Tag Archives: Kirriemuir

Fredericton

Happy New Year everyone! We hope that you enjoy a happy, healthy and prosperous 2022. May all your scones be topscones filled with lots of lovely jam and cream! Normally we spend Hogmanay at our local pub but this year, due to COVID restrictions, we decided to give it a miss and just spent it at home.  

So far, the year has been scone free but needless to say we hadn’t reckoned on our correspondents. The last place we expected to hear about a scone, however, was Fredericton, the capital of New Brunswick in Canada.

Heroic adventure

Two of our correspondents got in touch to try and claim the highest scone ever featured on this blog. Wait until Richard Branson hears about this! Will he take up the challenge?  Our correspondents had gone to extraordinary lengths! Refreshing to realise that folk still have that heroic spirit of adventure; 1st to the South Pole; 1st  to climb Everest etc etc. View of flight recorderYou can probably tell from the title photo, however, that they did not transport a scone to the summit of Everest, a mere 29,000 ft … no, no, no, they had higher aspirations. 40,000 ft to be precise. And even though Everest grows at 1.5 inches a year, that was going to take a long time. They eventually managed to do it albeit  with a little assistance from British Airways.

Unaware

Fredericton used to be called Pointe Ste-Anne until the British drove out the French settlers in 1758 and renamed it after one of King George III’s fifteen children. What are we Brits like? The French were foreigners in Canada after all?? Whatever, we are pretty sure that the 60,000 good people of Fredricton would have had no inkling of the momentous sconological event happening directly overhead. 

A scone on board BA flight
Scone with height confirmation from flight information

By all accounts the scone was rather good but of course our correspondents were not qualified to give any sort of award, It does look a little odd in appearance and it is amazing that Rodda’s Cornish Cream can get to these dizzying heights as well as just about everywhere else on the planet. They thoroughly enjoyed them, however, and that’s all that really matters, isn’t it! As for the highest scone award, yes this is indeed it. Our previous high flying scone was a measly 33,000 feet but we cannot remember who reported it. We have introduced a new ‘highest’ category however, so if any of you want to challenge perhaps you should contact Branson, Bezos or Musk.

Travelling in COVID times

Needless to say, our correspondents did not do this specifically to gain the highest scone award, fantastic though it may be. No, they were going to visit family in Conneticut and in these COVID times that is no mean feat. To quote “not difficult taking the tests but filling in the required half baked and inaccurate websites is mind numbing. “Help line” has now become the world’s greatest oxymoron”. They made it, however, so congratulations on that as well as their scone achievement.

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PS:  when we reported from Cafe Circa we said that we would let you know what the book we bought, ‘A Tillyloss Scandal’ was about. The author was none other than J.M. Barrie who created Peter Pan. A Tillyloss ScandalHe was from Kirriemuir which he called Thrums in the many stories he wrote about the town. Most of the dialogue is in the local dialect … so not a particularly easy read! It is set in the early 1800s: “Tillyloss is three broken rows of houses in the east end of Thrums, with gardens between them, nearly every one of which used to contain a pig-sty“.

Attending your own funeral

The main character is one Tammas Haggart. When he discovered that his wife, Christy, pretended to her friends that she was married to another man he was not best pleased that she should think so little of him. A Tillyloss Scandal, chapter oneHe left, not knowing where he would end up. After walking some distance he eventually fell asleep sitting against a tree. He awoke to find that he had been robbed of his hat and his great coat that had been lying beside him. Unbeknown to him the thief fell into a nearby quarry and died with a badly damaged face. The local folk, however, identified him as Tammas simply by the clothes he was wearing. Later when Tammas returned to the town he overheard folk talking of his demise and of the funeral arrangements. Thus, a few days later, from a distance, he was able to observe his own funeral.

