Tag Archives: Vladamir Putin

River House

7 March 2025 billpaterson1@me.com 7 Comments

Today we are at River House on the outskirts of Stirling. A lot has happened in the few days since our previous post from the Seagull Trust.

America’s reputation as the leader of the free world lies in tatters on the Oval Office floor. Oh dear, oh dear, the spectacle of Trump and his rottweiler pals trying to humiliate the defender of the Western world, was shocking and profoundly embarrassing for everyone unfortunate enough to have witnessed it. And then after a passage of Trump waxing lyrically about his many highly dubious attributes, came “Why do you not wear a suit?” Surely destined to go down in history as the most cretinous thing ever said to a world leader. It was, however, indicative of the hillbilly level of understanding in the room. It was left up to the good people of Vermont to restore some faith by letting JD Vance know he wasn’t welcome in their part of the world.

Now they want Zalensky to make a groveling apology for not sufficiently appreciating the US and the American people. Have they forgotten that unlike them, Zalensky has some semblance of intelligence and will doubtless grovel like a superhero?

At last, we made it

We feel confident the American people will eventually come to their senses and sort out this Muskesque Presidency. In the meantime, let’s get back to the serious business of scones. River House is a place we have been meaning to visit for years. We keep seeing the signs but never actually follow them. It is beautifully situated on the shores of a tiny loch with views of Stirling Castle.

It’s spacious and beautifully themed in the same style as other Cawley Group restaurants. It has a nice relaxed ambience. After a delicious light lunch, our nicely warmed scones were duly presented with a jar of jam and whipped cream in a little ladle thingy. Although not quite the consistency we normally go for they were very enjoyable nevertheless. Salutary to be able to sit in such comfortable surroundings several thousand miles away from the diabolical situation in Ukraine.

Beware of crocodiles at River House — DANGER!

Guarantees?

Ukraine used to have the third biggest nuclear arsenal in the world until, in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, it was persuaded to give it up completely in exchange for international guarantees that its borders would be respected. We don’t think they would have signed had they known that a bunch of muppets would be their guarantors in 2025.

FK9 4TW tel: 01786 465577 River House

///clasps.duties.daylight

Ordinary, Scones

Seagull Trust Cruises

1 March 2025 billpaterson1@me.com 6 Comments

Falkirk High Street is not what it used to be. Like many other High Streets, it has been hit hard by out-of-town and online shopping. On top of this, the High Street’s east end is currently being demolished to make way for a new town hall. Charity shops proliferate so it was no surprise to find that the premises previously occupied by Topshop had been taken over by the Seagull Trust Cruises Bookshop. What was a surprise, however, was that the bookshop had a cafe … and the cafe had scones!

Seagull Trust Cruises, a registered charity, with a dozen boats operating across Scotland providing canal cruises for the elderly and infirm. It’s run entirely by volunteers.

Two of the Seagull Trust canal boats — Two of the Seagull Trust boats on the Union canal

The Marion

A few years back Pat managed their residential boat … the Marion. It had seven berths so that wheelchair users with their carers could take it out for a week at a time. Unfortunately turning the boat around between cruises became a problem. Cleaning, changing beds and laundry just became too onerous. Reluctantly she had to give it up. Now the Marion only does day trips just like the other boats.

In common with most charities, they are forever trying to raise funds. Hence this bookshop selling second-hand books. We didn’t buy any but thought the least we could do was buy some coffee and scones. Two very chatty women behind the counter had us sorted out in no time. They even supplied us with some delicious homemade blackcurrant jam. The scones were segment-shaped. I asked if they had been made as a large round and then cut into segments. She said “No, when I make them they all tend to run together then I have to cut them like that.” Whatever she did they were really good. Not a topscone but pretty close.

Contrasts

The fact that these ladies volunteer to run this cafe on behalf of the Seagull Trust Cruises is a testament to the willingness of people to selflessly help those less fortunate. In contrast, this week we’ve found that the US and the UK, two countries that traditionally have been pretty much joined at the hip no longer seem to share the same interests or values. Here’s us thinking that Ukraine and Volodymyr Zelenskyy were making huge sacrifices trying to stop Putin’s advance across Europe and eventually America. How wrong could we be? Turns out that Ukraine is the aggressor and it’s all their fault! Who knew?

