicated to the art of storytelling and … a café!

What better way to spend our time waiting for the talk to begin than having a scone. A scone at the Scottish Storytelling Centre, EdinburghObviously, trying to get a completely fresh scone at seven in the evening is a bit of a tall order however the one we were sharing was not at all bad. Plenty of  fruit and quite light in texture. It came with a pot of jam and, the bane of our lives, a pack of Rhodda’s Cornish clotted cream. Perfectly good cream but all the way from Cornwall to this bastion of Scottishness?? Anyway, although it was nowhere near a topscone, we thoroughly enjoyed what we had and would certainly return.

Argentine tango

Although he was in the House of Commons for six years, Cunninghame Graham hated all politicians. He was often asked to withdraw from the House due to his unparliamentary behaviour.Interior view of the Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh Goodness knows what he would make of today’s unprincipled and spineless inhabitants of the Palace of Westminster. He would be  enraged that the poverty he fought against so vigorously at Westminster in the 1890s still exists. The necessity of food banks, even for those in work. He would have been heartened, however, that progress has been made towards an independent Scotland. However mystified by the time it is taking. His own stories, whether they be about a couple dancing an Argentine tango in Beunos Aires or a dismal funeral in Scotland, remain as vivid as this large picture hanging in the Centre … ‘A Mile Of Stories’ by Julie Lacome.

A Mile Of Stories by Julie Lacome at the Scottish Storytelling Centre,
Part of an effort to revive the Old Town as a living community. “Heave awa, we’re no deid yet”.

EH1 1SR.     tel: 0131 556 9579       Scottish Storytelling Centre

Scones, Top

The Smithy Tea Room

The logo of The Smithy in New GallowayOn previous occasions when we have been in New Galloway the Catstrand theatre and gallery has provided us with scones from their café area. We have always enjoyed them. This time, however, we noticed that there was a new kid on the block just a few yards down the street, The Smithy Tea Room. It sits on the banks of the Mill Burn, so we decided to give it a go. And what a good decision that was. We were greeted by a lady who was as bright as a button. A scone at The Smithy in New Galloway

Once we were seated she took our order. When she asked if we would like our scones toasted her head was moving up and down as she looked at us knowingly. The decision was made and it was another good one as it turned out.

Good ideas

The jam came in little pots like you normally get from Wilkins and Sons, Tiptree. These jars, however, were being recycled and had been filled by hand. Excellent idea! They also had a novel way of serving their butter neatly wrapped in parchment paper. Simple but very effective. Butter wrapping at The Smithy in New GallowayThere was loads of cream and guess what, it was from Finlay’s ‘Cream o’ Galloway’ Farm which is not only local but produces everything organically. This is definitely the way it should be rather than, like so many places we come across in Scotland, importing Rhodda’s cream from Cornwall. On the counter there was a glass urn full of water from which you could help yourself. Another great idea. Sign for toilets at The Smithy in New Galloway

Knowing nods

The owners had only had the Smithy for six weeks but obviously had a sense of humour as testified by the sign for the toilets. There was just a good feel about the Smithy. There was also lots of other stuff like jewellery, preserves and paintings by local craft people in the shop area. Remember that knowing nod, well the scones were wonderfully toasted and absolutely delicious. Definitely an easy topscone. We liked everything about this place. Internal view of The Smithy in New Galloway

The milky way

New Galloway itself is a beautiful little town but it is also a dark place!! The Forest Park in which it sits is one of the darkest places in Europe … 75,000 hectares of land with hardly anyone living there hence it has been designated the first Dark Sky Park in the UK. On a Sky Quality Meter (yes there is such a thing) it measures almost the same as a photographer’s darkroom … and believe me, that’s dark. So if you want to see the Milky Way and have a great scone, this is the place to be. Internal view of The Smithy in New Galloway

A definite lack of light

This place may be dark but there is an equally dark area surrounding Westminster. Doubt it would raise even a flicker on a Politics Quality Meter. It seems that none of our tawdry government will resign as a matter of honour. Instead they try and lie and worm their way out of any mess they find themselves in. That’s until the evidence becomes irrefutable and they are forced out … pathetic. Of course Amber Rudd probably had to remain in post in the Windrush scandal in order to protect the Prime Minister. Now that Rudd has gone it remains to be seen who Theresa May will try and deflect the blame onto next. Whatever happens don’t hold out too much hope for light being introduced into the situation.

DG7 3RN         tel: 01644 420269         The Smithy

Ordinary, Scones

Cadell’s Café

Connections are funny things. They happen in the most unexpected ways. For example, what do you think connects the following?

  • the town of Falkirk in central Scotland
  • the Battle of Trafalgar
  • the K4 telephone box
  • the seaside town of Cockenzie, just east of Edinburgh
  • the town of Barga in central Italy.

The answer is Cadells Café of course! Perhaps some sort of explanation would help.

