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Ordinary, Scones

Mona’s of Muckhart

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We are very familiar with Westminster Bridge so our thoughts go out to all those caught up in yesterday’s tragedy. A kind of re-enactment of the horrific events in Nice which are still very fresh in our memories. In spite of our frequent moaning about Westminster we have to hand it to all the MPs who seem to have responded admirably. At the end of the day it’s virtually impossible to protect against religious zealots whose mindset is totally irrational. It is important however that the Palace of Westminster, as far as possible, remains a public place.

Anyway the village of Muckhart is about as far away from such events as it is possible to get. A sleepy little corner of Clackmannanshire in what is known as the ‘hillfoots’ of the Ochil Hills. It actually consists of two small adjacent villages – Yetts of Muckhart and Pool of Muckhart. The ‘Muckhart’ bit seems to refer to the surrounding fields being used for pig farming at some time in the past.

What happens in Muckhart? Well, not a lot. It does have a 27 hole golf course. Also a nice wee pub whose doorstep is exactly the same height above sea level as the Wallace Monument. Not a lot of people know that! Today however we are in Mona’s in Pool of Muckhart on that never ending quest for topscones. Interior view of Monas of Muckhart

What’s in a name?

It is difficult for someone of our age to utter the name “Mona” without getting an immediate rush of nostalgia for the Rolling Stones and their Bo Diddley track of that name. Don’t worry if you’re under sixty, it’s a generational thing. This Mona has nothing to do with the Stones but everything to do with the current owner’s grandmother. Her name was Mona Cram.

You enter into a nice little shop selling jewellery, knick knacks and lots of home baking before continuing through to the café area where we discovered a solitary plain scone with three cheese scones keeping it company. All they had left! I decided to put the plain one out of its misery leaving Pat no option but to go for cheese. A scone at Monas of MuckhartThe lady looking after us was a joy. You know how it is when you meet someone and you just know that nothing is going to be too much trouble. Even if it is, it will still be done cheerily and with a smile. She was one of those!

My scone arrived with generous pots of jam and cream and Pat’s had been nicely warmed up and came with butter. In other words, everything was just as it should be. We enjoyed them but Pat felt her cheese one was slightly doughy and try as I might I just couldn’t raise mine to topscone status either.  The friendly atmosphere more than made up for any disappointment with the scones. Mona’s is definitely worth a visit. Here in Muckhart on a lovely day it is impossible to even begin to imagine what possesses someone to perpetrate the events of Westminster Bridge yesterday. Long may it remain so.

FK14 7JN     tel: 01259 781322      Monas of Muckart

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The Olympic Studios

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It has been some time, thank you for all your concern. Some thought we had died .. scone overdose somewhere. Others thought we had been kidnapped by over-enthusiastic sconeys. Well, none of the above, we have been in Londonland. Might as well call it that because it is completely detached from the rest of the country. Unlike vast tracts of Scotland where everyone speaks with a home counties accent … here, hardly anyone speaks English. The Range Rovers are almost as big as a £2m house. Mad, but great, all at the same time! Okay, okay, the scones, what about the scones?

Olympic 04The Olympic Studios, complete with it’s statue of Captain Marvel up on the roof, is a very popular haunt for us when we are in the deep south. Either for a meal or to see a film, but this is the first time we have been here in sconey mode. Would we be disappointed?

The building itself has had an illustrious past. Byfield House, the residence of the Governor of St Helena and its dependencies of Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, stood on this site until 1906 when it was demolished and  replaced by a cinema and theatre. Charles Haughtry and John Gielgud first trod the boards here. In 1908 Christabel Pankhurst, took to the stage and gave a rousing and provocative speech. Not about scones but something to do with votes for women. Six days later she was arrested at the House of Commons and imprisoned with more than twenty other suffragettes.

The great and the good

In 1966 it became the Olympic recording studio and was used by the Rolling Stones, Beatles, Led Zepplin, Madonna, Jimi Hendrix and our personal favourites .. Massive Attack!  U2 were the last to record here in 2009. Now it is a cinema again and is appropriately showing the newly released film, Suffragette.

More importantly though it has a restaurant and cafe .. selling scones. And what scones! Olympic 03By far and away the best scones we have had in ages. Very light and fluffy on the inside with a delicate crisp outside .. absolutely fabulous darling. At £3 for two scones with plenty jam and clotted cream, the price was not too difficult to swallow either. Another small but lovely touch in the Olympic is that they just give you water and glasses without you having to ask for it .. great! So there you have it, possibly the best scone in Londonland .. unless we find another of course! Olympic 05

Men as women?

One hundred years after the suggragette struggle, and after our great Winston Churchill spent a year refusing to speak to the first woman to enter the House of Commons, it seems beyond belief that, in 2015, women are still struggling to get equality. Someone (it must have been a man) said that the best way to make women more comfortable in the workplace was to double glaze the glass ceiling. Well, how would men feel if they were obliged to take the same maternity leave as their partners? Would they feel as secure in their careers? Would they wonder about reorganisations happening in their absence, new people coming in, others leaving. We don’t think men would handle it at all well.

Men don’t have it easy

That does not make men different from women because women find it just as difficult. And it is not as if having babies is some sort of peripheral activity. It is fundamental to absolutely everything. Mind you recent statistics reveal that twelve men commit suicide in the UK every day, far higher than the female equivalent figure. So men don’t have it that easy either. Anyway whoever, woman or man, made these scones, we are sure that Miss Pankhurst would have been proud. Probably even prouder it it was a man!

SW13 9HL      Tel: 020 9812 5161    Olympic Studios