Tammas went off and had many adventures as far as Edinburgh and some even say London. Eventually some years later he returned to Thrums and, of course, caused quite a stir. Consternation caused by the fact that not only was he alive but who on earth had they buried? Tammas went home to see Christy but rather than a big welcome he found her sitting quietly by the fire smoking his pipe.

As scandals go?

So now you know. image of Humpty DumptyNot perhaps a scandal on the scale we have nowadays with Andrew, Duke of York and Ghislaine Maxwell.  However, it turns out that Prince Andrew is simply maintaining a long standing tradition. In 1809 the then Duke of York was disgraced in similar circumstances. Have no fear, however, we are sure, that Humpty Dumpty’s Duke of York was an honourable exception … phew! 

 

 

Granny Annie Mays

Who wants to talk about Donald Trump … no, had enough? Okay, no Trump! In my rugby playing days I used to come to Kirriemuir a lot … for ‘The Ball‘, at least in song. A song so politically incorrect we can almost hear Trump singing it. Sorry, no Trump!! We are here to visit friends at Hamilton Kerr Photography and to see an exhibition of Maureen Crosbie’s Gallus Glass at the Bank Street Gallery.  It was an evening exhibition so there was plenty time for a cuppa and a scone. Where to go in Kirrie? Granny Annie Mays of course!

Named after the granny of the current owner Karen, granny Annie May taught her everything there is to know about everything. Baking in particular. That’s what grannies do, isn’t it? It’s a great wee place and everything is home baked, presumably according to granny’s instructions. The Hamilton Kerr folks have lived and run their business in ‘the wee red toon’ for a few years  now. They are very much considered ‘locals’. Problem with that is that the scones quickly become secondary to being introduced and shaking hands with everyone who came into the café. Half the population of the town. Picture of a scone at Granny Annie Mays, Kirriemuir

In spite of all the distractions though we think that Granny Annie May would be right proud of the scones we received. Beautifully warmed, light and soft, as if they were just out of the oven … topscone. Well done Karen and the rest of the team.

Delphine

The Bank Street Gallery had a fantastic exhibition of Gallus Glass’s leaded artworks. It was a struggle to buy anything though because, over a few glasses of wine, we were introduced to the other half of the population! Eventually however we managed to buy a piece called ‘Arsenic and Old Lace’ which, appropriately for me, featured an old photographic negative embedded in the glass.

Piece of stained glass by Maureen Crosbie of Gallus Glass, Kirriemuir
Arsenic and Old Lace – negative and positive

When we got home, by the wonders of modern technology, we manged to make the negative, positive and thus were able to see what this lady actually looked like. Rather beautiful and slightly wistful. Like she had a story to tell. It could have been an image of Granny Annie May but Maureen  told us the negatives were of French origin. We have christened her Delphine after a young art critic friend who is also French. Apologies Maureen for messing with your art but we just had to see what she looked like. We are delighted with our purchase!

Trump’s good bit

Kirriemuir, of course, is where Peter Pan was born, at least his creator was, so it’s a place of fabulous fantasy. The sort of place in which we feel Trump would be right at home. We said we wouldn’t mention him but how could we not? Trump has landed the Presidency by whatever means and now the world has to try and figure out how to deal with him. There’s lots of doom and gloom around but there is also a single dazzling ray of hope … his granny!

Mary MacLeod, was a gaelic speaking woman who lived all her life on the Isle of Lewis. She died aged 96 in the same place she was born. We think she would have been gentle and wise … and probably made some great scones!  Picture of logo at Granny Annie Mays, KirriemuirLet’s hope that Scottish bit of The Donald’s character comes to the fore in the months and years to come. We drove home in the dark from Kirriemuir with that warm fuzzy feeling you get from meeting lots of cheery folk making you feel extremely welcome. When it comes to foreign affairs, if Trump can recreate a fraction of Kirrie’s community spirit he will make us and Tinkerbell very proud. Don’t hold your breath!

DD8 4EG    tel: 07840 392005    Granny Annie Mays TA