FK1 1ES tel: 01324 612777 Seagull Trust

///grain.modern,stage

Scones, topweird, weird

Compass Café

19 February 2025 billpaterson1@me.com 8 Comments

We know this flies in the face of logic but today we are In Perth with some whisky we are taking to auction. “Why don’t you just drink it?” we hear you cry. Well, if it was ours, that’s exactly what would happen, but it’s not. We’re delivering it to Perth’s Whisky Auctioneer on behalf of a friend. To make things more exciting our satnav proudly announced “you have arrived at your destination” when we clearly hadn’t. We were still on the A9 Perth bypass but our destination was actually in the Inveralmond Industrial Estate. With the satnav switched off we entered what turned out to be a vast network of roads and industrial units. After several unsuccessful attempts, eventually we did actually reach our destination. Mission accomplished we headed for home but, lo and behold, before we had even left the estate we spotted the Compass Café.
As you can see from the title photograph, the Compass Café is part of the Tiso Outdoor Experience.

Big news

Dougal Haston's Everest suit — On display, an eiderdown suit used by Dougal Haston on the 1972 attempt on Everest. The overboots belonged to Hamish MacInness

Tiso is a name that featured prominently in my youth. Every weekend involved hitch hiking to Glencoe so that me and my companions could do precarious things on vertical rock faces. It was amazing and the sense of freedom it gave us was unbelievable. Back then in the 60s we knew everyone in the glen as well as our weekender friends who would hitch hike up from Glasgow. You could bump into your mountaineering heroes like Hamish MacInness, Dougal Haston almost every day. However, while we had ambitions on some tricky local routes they had bigger fish to fry. Notably a direttissima on the north face of the Eiger in 1966 and, of course, Everest itself. On the 1972 assault on the SW ascent of Everest, Graham Tiso got trapped in a storm and spent four days alone, cut off from the rest of his party, Climbing was a tiny activity in those days but all these “risky” adventures were controversial and consequently became big news stories. The media couldn’t get enough of them.

Tiso original

Tiso’s original shop was in Edinburgh. It was tiny but back then there wasn’t that much available to buy. In his shop I spent what seemed like an absolute fortune on my boots (La Sportiva, Himalayas) and a Tiso designed rucksack that you could sleep in.

View of Tizo Outdoor shop — Just part of the Tiso shop. Amazing how much stuff you need to go outside these days

Most of our climbing gear was collected from rock faces where other, presumably more affluent climbers, either couldn’t be bothered or were unable to retrieve. Those were the days!

Unfortunately, many of our climbing heroes died pursuing their passion. Ironically, Haston died, aged 33, in a skiing accident but is still a legend in Scottish climbing circles.

A sign at the Compass Café in Perth — For some reason this sign caught my attention

As you all know, I have little use for climbing gear nowadays. And that’s just as well because it appears I still can barely afford it. Some mountain bikes in the store cost £5000 and looked ferociously complicated. The Compass Café involved an ascent to the upper floor and was as much climbing as I could manage today.

Enthusiasm

The café is big and has a wide range of produce on offer. We were attended to by a wonderfully happy girl who was probably Polish. She said she only had five “cheese” and one “wild berry” scone left. Covered in icing, the wild berry one looked like a bit of an extravagant concoction. However, our girl told us with great delight that they were absolutely scrumptious. “when they come out of the oven in the morning … ooo, they are warm and “. her voice drifted off as she gave a little ecstatic wiggle. Seldom have we been sold a scone with such irrepressible passion.

When she brought it to our table she also brought two plates so we could share. We could tell she was genuinely excited for us to try her wild berry scone. She wasn’t wrong! Readers know how we like our scones … not too big with a crunchy exterior and a soft middle. Well this was the complete opposite but it was delicious. It was quite big and had loads of fruit which made it moist and unctuous. The icing covering made it sticky and messy to eat. The butter and jam were probably superfluous but we did use the jam. A fruit overload! Not a traditional topscone but definitely a top weird scone.

Things change

The climbing world has changed drastically since we were hanging out in Glencoe every weekend. The glen that we regarded as “our own” is now a huge tourist attraction due to its scenic beauty and, of course, the site of the famous Massacre of 1692. The National Trust for Scotland does its best to maintain the glen as near as possible to its original state in spite of the pressure from tourism.

