Tag Archives: Australia

Bakearoma

10th December 2023 billpaterson1@me.com 5 Comments

Sometimes people say things like “you fairly get around, don’t you” and we’re never quite sure whether it’s congratulatory or accusatory. We kind of know what they mean but it just doesn’t seem that way to us. As if to amplify the point, however, our previous post from Dnisi in Kirkintilloch is now followed by this one from Bakearoma – Bakery & Coffee Lounge in the Australian outback. Yes, today we are posting from the town of Roma in Western Queensland. Of course, Pat and I are not actually there but luckily our Toowoomba correspondents are.

Driving

Aussies can be pretty disparaging about us northerners – we’re talking hemispheres! They reckon we are too wimpish to bother driving almost three hundred miles for a scone. Apparently it’s no trouble to Aussies! They are forgetting, of course, that we just have more sense! For us to drive three hundred miles we would end up on the outskirts of London having negotiated intense traffic round major cities like Manchester and Birmingham. And it would take around seven or eight rainy hours.

They, on the other hand, can probably drive in a straight sunny line from Toowoomba to Roma with barely any traffic and just the odd kangaroo hopping alongside past the occasional billabong. And, with cruise control the whole way, they would be there before they could finish singing Waltzing Matilda! Okay, okay, we’ve never been to Australia and for all we know there could be a bend somewhere in the road.

What’s in a name?

We thought Roma, population 7,000 and established in 1867 (‘yesterday’ to us northerners) would have been named by a homesick Italian immigrant. Seems obvious but it’s actually commemorating the Greek wife of an Irishman. Her name was Lady Diamantina Roma Bowen, wife of Sir George Bowen.

Seriously though, we are deeply indebted to our correspondents for their sconological endeavours down under. And we don’t mean to scoff at their sense of history … not really! In their own words:

“Well, there is a lot of history out there, again, not by northern hemisphere standards, however, Roma has the distinction of being the first town gazetted in the new colony of Queensland. By 1864 it had its own court of petty sessions, a police station, doctor, chemist, and postmaster. The town was connected by telegraph to Dalby and Brisbane in 1866. So, there is history there! Nowadays Roma is known for its strong agricultural sector, including beef and crop production. It is home to the country’s largest cattle sale yards.

Roma is also known as the birthplace of Australia’s Oil and Gas industry. All this and more! The meat pies at the local bakery can’t be bettered, however….the scones.. afraid they would not pass the Pat and Bill Paterson’s high standards, despite the fact they come accompanied by a generous slice of carrot cake!
Had our scones and drove the four hours home.
Will do it again without hesitation!!

Maintaining sylph-like figures

Thank goodness every scone doesn’t come with a slice of carrot cake. Our waistlines would be even more under threat! We should finish off with some comment on Australian politics. However, apart from knowing that it has to be better than here in the UK, where we are currently being lectured on illegality and human rights by Rwanda,, we don’t know enough about it. Mind you that’s never stopped us commenting on things before!

Our only wish is that the next time our correspondents set off looking for a scone they don’t stop at Roma and just carry on to Falkirk! Can’t promise carrot cake though.

QLD 4455. tel: +61 7 4622 4399 Bakearoma FB

///cave.crusted.mocking

Scones, Uncategorized

Roses n Things

8th September 2023 billpaterson1@me.com 1 Comment

Readers know by now that we are indebted to our foreign correspondents for much of our global sconology. This post is typical. Our Bathurst correspondents from New South Wales are regular contributors and thave sent us an account of their road trip to Alice Springs to visit their son’s family. The last time we saw them was back in April when they visited their daughter in St Andrews and we were on our way to Kingsbarns distillery.

Pat with our correspondents at Rufflets, St Andrews — Rendezvous with our Bathurst correspondents at Rufflets, St Andrews

After leaving Alice Springs our intrepid correspondents opted for the long way round through Queensland and by the time they reached Roses n Things they had covered 8000km. Everything is relative! We think Inverness is quite far away but if we covered that sort of distance it would take us to somewhere near the coast of China looking out towards Japan. Aussies, however seem to take this sort of stuff in their stride.

In their own words

“One of the highlights of the return trip was a visit to the town of Barcaldine, so named after your Barcaldine in Scotland. Apparently, one of the first settlers was Donald Charles Cameron, a direct descendent of the Campbells of Barcaldine Castle. Why a Cameron was a descendant of the Campbells. I know not.

