Away with the raggle taggle gypsies oh

Yes it is the gypsy life for us because we have discovered that not all was well in the house of blogger.

It seems that people cannot leave comments on this blog unless they follow certain procedures and I don't care for that. I spoke with Sir George and he was extremely upset. What is the point of a nice house when no one can come and leave a visiting card to say that they dropped by!?

So we are moving.

Luckily not everything was unpacked so it not too much of a hardship.

Taking Sir George's advice we have decided to follow in the magnificent wake of the Ponte Sisto (which is a blog and not one of Columbus's galleons) and have moved over to word press.

We like our new home and hope you will too.
Perhaps we will see you there!
Kirk
Sir George

St Ninian

A few weeks ago I was sojourning in the Lake District with AGA - Sir George was there too and although he confesses to a dislike of wilde nature he was pleasantly surprised and pleased to see the grass kept nice and short in the Lake District by the various sheepish inhabitants.

While we were there we decided to take a day trip to Galloway.  There were two reasons for this: 1) to visit Wigtown which totes itself as the Book capital of Scotland and 2) to go on a pilgrimage to sites associated with St Ninian.

Wigtown was a washout in more ways than one.  A few bookshops to be sure but pricey.  Don't go there expecting a bargain.  Also it spent a lot of time raining as though the book gods were trying to move us on so that we would not be disappointed - but we were.  Hay-on-Wye has nothing to fear from Wigtown when it comes to its bookish crown as premier book town in the UK.

Anyway...

We made our way into Galloway.  Sir George has a completely unfounded distrust of Scots.  I took umbrage at this, especially as I number many of the early Scottish Kings among my worthy ancestors.  Sir George remained unmoved, muttering of porridge and haggis and so we let the matter lie.

There are to my mind three main sites to visit when making a pilgrimage associated with St Ninian - and we made sure that we visited all three.

First stop was St Ninian's Chapel which is in a place called the Isle of Whithorn.  This isn't actually an island.  It was here that Ninian built his first chapel, after arriving in Scotland.  The current chapel is, of course, now a ruin dating from the 13th century.  Pilgrims landed near this spot and made their way to the chapel to pray and give thanks:

A witness cairn stands nearby and we picked pebbles to place on it as witness to our visit.  I left mine in honour of my father.  The coastline was beautiful and with the sun out it was perfect!

Next we visited St Ninian's cave.  This involved a drive plus a walk through some rather muddy patches which did not please Sir George at all however we carried on, past the first of the bluebells, down a long winded track that led through a forest, down to the beach.  

We then walked along the pebble beach until we came to the cave.  I am not sure what I expected. Something akin to a huge series of rooms reaching back within the rock, I suppose.  It was nothing like it.  A mere triangular crack in the cliff face stretching back maybe 10 feet.  Completely open to the elements but raised up high enough to be out of reach of the incoming tide.  In fact the perfect place for an aesthetic Celtic priest to retire to from time to time, when affairs of the world got too much.  

Inside were many carving from over the centuries.  The place has been a pilgrimage centre since at least the 8th century and we had no doubt that pilgrims had come there to seem advice form the Saint during his lifetime in the 4th Century.  We picked witness pebbles and placed them inside the cave, on a ledge.  We left them for my late father, AGA's late mother, our grandmothers and Tom in Vegas' Grandmother who had recently died.  We said prayers.  

At that point we were by ourselves.  No one else was around and surrounded as we were, by rocks, sea and sky with only the cry of seagulls for company, it became a very moving and atmospheric place.

The journey back to the car seemed to take a long time and there were grumbles from Sir George who dislikes getting his shoes muddy. . .

We then drove off to our next destination which was Whithorn itself.  

Here we passed through the old priory gatehouse which now leads on to the High Street, and visited the roofless, crow inhabited ruins of St Ninian's Priory.


Inside the church little remains as you can see.  The altar is gone and the tombstones are 'modern'
Although there is a very impressive Norman doorway:

but we said our prayers and took photos before returning to our car and driving off into the sunset and back into England with another successful pilgrimage under our belts!

Kitchen duty

It has been a busy day here in the kitchens of our residence at no 43. 

All sorts of baked goods have been prepared because, to be quite candid, I love eating them!

Shortbreads, orange biscuits, jam tarts, and a GI cranberry cake thingy for AGA who likes that sort of thing.  AGA meanwhile has been looking at Grandfather clocks as he is speaking of buying one.  He emailed my mother about them and now she seems to be caught up in the grandfather clock whirlwind and has said she would like us to organise one for her too!