Weird

To go with our “weird scone” award we should probably give another “weird” award for the Leader of the Free World. In his new role as spokesman for President Putin he has announced that the war is all Ukraine’s fault. Ukraine must be thinking “with friends like this who needs enemies?“

PH1 3EE tel: 01738 449041 Compass Café

///dragonfly.writers.refills

Scones, Top

Victoria’s

30 November 2024 billpaterson1@me.com 1 Comment

In our previous post from Fonab Castle we were bemoaning the fact that it was no longer family run. It’s difficult to put your finger on exactly what happens when an establishment goes from “family run” to a more corporate style … it’s just different, less personal. Today, however, we are still in beautiful Pitlochry but at Victoria’s restaurant. It proudly proclaims, loud and clear that it has been “family run” since 1996. Would we notice a difference?

Established on the town’s Main Street and named after the family’s new born daughter you can work out how old she is now. In the low winter sun it’s not too impressive from the outside but in the summer its large al fresco dining area will be buzzing. Inside it has a warm homely feel with lots of Christmas decorations.

According to Victoria’s website Luciano Pavarotti, once said “One of the very nice things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating“. How true! We had just walked from Fonab Castle into town and now we felt the need to do exactly that.

Christmas recipes

We were looked after by a young girl who was full of the joys. Turned out she was from South Africa. She and her husband had come to work here in Scotland for the next few years. They wanted some adventure before settling down to start a family. She informed us that her husband was responsible for making the scones. When they arrived they were accompanied by the usual little pots of jam and the biggest bowl of cream we have ever seen. Not clotted cream but pretty spectacular. Everything was delicious. She asked us if we noticed anything different about the scones? We had but couldn’t quite identify what it was. Apparently her husband had added star anise to the recipe to make them taste more Christmasy. It worked, “Christmasy” was exactly how they tasted.

Although busy attending to other customers our girl always came back to us for more chat. She even produced a map of Pitlochry and, with a felt tipped pen, marked places we should visit as well as the most picturesque route for us to take back to Fonab. This was service above and beyond which eventually persuaded us to award a topscone. Well done Victoria’s, “family run” is definitely better!

View over Loch Faskally — View across Loch Faskally

A flicker of light

At Fonab, we talked with a young Ukrainian girl who was working there. She didn’t think her family were in immediate danger but the concern in her eyes was plain to see. With President Zelenskyy hinting at talks with Russia there appears to be a glimmer of hope for an end to the fighting. However, if Zelenskyy requires a cast iron guarantee that Putin can never return it is extremely difficult to see how that can be achieved. But for the sake of our girl and her family, at least there may be a tiny flicker of light at the end of the tunnel. Fingers crossed!

Today there is also a memorial service in Edinburgh for Alex Salmond. Ten years ago he led Scotland to within a whisker of independence. Needless to say, none of the promises made to the people of Scotland at that time by the UK government have been delivered … not a single one! At least Salmond knew that independence had only been delayed.

Whisky messsges in Pitlochry — In a grocery store across from Victoria’s

PH16 5BX tel: 01796 472 670 Victoria’s

///divides.disbelief.thanks

Ordinary, Scones

Glenkinchie

25 November 2024 billpaterson1@me.com 6 Comments

Today we are in the pretty little hamlet of Glenkinchie just a little southeast of east of Edinburgh. About 90 people live here. It’s a little bit unusual. because unlike the surrounding towns and villages which are all built from stone, here it’s all red brick. Not sure why this should be but it certainly applies to the distillery in the heart of the village which is entirely made of red brick. It’s owned by the drinks giant Diageo who use it as the “Lowland”corner of what they call the “four corners distilleries” The other three are Clynelish (Highland) Cardhu (Speyside) and Caol Ila (Island) and they are all used in the making of the Johnnie Walker range of blended whiskies.

Battle of the distilleries

We have a love hate relationship with Diageo. About thirty years ago the company also owned our local Rosebank Distillery just a few hundred yards from our home in Falkirk. It was generally seen as the King of Lowland whiskies, however they closed it in favour of Glenkinchie … booo! It fell into a sorry state. This year, however, there were fanfares as Rosebank was opened again. Bought by Ian MacLeod Distillers who spent £millions returning it to its former glory. The town also has the added bonus of another brand new Falkirk Distillery. All is forgiven, hence we thought this rival might be worthy of a visit.