Tree of knowledge at Roses 'n' Things, Barcaldine — The Barcaldine Tree of Knowledge. We think this may be the one the Tory government in the UK is consulting at the moment

Our Barcaldine is famous as the birthplace of the Australian Labour Party, formed during the 1891 sheep shearers strike. The shearers met under a large ghost gum tree, now known as The Tree of Knowledge. Unfortunately, the tree was poisoned in 2006 by persons unknown, suspected to be Conservative sympathizers. The dead tree is now the focal point of a large wooden monument.”

But what of scones I hear you ask ? Well, the Barcaldine caravan park, at which we stayed, had attached to it a cafe called Roses ‘n’ Things Tea Garden. A bit of a mouth full, as were the scones we had for breakfast. Possibly not a top scone, but not far from it.”

Ghosts

The Australian and Scottish Barcaldines have much in common when it comes to ghosts. The Aussie town is famous for it’s haunted Shakespeare Hotel. It’s ghosts, however, don’t sound like a match for the Scottish versions. The angry ghost of Donald Campbell roams Barcaldine Castle endlessly searching for his murderer. And Duncan Campbell, or Black Duncan of Barcaldine Castle, wasn’t exactly the perfect mine host. In case anyone should imagine he was going a bit soft in his old age he installed a bottle dungeon, a hanging tree and a beheading pit. He also had a large WELCOME mat at the door! No he didn’t, we made that up!

Forbidden

The original Tree of Knowledge, of course, was in the Garden of Eden where our ancestors Adam and Eve lived beautiful innocent lives. On the tree was the Forbidden Fruit which they were not even allowed to touch because it contained the knowledge of good and evil. Typically perhaps Eve couldn’t resist and even managed to persuade Adam to take a bite as well. Goodness, just think what the world would be like today if Eve hadn’t been so tempted?

Many thanks A&J, hopefully we can meet up again on your next visit to Scotland.

QLD 4725. tel: +61 417 759 855. Roses ‘n’ Things

///pathway.defectors.trouble

Ordinary, Scones

The Old Mill Café

11th July 2021 billpaterson1@me.com 8 Comments

Pat was making her first batch of strawberry jam when we got pinged by our Bathurst correspondents. They have been continuing their scone adventures in New South Wales.

In their own words:

We went for a drive last Sunday to Millthorpe, a small town about 40 km west of us in Bathurst. Normally, on a Sunday it would be choker-block with weekend trippers from Sydney, but with the Greater Sydney lockdown, it was nearly deserted. We managed to get a seat in The Old Mill.

So, of course, we ordered a scone. They looked pretty good in the glass cabinet, and also on the plate when our serving arrived. Quite large, nicely golden brown on top, our mouths watered.

But…….the scones tended to disintegrate as we tried to cut them up, lots of crumbs, nothing you could spread the jam and cream on. On the plus side however, the strawberry jam was delicious, homemade with whole strawberries. On the minus side, it looked like the cream came out of one of those squirty bottle thingies.

Ah well, it does you good to get out occasionally!

Unspreadable scones are unforgivable but it does serve to show the travails of being a dedicated sconey, no matter what country you are in.

Millthorpe was originally called Spring Grove when it was first set up by a convict overseer in 1834. It wasn’t until 1884 with the building of a flour mill that the community, by a very narrow margin, voted to change the name. Aw well, we liked Spring Grove. We should have been there, maybe we could have swung the vote.

Democracy

Anyway that’s democracy! The House of Commons Library Research Group has just found that Scotland gets a very poor deal as a result of being part of the UK. They found that Scotland would be much better off as part of the EU group of small nations. Heyho, tell us something we didn’t already know. We wish we have democracy in the UK it would make such a difference. But, of course, it doesn’t make an iota of difference what Scotland votes for .. on anything!. We have also discovered that the BBC is now only spending a measly 51% of the fees raised in Scotland in Scotland. Oh gosh, we thought that the diabolical poor service provided by the BBC meant that they were spending loads of money here. Don’t tell us it’s all getting spent in England!?

Only hours to go before the Euro Finals where England are playing Italy. If you didn’t realise that you must have been living on the moon for the past month. Again, we are constantly told that the entire country (meaning UK) is behind the England team. What country is that then? The media don’t seem to realise that the UK is not a country, or a nation for that matter. It’s a collection of countries but unfortunately it is run by a a group who, in former times, would have undoubtedly been exported to Australia. We wish England well but are dreading them winning and having to face another twenty years of nonsensical idiotic jingoism and punditry. The Queen wishes them well though she probably thinks it’s the England croquet team.

