Category Archives: Uncategorized

So it was a long year. Looking forward to this one, though. All sorts of things I can stand seeing the back of, you can always hope, can’t you? You want another one of those, or do you want to … Continue reading →

Keep a little fire burning; however small, however hidden. — Cormac McCarthy’s The Road We’re really in the harshest part of Winter on this Scottish Estate, so the residents of Kinrowan Hall, save the staff of Gus, our Head Gardener, who … Continue reading →

John: A knife! He’s got a knife! Eleanor of Aquitaine: Of course he has a knife, he always has a knife, we all have knives! It’s 1183 and we’re barbarians! How clear we make it. Oh, my piglets, we are … Continue reading →

Let’s discuss fireplaces. Or more precisely why there’re only scattered open fireplaces left in all of Kinrowan Hall these days: one in the Library, one in the Pub and in the senior staff residences (RHIP).  Why this is so is what … Continue reading →

The voices of cold reason were talking, as usual, to deaf ears. — Brother Cadfael’s Penance (Ellis Peter’s Chronicles of Brother Cadfael series) That lovely aroma is the smell of apple pumpkin tarts baking in the Kitchen a few hundred or so … Continue reading →

Her name was Bronwyn ap Tewdwr and she was our guest judge for the annual pudding contest. ‘A pudding contest?’ you ask. And I say, ‘Why not?’ Real pudding, like real ale, is a long way from the packaged puddings … Continue reading →

He tried to reconstruct the story in his mind, but it kept getting confused, bleeding into itself like watercolors.― Catherynne M. Valente’s The Orphan’s Tales: In the Night Garden I’m in the Kitchen enjoying a very late evening snack of hot … Continue reading →