Internal view Glenkinchie Distillery — part of the visitor centre restaurant

Becoming legal

It began in 1825 by a couple of local farmers presumably trying o diversify away from farming. They ran it for about 12 years as Milton distillery before deciding to make it legal and renaming it Glenkinchie after the little river Kinchie which runs past it.

Window seat at Glenkinchie Distillery — looking out on to the gardens

Scones

Distillery tours are of no particular interest. They’re all much of a muchness so we decided to leave this one out.

Scones, of course are another matter and we had spotted some in their café restaurant earlier. The staff were very friendly and helpful and they so had us sorted with some fruit scones and coffee. No cream but there was plenty butter and jam served on nice crockery with unusual bronze cutlery. Everything was well presented and although it wasn’t a topscone it was very enjoyable nevertheless.

Johnnie Walker is the world’s biggest selling scotch whisky brand with 205 million litres going down the hatch every year. That’s a lot of whisky and a fair amount of that must be made here at Glenkinchie. It is marketed under different coloured labels, red, black, green, blue etc. we’re not sure what the difference is except to say that ‘blue’ is four times the price of ‘red’, a marketing triumph!

Whisky barrels at Glenkinchie Distillery

Troubled

We’re raising a glass of Glenkinchie to toast the health of all our readers in this strange and troubled world.

The ICC (International Criminal Court) has issued an arrest warrant for Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu. Not before time many might say. He is now classed as a ‘fugitive’ along with Mad Vlad Putin. We live in peculiar times when the leaders of Israel and Russia are international fugitives and America’s President Elect is a convicted felon. Another dram please and make it a large one!

EH34 5ET tel: 01875 342012 Glenkinchie Distillery

///gravitate.bongo.talking

Scones, Top

Kirkhouse Inn

26 August 2024 billpaterson1@me.com 7 Comments

After our previous post from Coffista in Leven we’ve gone west to Strathblane in the foothills of the Campsie Fells. However, if we had wanted to be here when the Kirkhouse Inn first opened its doors to guests we’d have been over four hundred years too late. Yes, this place opened in 1601 as a “tavern with stables” and has been welcoming people like us ever since. Back then, Elizabeth I was on the English throne and James VI was King of Scotland. As far as we know neither ever stayed here, however, this Inn was the scene of secret correspondence between the two monarchs which eventually led to the Union of the Crowns in 1603. So it’s all their fault.

View from the Campsie Fells — From high on the Campsie Fells, Strahblane’s Kirkhouse Inn is down there somewhere.

Just north of Glasgow, as a “tavern with stables” the Kirkhouse Inn was presumably a place for travellers to stop overnight and rest their horses. We were doing the same though for us it would be more of a “tavern with car park”. Nowadays it’s a hub for walkers doing the West Highland Way and the John Muir Way. They both pass nearby. The Campsie Fells form an impressive background to the hotel and on a gorgeous day, we had a beautiful drive through them to get here. An overnight stay and an afternoon tea was what we were looking for!

It was good to see that the service seemed to be provided by mostly young local lads. In our experience, usually due to poor training, this can sometimes be problematic. But not here, it was excellent. First they brought a plate of delicious savoury sandwiches. When they were finished three tiers of sweet things appeared and everything explained in detail. Lemon possets and macaroons on top. Meringues and chocolate dipped strawberries in the middle with scones and French fancies on the bottom. Unusually there was only one scone each. A good thing in our opinion. Normally you get two but inevitably, because you’ve just had a feast of sandwiches, you end up leaving one of them. The scones came with perfect little dishes of jam and cream and were just the way we like them. The right size, crunchy exterior with a soft fluffy centre … topscone.

Monarch of the glen at the Kirkhouse Inn — Another monarch, this one of the Glen

In 1601 the British East India Company was just starting its plunder of India leading to almost a century of disastrous British rule. Regrettable perhaps but where would we be without curry? It doesn’t bear thinking about! Ironically perhaps, the young Sagar Massey, raised in Delhi, has launched his fine dining restaurant “Sanja” at the Kirkhouse Inn.