Pat’s strawberry jam was a resounding success. Now she is pickling them as well. Pickled strawberries, who would have thought? Nice on our nasturtium salads.

Many thanks, once again, to our ever faithful correspondents, what would we do without you?

NSW 2798 tel: +61 2 6366 3188 Old Mill

///pocketbook.wiping.nastily

Scones, Uncategorized

Wayzgoose Diner

12th April 2021 billpaterson1@me.com 1 Comment

More news from our Bathurst correspondents as we in Scotland gently edge towards the same sort of freedom that they enjoy. Freedom to not only leave the house but to venture further afield … and to meet people … yeah! We’re not complaining, we are very happy with the way the whole COVID-19 thing has been handled in Scotland but like everyone else we have almost forgotten what ‘normal’ actually means. In New South Wales our correspondents can at least move around the state … and this little corner of Australia is four times the size of the UK! Anyway, today they made their way to the village of Leura and the Wayzgoose Diner. And what sort of name is that anyway? In their own words:

“Today we passed through Leura, a village halfway between our home in Bathurst, and Sydney. A spot we often stop at when travelling to Sydney. As it was coffee time, we called into the Wayzgoose Diner, and decided to sample their scones. To our surprise the scone arrived in a terracotta flowerpot, in which it had been cooked. Quite a nice scone, if a little odd looking with its tapered bottom”.

Flower pot scone at the Wayzgoose Diner — A flower pot scone

Intrigued by the name “Wayzgoose”, and thinking it was some sort of Canadian bird, I googled it and found:

“A wayzgoose was at one time a celebratory dinner given by a master printer to his workmen each year on or about St Bartholomew’s Day (24 August). It marked the traditional end of summer and the start of the season of working by candlelight.”

Working by candlight … those were the days! Our correspondents also sent these clippings about the Country Women’s Association (CWA) from the Sydney Morning Herald.

Sconversations for the anxious and depressedKnead to know

In another cutting a Mrs Whitton explained that the secret of a perfect scone “Don’t knead the dough. Don’t fiddle or keep laying or touching it”. You have been told!

SMH clippings for the Wayzgoose Diner — Mrs Whitton and a tray of 40 scones

As always, a huge thanks to our Bathurst correspondents. But, would you believe it – another Aussie report has just come in! This time from our Brisbane correspondent. We think the intention was to assure Pat and I that not all Australians are as boorish as him.

Apparently, at a recent function, he was belittled, berated and generally ridiculed by colleagues for putting jam on top of the cream on a pikelet (crumpet) he was preparing to eat. Serves him right … not going to get any sympathy from us. But good to hear that Australia is not indulging in those devilishly delinquent Devon ways.

Back in the UK, Boris promised that everything would go back to the way it was once Brexit was achieved. And so it has, one of the few promises he has kept … rioting on the streets of Northern Ireland. Thanks Boris, you could do well to heed Mrs Whitton’s advice.

Scones, Uncategorized

Aussie ramblings

29th March 2021 billpaterson1@me.com 1 Comment

Whenever we are finding it difficult to bring you fresh scone news we can always rely on our Bathurst correspondents to save the day. They have done it again! This diverse report covers phone boxes, jewellery, handbags and, lo and behold, girdle scones. You know how in the UK at the moment there’s nothing much going on well you’ll be glad to hear that there’s nothing much going on in Australia as well. So no need to fret that you are missing out. Therefore, in the absence of anything going on anywhere our. correspondents said “we’ll just rattle on about a few things … Aussie ramblings”.

“We have just had a week in Victor Harbour south of Adelaide, with our son and family who live in Alice Springs. We do this every couple of years around Christmas time. They drive the 1500km down from Alice and we drive the 1100km across from Bathurst. Halfway between Victor Harbour and Cape Jervis we spotted this old telephone box at someone’s front gate. Not one of your cast iron jobs, just timber.

Aussie phone box at Victor Harbour — definitely not made in Falkirk

Our son, James, works in leather, making shoes, belts, wallets, handbags, and other bits and pieces, while Elliat, his partner, is a designer, working in jewelry, furniture, and anything else you can think of.

Today Julie cooked a batch of girdle scones. I seemed to have deleted your blog which may or may not have had the recipe. Not to worry, Julie looked them up on the internet, and, voila, with some butter and cheese we had a delicious lunch.

