Saturday morning we cycled out to Grantchester to The Orchard, a famous place for tea and delicious scones. It's also famous because in the early 1900's the "Grantchester group" used to meet there (made up of E. M. Foster, Rupert Brooke, Virginia Woolf, Bertrand Russell, Augustus John, Maynard Keynes, and Ludwig Wittgenstein). The main building is cottage like, surrounded by French doors. The lawn is dotted with lawn chairs where people can be found enjoying scones, sleep, dogs, and conversation.
(Drew's reflection): Our first encounter with British scones came with specific instructions from one of our British friends here at Tyndale, Ruth Norris, with the help of Nicki Wilks. We were told that there was a particular way in which the scone was to be eaten, and if one deviates from said way, then one has not experienced true British scones. Needless to say, I had lost my way. First of all, I had eaten one scone with only jelly, which I soon found out was quite the abomination (if you'll allow me such language) to our new British friend. She quickly alerted me to the presence of nearby double cream (for which we Americans have no counterpart). The jelly goes on the scone first, followed by a heaping portion of double cream; essentially, one should not be able to see the jelly underneath the cream. These instructions changed my life (hyperbolically speaking), and since then I have had several gorgeous (the Brits call food 'gorgeous', it basically means 'really delicious') scones including the one below with raspberry preserves and clotted cream (a step up from double cream, more posh, and again no American counterpart). I thanked my British friend over and over, for she had provided not only a window into British eating and culture, but a reason to love this old, rainy country.
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| Hope this makes you proud Ruth! |
After enjoying tea and delicious scones we read for a few hours before cycling back home for a lunch of soup and warm baguettes. The food has certainly made the transition easier.
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Drew's bike
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| Brit's bike |
Drew found a great commuter bike for me on Gumtree (the UK's craigslist if you will). Essentially a commuter bike is the way to go if you happen to be a slightly vertically challenged person, such as myself, without submitting yourself to the mockery that comes with riding a children's bike. On to the cool factor, the bike collapses down so that one can carry it inside or on a train, etc. So... the moral of the story is I own an awesome second-hand bike. Drew got his bike from our lovely neighbor, Joel Dixon.
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