Picture in our room at the Kirkhouse Inn — The Chief Returning From Deer Stalking … another picture at the Kirkhouse Inn

It would be nice to think that we have progressed a wee bit since 1601, however, we have our doubts. As usual, land seems be the problem. Ukraine’s incursion into Russia is welcome but guaranteed to get right up mad Vlad’s nose. Israel’s murder of 40,000 people because a couple of thousand years ago some guy in the sky said the land belonged to them is beyond reason. In 1601 the area around the Kirkhouse Inn had to deal with MacGregor bandits running off with their cattle under cover of darkness, In comparison with today’s problems it sounds positively romantic!

G63 9AA tel: 01360 771711 Kirkhouse Inn

///snail.uttering.kiosk

Ordinary, Scones, self-service

Powmill Milk Bar

6 March 2024 billpaterson1@me.com 4 Comments

It seems as if Powmill Milk Bar has always been there. Since time immemorial we have driven past it on our way to other places and said “we must go in there some time“. It’s always been a wooden shack style structure but it’s been there so long, the current incarnation must be third or fourth generation.

Easyriders

Anyway, It was a nice day and we had been driving on inexpicably quiet roads to get here. Then it all became clear. Everybody was already here at Powmill Milk Bar! It was mobbed and it was obviously a favoured spot for motorbikes. Leather clad blokes were standing around admiring each other’s bikes in the way that leather clad blokes do. There was also some middle aged car bound blokes admiring all the Ducatis and Kawasaki flying machines and presumably dreaming of a life that might have been.

Scooters at Powmill Milk Bar — Scooters in the car park

Preloaded!

Inside it was going like a fair. We had to join the line at the self service counter but fortunately it went very quickly. A fruit scone was all we wanted but when we asked for jam and cream it seemed to cause some confusion. They just looked at us and said “we have cream scones“! It seemed easier just to agree though normally we steer well clear of preloaded scones. We’re just pernickety and like the performance of constructing our scones according to our own personal taste. On the plus side, however, we were delighted to find that they served Henry’s coffee … our long standing favourite.

Maybe the coffee influenced our experience but we really enjoyed our visit here and wondered why we hadn’t done it years ago. With its straight forward, no airs and graces, approach, we completely understand why it’s so popular. Generally you can’t eat preloaded scones without getting in a bit of a mess. The contents squidge out in all directions. However, a fork and knife helped make this one more manageable. Mind you, the light crumbly nature of the scone even made this quite tricky. Very nice though.

Unforgivable

Politics is so incomprehensible these days we are reluctant to comment on any of it. Putin’s war in Ukraine seems incomprehensible and unforgivable. Imagine if we could just go around murdering anyone who disagreed with us with seeming impunity? Goodness, that would reduce the world’s population quite considerably.

Britain and America’s slavish support for Israel also seems unforgivable. With all the anger generated it’s little wonder that George Galloway has won the Rochdale by-election. Let’s see what his acknowledged oratory skills can do for the Palestinians. Precious little we suspect.

Starvation is now a huge problem in Gaza. Who would have thought that a Jewish state would end up guilty of genocide? Perhaps Israel is being advised by Britain. The British government has form. Its God-given sense of superiority led to them having a long, if not illustrious, history when it comes to starvation. The Irish Famine in the 1850s and the Bengal Famine in 1943 in which millions died, come to mind.

Terminal boredom

On this side of the pond, the prospect of a Sunak/Starmer General Election is boring everyone to death. On the other side a Biden/Trump rerun Presidential Election is depressing everyone to death. We’ll just stay here in Powmill looking at flying machines and dreaming of things we do understand … aah, the wind in our hair!

KY13 0QG tel: 01577 840376 Powmill Milk Bar FB

///valued.passages.tripped

Scones, Top

Craobh

27 August 2023 billpaterson1@me.com 5 Comments

Today, we are out wandering with the intention of finding somewhere for dinner in the evening. Not entirely random, however, we do have a little French restaurant called the Barley Bree in mind. It’s in the lovely conservation village of Muthill and we used to go there quite often to visit our aunt. The story gets a little convoluted but bear with us. Unfortunately when we looked it up on the internet it seemed to be closed and up for sale. Phone calls went unanswered. Not to worry, it had been a long time since we had been in this beautiful part of Perthshire so we decided to carry on and find somewhere in the next town, Crieff.