Morrisons

We are of course familiar with the food chain, having had many trips to Aberystwyth and St Andrews in the 10 years since Rebecca and family moved to the UK. However, you might not be as familiar with our Morrison, to wit, our prime minister, Scott. Scomo to his mates, of which I don’t claim to be one. He is currently in the poo over his misogynistic leanings, glossing over rape allegations, and general lack of statesmanship.

Welsh Cakes or Sausage Rolls

We have of course sampled Welsh Cakes many times when visiting Aberystwyth. However, they don’t hold a candle to the sausage rolls found there. Five for 2 pounds, proper sausage meat, incased in delicious flaky pastry. I am yet to find an equivalent in Australia”.

New health food

So it would seem that Australia’s politicians are not a whole lot different from many of our own. Well, blow me down! As always, many thanks to our Bathurst correspondents for keeping us in the loop and Julie’s girdle scones look fantastic. Shortly after their report came in, however, we got another from their buddy who rides shotgun – New South Welshman. He alerted us to this fantastic piece in ABC News on the wonderful health benefits of eating scones. Just look at this headline:

_______________________________________________________________________

BUNDABERG SCONE QUEEN DOROTHY COLLISHAW TURNS 100

“Laughing, keeping busy and baking scones are the secret to a long and happy life, according to Bundaberg’s “Scone Queen” Dorothy Collishaw. Raised in a Maryborough bakery shop and winning her first baking prize more than 90 years ago, Mrs Collishaw has self-raising flour flowing in her veins and still actively bakes for QCWA meetings and functions.

In 2019, Mrs Collishaw was named an ABC Scone Master as part of a radio series celebrating Queensland’s most passionate scone makers.

This led to the QCWA Bundaberg Branch hosting a highly successful “Scone Festival”, publishing a scone recipe book and even the annual national “Scone Day”on the day the organisation was formed.”

_______________________________________________________________________

They certainly know how to celebrate scones in Queensland. So there you have it! If you want to live to a fit and healthy 100 just laugh, keep busy and eat scones.

Portmasamba

After we cast nasturtiums in our previous post at the sanity of the good folk of Portmahomack, Lyn got in touch to set us straight. “As a member of said Samba Band – PORTMASAMBA- and proud resident of The Port, I wish to reassure all other readers that we in The Port are of sound mind at all times; of wise stock; and welcome folk of all definitions to our beautiful village”. Well, of course, we knew that Lyn. The Port was very welcoming to us and we can’t wait to return.

Portmahomack Main Street — Portmahomack front overlooking the beach

Vivienne at Tarbet Ness — 3. year old Vivienne at Tarbat Ness

Scones, Uncategorized

The Little Big Dairy Company

22nd September 2020 billpaterson1@me.com 1 Comment

This post is slightly different. It doesn’t actually involve any scones directly but rather indicates how to ensure your scone is spoilt rotten by treating it and yourself to some real cream. It’s all part of sconology. According to our New South Welshman correspondent (rides shotgun for our Bathurst correspondent), cream doesn’t come any better than that produced by the Little Big Dairy Company and its herd of 800 Holstein cows. In his own words, here’s why:

“The first Saturday in September is Father’s Day in New South Wales (remember we are no longer Australians, but a collection of warring states). Your Bathurst corespondent’s loving daughter presented a most wonderful jar of health-giving cream, from a small family-owned ethical dairy. Food for thought. In my childhood milk was extracted from a happy cow, placed in a large bowl in the fridge, and later the cream scooped from the top with a large spoon. Oh, bliss! Occasionally a separator was used— awful to wash up. At the same time, most farm kids had lumps or scars in their necks from bovine TB. Scottish milk was described (in Microbiology lectures in the late 1960s) as “ Tuberculous Pus”

Public health rules have undoubtedly produced many benefits, but pondering the origins of our food is important. Most milk in Western countries is now produced in industrial factories. Cows in sheds, no sunshine, no happy days playing in green grass. Cream emerges from the end of a factory, great distances from the cow

Jam on top?

Little big Australian real cream — Stand your spoon up cream

Your Bathurst correspondent was in heaven eating his ethical cream on fresh scones. (It’s so thick it must be eaten in the Devon way— cream first, jam on top — even if YOUR Queen disagrees). Pay a bit more, get the real stuff”.