The cannons used by Wellington at the Battle of Trafalgar and the K4 telephone boxes were all made at the Carron Iron Works in Falkirk. In 1759, Carron was founded by one William Cadell whose home was Cockenzie House in which we now sit eating scones in Cadell’s Cafe. The house is situated in the town of Cockenzie which in turn is twinned with the town of Barga …. simple!! Attentive readers will remember we mentioned Barga recently in the post about Brian’s Café. Brian was a member of the Serafini family who originated in Barga. It’s a small world! Internal view of Cadell's Café in Cockenzie

Secret garden

Anyway Cadell’s Café is situated in the ‘secret garden’ of Cockenzie House alongside a grotto decorated with seashells and a ruinous claret tower. We use the word ‘ruinous’ advisedly? However, no such problems in the cafe. It was a bitterly cold day so it was nice to be ushered in and seated beside a lovely log burning stove. What could be better? A scone at Cadell's Café in CockenzieThe scones were nicely presented with a good pot of jam but unfortunately along side was the ubiquitous Rhodda’s Cornish cream. However, you already know that we have nothing against Rhodda’s, we just feel that it would be better to go for local cream. Scotland has loads of it. The scones were nice and crunchy but maybe just a tad too much. In the end there was no topscone but we thoroughly enjoyed our visit and would not hesitate to go back.

Big hip pockets

Returning to the subject of connections, FaceBook’s raison d’etre is connections. Poor old Mark Zuckerberg probably never thought he would be accused of helping rig national elections when he started trying to connect the students on his campus at Harvard University. Mind you he probably never thought that within a few years he would have $70billion in his hip pocket either.

The harbour at Cockenzie
Cockenzie harbour

What seems of even greater interest to us is the role of Cambridge Analytica, the British company that allowed FaceBook’s data to be harvested. It’s a company which donates huge amounts of money to the Conservative party and is run by some of the movers and shakers in the Torys. It’s maybe not only the US election that was rigged? What about the 2014 Scottish independence referendum … oooo!!

EH32 0HY     tel: 01875 819456       Cadell’s Café TA

Ordinary, Scones

The Catstrand

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catstrand-06For our return trip from Kirkcudbright we thought we should try and see some red kites on the side of Loch Ken where, because of the Red Kite Trail, there is every likelihood of seeing them. As we approached the top end of the loch, however, we had almost given up hope, when just about Kenmure Castle, we had no less than eight kites wheeling about above us … marvellous sight! In the last post about The Solway Tide Tearoom, we talked of the difficulty of picking the right side and the stark ruins of Kenmure Castle are yet another reminder of precisely that. In 1716, in the Tower of London, Viscount Kenmure paid the ultimate price for his support of the Jacobites and that pretty much signalled the end of the once powerful Gordons of Lochinvar.

Integrity

These days you don’t tend to lose your head simply for supporting the wrong side. Especially if you simply pret

Piture of an art exhibit at The Catstrand in New Galloway
‘Deep Blue Sea’ by Jenny Edwards – acrylic on driftwood

end you didn’t! Mitt Romney, who picked Clinton and said that Trump was akin to the devil is now in line to be Secretary of State in Trump’s administration. What happened to integrity?

Daesh and crazy politics

Mind you, just when you thought politics could not get any more surreal on this side of the pond, Tony Blair is threatening a return to politics with his honchos, Jim Murphy and George Osborne. Apparently because he thinks today’s politicians are too weak. They may be right about today’s politicians but they also have a  very tenuous grasp on reality. Blair’s ‘strong’ politics managed to provide us with nothing less that Daesh. In the modern world of crazy politics however … who knows, they might actually do it?

Picture of café interior at The Catstrand in New Galloway

About a mile or so north of Kenmure Castle we came to the pretty little village of New Galloway. And it was sconetime! At this time of year many places are closed for the season but The Catstrand is an option we would probably have picked anyway. We have been here before and knew it to be good. Little villages like New Galloway, Moniaive and Thornhill sit prettily in their beautiful surroundings and give you the impression that they are a bit sleepy and nothing much ever happens. The Catstrand, however, proves that to be a complete myth. Piture of a scone at The Catstrand in New GallowayThere’s a shop, a cinema, a concert hall, a bar, an art gallery .. oh, and a café!

Baked by the young chap behind the counter every morning, our scones did not disappoint. Lovely jam but unfortunately, once again, the only downside was the seemingly ubiquitous Rhodda’s cornish cream. Nothing specifically wrong with that. When you are in the heart of Scotland’s dairy country, however, why go all the way to Cornwall for cream? The answer is, of course, that it keeps for ever .. but still!

The Grump

Pat thought we should stay for the cinema which was showing The Grump which, for some reason or other, she thought I would enjoy … I disagreed!

Picture of mural in the garden interior at The Catstrand in New Galloway
Mural in the garden of the Catstrand

DG7 3RN             tel: 01644 420374               The Catstrand