However, when we were driving through Muthill we passed the Barley Bree and Pat thought that it looked as if it was open. We couldn’t stop because of the traffic so we carried on another couple of miles to Crieff. Hence you find us here in the middle of the afternoon in Craobh, slap bang in the centre of town. However, wonder of wonders, in the course of the afternoon we discovered that the Barley Bree was now called the Coorie Inn (a play on the Scots saying “coorie in” meaning to snuggle). We got their phone number and voila, we had a booking for later!

Parking again!

Back to Craobh! We parked right outside and surprise, surprise had to pay via an app. After our previous experience at the Old Mill in Christchurch this gave us a touch of the heebie-jeebies. Guess what, it failed again! We asked a passing lady if she could get it to work. She just laughed and shook her head. However she did tell us that we could park round the corner for free. What a woman! Pat went off to park while I went into the restaurant. To be fair to this app called RingGo, other people seem to use the it without difficulty so we suspect that our version has developed a glitch.

Craobh is Gaelic for ‘tree’ and is pronounced “kroov”. Perthsire is famous for its big trees, hence the name. It’s a lovely restaurant with quite a few tables at the front and then several more through the back. It was completely deserted. The Mary Celeste had more folk. There was only a couple of young girls behind the counter.

They welcomed us and confirmed that they did have scones … hurrah! Then they spent some time consulting their reservation book to see if they could fit us in. Curious, because as far as we could make out every single table was available. Turned out that they were actually fully booked for dinners so were probably just checking that we were not going to interfere with their first reservations. Anyway it was great to hear that they were fully booked and by the sounds of it that was the case most nights … fantastic!

Slate plates

Since we were having dinner later we just asked for a scone to share and some coffee. It, or rather they, arrived nicely presented on a piece of slate. Obviously this would upset the bellyachers at wewantplates.com. They get terribly upset about food served on anything other than a plate. Thankfully we have never been known to bellyache about anything! We can tolerate a bit of slate … especially if it’s adorned with warm scones, jam and cream. And we did have side plates. With this sort of attention to detail we began to understand why this place might be so popular. We thought that they just managed to squeak into our topscone category. Well done Croabh!

Stranger than fiction

Goodness, it’s all going on in the world. On one hand we have a Russian president gayly murdering anyone he doesn’t approve of.

On the other we have a former US president being fingerprinted and mugshotted. As an ex-professional photographer I can honestly say that I would have been sacked if I had taken a mugshot like that. Besides the subject matter, there just isn’t anything right about it. Trump, as ever, is up to his old school boy tricks, deflecting attention so that nothing of substance ever gets discussed. And yet his supporters keep following like mesmerised cattle apparently oblivious to the harm he does to the US and the world.

In sporting news it is all about the president of total plonkers Luis Rubiales and the turmoil created by THE KISS. If any of our most imaginative readers were asked to make up a surreal, fantastical week of news it would probably fall well short of the actual reality.

Schwarzenegger says

Our dinner at the Coorie Inn was great. It’s been taken over by Andrew, Phil and Lisa … all previously of the five star Gleneagles Hotel. They’ve only had it for five weeks so still settling in but they seem to be making a real go of it. We wish them well. After a delicious dinner we discovered that they do scones every afternoon! We will be back!

PH7 3EY tel: 01764 650762 Craobh

///accompany.inkjet.ideals

ps: This notice was in Craobh …. discuss! Think we know why it’s from “source unknown”.

Ordinary, Scones

Hidden Treasure

19 March 2023 billpaterson1@me.com 4 Comments

We’re on our way to the Northern Isles but have stopped off here at the Hidden Treasure Tearoom in Johnshaven. It’s off the main road going to Aberdeen but we’ve always wondered what it’s like when we’ve seen the direction signs. Today is the day.

Blackbeard

Johnshaven is an odd name and obviously we wanted to know who ‘John’ was. Turns out John Blackbeard was a famous 16th century pirate who was washed ashore here with lots of treasure after being shipwrecked. Unfortunately though, that’s all nonsense … we’ve just made it up. Nobody in Johnshaven has any idea how it got its name. Shame, they should just make something up … that’s what they do in Westminster.

Anyway, we thought the Hidden Treasure might lie in this tearoom. Maybe it would be a scone … exciting?

Picture of last boat built in Johnshaven — Before it became a tearoom it was used for boatbuilding.. The Sea Venture was the last to be built in the tearoom.