Fantastic, more power to the Little Big Dairy Company! However, we may have to agree with Her Majesty about cream placement … no matter how thick it is! We would like to say that we were not around in the 60s to enjoy “ Tuberculous Pus” but of course we were. Happily, we can report wonderful silky smooth necks though some say that’s due to continuous use of Brasso. Unfortunately, for most readers, you have to live in New South Wales to enjoy the benefits of the Little Big Dairy Company’s produce. In this globalised world, however, it would not surprise us if someone started importing Little Big cream to the UK. Crikey, we complain about Scotland importing Rodda’s Cornish cream.

Good riddance

He also comments on some political news. Even though he says Australia is now a collection of warring states they all seem to have come together in a show of unity to say “good riddance” to former Prime Minister of Australia, Tony Abbott. In case you don’t know, in yet another of Boris’s brain farts, he has appointed Abbott as an official trade adviser to the UK. “Thank you so much for taking Tony Abbott off our hands. If “ The Mad Monk “ is your answer, what is your question?? Our pugilistic, misogynist, climate change denying, failed ex-Prime Minister will happily negotiate away anything you value. Goodbye NHS, affordable pharmaceuticals, any health, ethical or environmental regulations. Welcome chlorinated chicken and any man-made toxin now banned in the EU. Please keep him. He and Boris obviously get on very well.”

Mystery?

No wonder they get on very well! Boris Johnson says that Abbott was elected by the “great liberal democratic nation of Australia”, but he fails to note that Abbott broke almost every election promise he ever made. Abbott reckons climate change is “absolute crap” and as far as we know he has never negotiated a trade deal in his life. Maybe Boris just wants some advice on how to cope with being ditched after only one term in government. How do eejits like Abbott, Johnson and Trump get elected to the highest office in the first place? It’s a mystery! It’s unbelievable!

Our New South Welshman ends reassuringly: “We are surviving well by finding small pleasures in life, like a shared liking of scones”. Nice to think that on the opposite side of the world we are surviving in exactly the same way. Many thanks JB, keep up the good work.

Dubbo NSW 2830 tel: +61 02 6887 3443 Little Big Dairy

///basher.fashioning.sour

K2 telephone box — FMF hope to persuade BT to reinstall a K2 in the High Street … the only K2 in Scotland.

ps: Our telephone box enthusiasts will be pleased to hear that our little organisation Falkirk Made Friends (FMF) have convinced BT to take away all removal notices from the town’s telephone boxes and persuaded the local Council to adopt three of them. Falkirk manufactured the first K2 boxes in 1926 and, over the years, most of the subsequent K4s and K6s. The town was within a week or so of completely losing this iconic symbol of its industrial heritage. There is much more work still to be done to ensure their future in the form of an Iron Heritage Trail. In the meantime, we would be grateful for photographs of telephone boxes from anywhere in the world.

Scones, Uncategorized

The Blue Wren Bush Cafe

31st August 2020 billpaterson1@me.com 1 Comment

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Here’s a question, how would we obtain a scone report from the Blue Wren Bush Cafe in Coonabarabran? The answer lies in the fact that we now have a new correspondent, a New South Welshman no less. He wrote to give us a little insight into how things are down under at the moment. Because of COVID restrictions, no one is allowed to travel across state borders and that’s going down like the proverbial lead balloon. He now thinks of himself, not as Australian but as a New South Welshman. He even says our politicians here in the UK might be worse than those in Australia. The only controversial thing about that statement is the word ‘might’!

We have never met but he’s a friend of our poetic Bathurst correspondent so that’s plenty good enough for us. All we can say is welcome to allaboutthescones. Without our antipodean correspondents we would all be completely ignorant of down under scones. And then, where would we be?

Anyway, for a break he took off in his “go anywhere” camper … anywhere in New South Wales, that is! He headed out west “in search of birds and scones” and ended up in the 5,000 km² Pilliga Forest (not so much a “forest” as us Brits would know it but more a vast area of scrubland) and that’s how he ended up here at the Blue Wren Bush Cafe. Described as being “in the middle of nowhere”, it’s also home to the Pilliga Pottery.

Splendid

It’s part of Barkala Farm which has been run by the same family for several generations. In the report, he mentions that he found pink cockatoos but no mention of blue wrens? Hardly surprising if they don’t actually exist! We had certainly never heard of a Blue Wren and assumed it was just a pretty name for a cafe. Not a bit of it. The Blue Wren does exist and it’s a rather gorgeous wee thing. It’s sometimes known as the Splendid Fairywren and we can easily see why. You live and learn!