Sir George meanwhile is merely sitting about, occasionally playing a few quick pieces on the harpsichord or else making his baroque presence felt all over the place.

Anyway, to get back to the baking.  Here they are:

Shortbreads

Orange biscuits (these are shortbread mixture to which I added some water, candied orange peel, orange flower water and allspice).

Tarts

Marmalade and a few raspberry ones.

These will all very nicely with a cup of tea I think!

Now what will I do with this lot that I bought on a whim today. . .

Cake?

Not really your standard afternoon tea sort of cake, more like an "its my birthday and I will have a lot of cream on my cake if I want to" sort of cake. . .

Contents:

1 sponge

1 layer of whipped cream

1 layer of raspberries

another layer of whipped cream

another sponge

icing

I decided that as it was going to be a cake that was eaten privately we need not be too worried about tidiness, hence rather copious amounts of everything. . .  

AGA approved and Sir George, after a censorious look, tucked in with gusto.

Soon (well, after two days) there was none left...

Handel the genius

Here is an article that appeared in the Telegraph last month.

That Handel was a genius goes without saying - as any fule kno!

Tea - how do I love thee?

Picture the scene if you will:
You have come home from a tough day at work, or from doing the shopping, or having finished a particularly gruelling task. . .
You put the kettle on (or some kind person does it for you) and in next to no time you are sitting back in a comfortable armchair with a nice cup of tea. With perhaps a biscuit or two. What a blissful picture.
There is nothing quite like a nice cup of tea. It has many benefits which you can read about at the excellent UK Tea Council site.

Ahhh, the aesthetics of tea.

It is a comforting drink. It is a safe haven, even for a short while, in the midst of earthly trouble.

And by the way, when I say tea I mean tea, not tisane. I also mean served with milk and/or sugar, or lemon - in a cup with a saucer and a teaspoon.

Tea in a mug is not really acceptable unless you are in the midst of some form of outdoor manual labour, when a sturdy mug is more convenient and less likely to get broken - as in this worthy 1940s policeman having a well earned break.

However, never ever take tea in a paper cup or worse, plastic! In both cases the 'container' imparts an unpleasant taste, not to mention the aethetics of it all!

I was once in Paris with AGA and went to a Starbucks where I was given a huge plastic cup of tea with a lid on it and space for a straw! To say that I felt affronted is putting it nicely. Mind you it was Starbucks and they normally serve coffee so what could one expect. . .

Somebody once said to me: 'Sir George, just how does one make a perfect cup of tea?'

Nothing could be simpler.

Take a nice round, brown tea pot. Boil water in a kettle. Take the tea pot to the kettle and pour in a small amount of the boiling water. Swirl it around and pour it out. Spoon in an appropriate amount of tea leaves. The water in the kettle should remain at a rolling boil. Take the tea pot to it and pour in the boiling water.

Put the lid on quickly.

Now leave for a space. Some say two minutes and other say two. As a Catholic I would recommend the 'Hail Mary' method. A good, sensible, Catholic way of making tea. Turn the teapot clockwise while reciting three Hail Marys by which time the tea is not only ready but you have recited three prayers in honour of the Immaculate Conception!

Having let the tea infuse you swiftly pour a little more of the hot water into the nice china teapot, swirl it around and tip it out. Take a strainer and pout the tea from the first tea pot, through the strainer and into the second teapot. Pop the lid on, place a knitted tea cosy over it and voila, perfect tea is ready for serving.

Always use two teapots when making tea so that you do not end up with stewed tea. Stewed tea is worse than coffee!

Oh thrice blessed, wonderful tea, how I do love thee!

NB: the pictures came from the Mary Evans Picture Library.

Welcome to my blog

Was ever there such a wonderful expression as ‘afternoon tea’?  

Of itself, the words conjure peace, tranquillity and comfort.  

Did ever a phrase convey more of a sense of civilisation and calm?  

Afternoon Tea.  

What beautiful images rise before the inner eye: the comfortably rounded Teapot.  China cups and saucers.  Milk jug and sugar bowl.  Cake plates accompanied by their own special forks.  A small dish containing lemon wedges (for those who prefer their tea a la Russe).  The cake stand.  Comfortable armchairs.  Pleasant conversation.  Crumpets (possibly).  Cake.  Bread-and-butter.  Scones.  The luxurious list goes on and on!

The world of afternoon tea is my world and I welcome you to it with open arms!