The postie

It’s a wonderfully friendly place and we were entertained the whole time. At one point an old worthy arrived on an invalid scooter which he parked at the door. The conversation with the girls behind the counter and several of the other customers went something like this. “Don’t forget the cheesecake, she loves the cheesecake and she thinks I make it myself. She’s pregnant now but it’s nothing to do with me!” one of the other customers contributed that someone else was pregnant as well. Eventually the consensus was “It must be the postman because he has a bike!”

This was the backdrop to our scone. It came with the jam of our choice and a fantastic bowl of cream, enough to do two or three scones. We thoroughly enjoyed everything about this place. Everyone was so friendly and chatty. The scone was a treasure! Not quite a topscone but really enjoyable.

The world is our lobster

Johnshaven is a tiny village but amazingly huge juggernauts come here every day to transport the lobster catch to Paris and Madrid. Who would have thought it. We went to the Lobster Shop and the chap in there, when he heard that Pat had never had lobster, insisted on her trying some of his. She loved it so it might be lobster from now on …. argh! Might need to go back out to work. We also got a fascinating insight in to their operation on the Isle of Luing. We know the island well but had no idea there was a massive lobster facility there.

Not exactly in the news loop any more but we gather that an arrest warrant has been issued for Vladamir Putin … not before time! Wouldn’t fancy being the arresting officer. And our Home Secretary, Suella Braverman is visiting Rwanda. Let’s hope she likes so much she decides to stay there … for ever!

DD10 0EU tel: 07506 896842 Hidden Treasure Tearoom FB

///mysteries.spice.toward

Ordinary, Scones

The Courtyard Tea Rooms

31 August 2022 billpaterson1@me.com 1 Comment

Now you would think that the Courtyard Tea Rooms would be easy to find. They are on the High Street in Poole and that’s not all that long. How difficult could it be?

You will see from the title picture, however that it is just a door sandwiched between a convenience store and an Indian restaurant. Just a little door with a little sign above … easy to miss. Not a lot of people miss it however because it’s very busy so it must have a good reputation. It’s over 500 years old, not the tearooms but the building in which they are housed. The entrance is down a long passageway and then you emerge into a delightful little courtyard. There are several little sitting-rooms off the courtyard. But we chose the courtyard itself with its ancient stone slabs that many feet must have trod before us. In 1405, local lad come privateer Henry Paye had made such a nuisance of himself with raids up and down the French coast that a combined French/Spanish naval fleet plundered Poole in an act of revenge. If this courtyard could talk it would have a few tales to tell. Don’t think the plunderers would have had scones here but we thought we had better check them out anyway.

Hairsbreadth

In our previous post from the Kitchen we were served very disappointing scones. Hopefully they would be better here. The young girl looking after us was fantastic. Good happy service can change a fairly mundane meal into something special but this time we had a really nice lunch which she made extra special. Unfortunately she couldn’t quite do it for the scones. Henry Paye would probably have bisected each scone with a swish of his cutlass but we just uses the knives we were presented with. Not so heroic, perhaps but we didn’t have a cutlass. They were almost topscones. Very good, with nice bowls of jam and cream but their overall consistency meant that they just missed out by a hairsbreadth. This is a really nice place, however, and we recommend that you pay it a visit next time you are in Poole.

Back in the USSR, you don’t know how lucky you are, boy

Normally, we don’t have much in the way of praise for politicians … maybe you’ve noticed? However, we feel that with the passing of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last President of the USSR, we should make an exception. When you think of Soviet Presidents the word ‘charming’ is not one that comes readily to mind … but he was! Not many people could honestly say they changed the world … but he could! Although he didn’t mean to dismantle the Soviet Empire, because of his actions, it happened anyway. Momentous, and with hardly a drop of blood being shed … contrast that with Putin’s Russia of today.

The USSR is something our children have probably only heard of through a Beatles song. Strange words such as glasnost and perestroika became part of our everyday language. The collapse of the Berlin Wall … these were heady days indeed, full of optimism and hope … contrast that with the world today. If Gorbachev had been a scone he would have been a topscone … praise indeed!

BH15 1BT tel: ???? The Courtyard Tearooms FB

///mugs.vouch.scarf

Scones, history and a dollop of politics

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Back in the USSR, you don’t know how lucky you are, boy

by Bill and Pat Paterson and is about finding good scones throughout the world, with a little bit of politics