Top notch

The cafe makes everything from ingredients sourced on the farm, or at least locally, and by all accounts, their scones are top notch. They certainly look that way from here but it’s a bit too far to make any kind of conclusive judgement. Maybe our newfound spirit of adventure will take us to these blue wren scones and maybe even to an actual blue wren. That would be great!

NSW 2357. tel: +61 2 6842 2239 Blue Wren

///named.anchovies.renewal

From The Blue Wren our correspondent went even deeper into the forest in search of more scones. Dedication or what?

ROSE ISLAND STATION

He ended up here at Rose Isle Station on the Darling River which he described as “very, very outback“. It’s a sheep station owned by Garry and Samantha Mooring who can turn their hand to just about anything. It could be making pizza ovens from old steam engines or baking fabulous scones. Apparently, “morning tea, baked by Samantha, in a rustic hut on the edge of the Darling is to die for“. It certainly sounds fabulous and New South Welshman even got instructions on how to make Samantha’s scones. See, it’s all in the detail!

Samantha's Rose Isle homemade scones NSW — Samantha’s traditional on the left and ‘Italian’ on the right

“Traditional scones; 3 cups SR flour, 1 1/2 cups milk,1cup cream, 1 tbsp icing sugar. Mix lightly with an old bone-handled knife, do not play with it. Cook in a hot oven. Add homemade nectarine jam, whipped cream (No dairy cows for 500kms, so not home sourced)
Italian scones — add chopped olives, anchovies, grated tasty cheddar, sea salt, some tomato relish. Hot oven, add butter.

Sheds

Our correspondent says that it’s “Civilization in the Wild West” and states that once travel restrictions are lifted, it is definitely worth a trip from the Northern Hemisphere.

Homemade pizza oven NSW — Garry’s homemade pizza oven made from an old steam engine made in the UK. Remember when we actually made things?

He might be right! As well as scones there seems to be a lot of potential for a book of Aussie sheds. Though I suspect some may take exception to their restaurants being called sheds. I’ve already been in trouble for mistaking a church on Fraser Island for a shed!

tel: +61 (02) 6874 7371. Rose Island

///measurable.victorious.darling

The news is full of dread about English schools going back next Tuesday and the infection problems it could cause. Scottish schools have been back for a couple of weeks and we’ve survived. Boris (Dominic Cummings) has taken advantage of the bruhaha to quietly announced that he is launching a review of judicial reviews. Ever since the Scottish courts declared his decision to prorogue Parliament as unlawful he has had it in for them. Peculiar that a government that trumpets transparency so much actually hates being scrutinised to the extent that it would seek to interfere with the independent legal system of a country. Or, knowing Boris as we do, is that actually surprising at all?

Filleting

On a slightly different tack, Pat asked me to fillet a trout the other day. It had been caught and donated by our favourite coffee correspondent. She was so impressed with the job I made of it she opted to make it into a fish pie. And delicious it was too … it’s all in the filleting. This morning I have been filleting plums for plum jam and believe I have made a slightly better job of them. At least, no raised eyebrows yet!

Scones, Uncategorized

Clancy’s Cafe

25th July 2020 billpaterson1@me.com 6 Comments

For this post we are not only indebted once again to our antipodean Bathurst correspondents but also to one of their friends. He sent us some sconological information on Clancy’s Cafe, in Yeoval, New South Wales. The friend’s name is Paterson, the cafe is contained within the Banjo Paterson museum (see title photo by Gabriela B) and we are Patersons so this post is really a celebration of Patersons the world over. As you can see the little town of Yeoval is “still the greatest” but don’t drink the water. We don’t want to get accused of stereotyping but its our understanding is that Australians only drink beer so don’t suppose that’s any kind of real hardship.

Waltzing across the outback

Banjo Paterson was brought up in Yeoval so presumably, he went straight from mother’s milk to drinking beer at an early age. He is to Australia what Robert Burns is to Scotland. An author, balladeer and poet who has kind of come to symbolise the country’s identity. He wrote under the pseudonym “The Banjo”, the name of his best-loved horse. He died in 1941 and is probably best remembered as the originator of Waltzing Matilda. Perhaps typical for Australia, the song celebrates a sheep rustling itinerant hobo who waltzes (walks) from farm to farm with his matilda (knapsack of belongings). It’s pure nostalgia for a vanished way of life!

Carved inscription of Waltzing Matilda — A sculpture inscribed with the words of Watzing Matilda

The Clancy of Clancy’s Cafe is another daredevil character who appears in several of his stories. For a review of the scones, however, we are indebted to fellow sconey, Toni of The Devonshire Tea Guide who visited Clancy’s back in 2015: “Whatever brings visitors to Yeoval is what I say, and for me, the scones definitely would. They are lovingly homebaked, light and fluffy with a creamy texture and taste. The cream is sensational. Real cream whipped thick with an electric beater – how hard is that? Not very, and I wish more places did it. The jam is average but nice and thick and not syrupy sweet, and the mix works brilliantly. Scone lovers are crazy not to stop for five-dollar Devonshire Teas, and maybe linger to learn a bit more about the illustrious poet”. So now you know, next time you are in Yeoval, Clancy’s is the place.

Clans

Like Banjo Paterson, our correspondent is of Scottish descent. In fact, his grandmother was Banjo’s niece. All Patersons are part of Clan MacLaren so we are all related in one way or another. Scotland, however, currently has a problem with its clans. Clan MacLeod has given rise to President Trump and we even have Clan Johnson …. aargh!! We can only apologise to the world for those aberrations. Reassuringly, as far as we know, Putin has no Scottish connections and neither has Kim Jong Un. Boris actually visited Scotland for a few hours yesterday to encourage donors to the Tory party to keep on digging deep. The essence of his message to the rest of the people of Scotland was: “After over 300 years of Westminster rule, Scotland is too wee, too stupid and too poor to be able to do anything for itself” Talk about shooting yourself in the foot?

NSW 2868 tel: +61 427 208 913 Clancy’s

///televise.transcribe.mediocrity

PS: As you all know, our famous Trossachs correspondents are avid sconeys. However, you may not be aware that they are also keen jigsaw puzzlers. They even do scone jigsaws. Yes, they have a scone jigsaw! Goodness knows where they got that from? One of the scones is actually repeated elsewhere in the puzzle. No prizes but well done if you can spot it.

Scones, Uncategorized

Pumpkin scones

13th July 2020 billpaterson1@me.com 1 Comment

Pumpkin scones? Have you taken leave of your senses we hear you cry! Nothing to do with us … blame the Aussies. Let us explain. With virtually no COVID deaths in the past week, Scotland is gradually easing its way towards lifting lockdown. The risk of catching coronavirus is now at least five times higher in England than Scotland hence the hoo-ha about health checks on the border. In our previous post from the Wineport, we spoke of the Australian government closing the border between the states of New South Wales and Victoria. No sooner had we done so than we received an unrelated but nevertheless timely report from our Bathurst correspondents in NSW. In their own words:

Today we went on a firewood gathering excursion on a friend’s farm about 30 miles downriver from our home in Bathurst. For morning tea our hostess served us pumpkin scones. Alas, no cream or jam, just butter, but they were delicious. My understanding is that pumpkin is classed as a pig food in the UK, but you eat swedes and turnips instead, which over here, we wouldn’t touch with a barge pole. The wife of a now-deceased premier of Queensland, Flo Bjelke-Peterson, was famous for her pumpkin scones.

Pumpkin v Turnip

They raise a number of points which we will try and address here:

Experienced sconeys would not expect jam and cream with a savoury cheese or pumpkin scones … basic error.
Pumpkins may well be pig food over here but we also find them useful as lanterns at Halloween! Other than that pumpkins are as about as useful as Boris Johnson. Okay, we may be coming down on pumpkins a bit hard there! As lanterns, pumpkins do emit some light whereas the same could never be said of Boris
They are right in saying that we do eat turnips. Every year, in January, when we celebrate the birth of Robert Burns, our national bard, huge quantities of haggis, neeps and tatties (haggis, turnips and potatoes) are consumed along with copious quantities of whisky. Burns saw these as the food and drink of the common man and elevated them above the ‘skinking ware’ that the highfalutin aristocrats partook of. He knew what he was talking about!
We can only assume that the Australian aversion to turnips is due to the likelihood that most of them were sent to Australia for stealing said items.

Shrewd Flo!

Our correspondents also alerted us to the wonderful Flo Bjelke-Peterson. She was an influential member of the Australian Senate who is the first person we have come across to openly admit to using scones for political purposes. She baked them for family and friends but also for the journalists that used to stake out her home. “They help me relate to the women who make them, and the men who eat them.” So we concede that these pumpkin scones must have been pretty good otherwise their influence politically would have been extremely limited.

When readers in the UK have finished gnawing on their turnips they might want to try Flo’s recipe … if they have a leftover lantern from Halloween!

INGREDIENTS:

1 tablespoon of butter
½ cup of sugar
¼ teaspoon of salt
1 egg
1 cup of cooked mashed pumpkin (cooled)
2-2¼ cups self-raising flour

METHOD: Preheat your oven to 250°C. Beat together butter, sugar and salt with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
Add egg, then pumpkin and stir in the flour.
Turn dough onto a floured board and cut into circles.
Place on a tray on the top shelf of a very hot oven (225-250°C) for 15-20 minutes.
Remove from oven, allow to cool and serve with butter.
Note: As with all scone dough, it is important not to overmix the dough. Keep your touch light, knead it as little as possible, and only work it enough to just bring it together. When you have cut your scone rounds out, you can recombine the leftover dough to make more scones, but again, don’t overwork the dough, or you will end up with tough scones.

NOTE: We are, of course, hugely grateful to our Bathurst correspondents. Keep them coming but maybe try some proper scones next time.

BREAKING

Donald Trump has been seen wearing a mask. Apparently, he likes it and thinks it makes him look like the Lone Ranger. Up until now, we suspected that he was suffering from another virus which seems to accompany coronavirus. We’re not singling him out, lot’s of people seem to have the imasthickasshitvirus. Sorry!

Who knows, if things continue to go well, we may be able to get out scone hunting again very soon.

island, Top

The Puffer Bar – Again

10th May 2020 billpaterson1@me.com 3 Comments

The Puffer Bar takes us back to 2015 when Greece was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and having to be bailed out by the EU.

How are you all getting on in coronavirus isolation? It is odd to think that the whole world is experiencing the same thing. Only, of course, it is not the same for everyone, far from it. We really feel for people who don’t have the luxury of a nice house and a large garden. It tempers our criticism of those apparently flouting the rules of lockdown but we still wish they wouldn’t. Thankfully we have the Donald “Covid-19 might go away this fall or next year – or sooner, or possibly later” to give us advice … and hope! We actually prefer the advice of our own Scottish novelist J.M. Barrie which seems apt for the current situation: “The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but in liking what one does.”

The tiny island of Easdale once had a population of over 500, all of whom were employed in the slate mining industry. Slate was exported as far as Australia, Canada and New Zealand. However, the last slate was cut in the 1950s and most of the houses are now holiday homes with a steady population of around 60. Easdale island lies off another island, Seil, but you can reach Seil via the Bridge over the Atlantic.

Part of the large village green at Easdale

World Championships

There is no bridge to Easdale however so to get there from Seil you have to press two buttons simultaneously on the jetty at Ellenabeich village. This summons the little ferry boat which only takes a couple of minutes to do the crossing. Once on Easdale, the whole island is car-free so peace and quiet reigns supreme. Just the sound of the sea and the birds, what a great place for kids to play. However, this idyll is broken every September when hordes of enthusiasts descend on the place for the annual World Stone Skimming Championships. The competition takes place in one of the old quarries.

You have the choice of one pub, the Puffer Bar and Restaurant, take it or leave it. Luckily it is a wee gem. On a wonderfully warm day like this, it was like a little bit of heaven. Especially with our homebaked scones and homemade jam. Ours was bramble and lime. The scones were wonderfully light and the tea delicious. As we sit here we read that the new euro is to be printed on Greece proof paper. This really does seem like another world.
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View from Ellenabeich towards Mull and the ferry terminal on the left.

PA34 4TB tel: 01852 300022 www.pufferbar.com

Even with COVID-19 we suspect that life on Easdale has proceeded pretty much the same as always. According to the internet the Puffer is still open and what if it is? The island doesn’t have COVID and no one can travel there so what’s the problem. The problem is that we can’t get there either!!!

EASDALE SHED

Driving

What’s in a name?

Maintaining sylph-like figures

In their own words

Ghosts

Forbidden

In their own words:

Democracy

Sconversations for the anxious and depressedKnead to know

Morrisons

Welsh Cakes or Sausage Rolls

New health food

Portmasamba

Jam on top?

Good riddance

Mystery?

Splendid

Top notch

ROSE ISLAND STATION

Sheds

Filleting

Waltzing across the outback

Clans

Pumpkin v Turnip

Shrewd Flo!

INGREDIENTS:

BREAKING

World Championships

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