Food and Friends Hodgepodge

Sticky Toffee Pudding at Tom Morris Bar and Grill in St. Andrews, Scotland.

It’s the middle of the week and time for Wednesday Hodgepodge thanks to Joyce From This Side of the Pond!

1. What’s worth standing in line for?

I’m going with Greg’s answer here. :0)

A Restroom!

2. Tell us about a favorite food related memory.

We have many food related favorites and it is hard to choose just one but here goes.

In 2006 we along with two other couples (our doctor and his wife and our pastor and his wife) took a trip to Great Britain together. This was dubbed a ‘walking tour’. One of our over the top favorite and delicious eating experiences was at Conwy Bistro in Conwy, Wales. I had the most delicious shoulder of Welsh lamb and my mouth still waters when I think about it. We were also treated by the owners/chef with special treats while we dined. A remarkable food experience.

On this same self guided tour we decided to try Sticky Toffee Pudding at every food establishment we visited and to rate them against each other. This one above that we had in a Pub in York was a favorite.

3. What are some things you find particularly peaceful or calming?

Quiet mornings with nothing pressing on the agenda watching the wildlife on our property.

4. Is there something you do now that gets you just as excited as it did when you were a child?

Going on a trip. Now it’s the planning of a trip that gets me excited.

5. To what degree are you in touch with friends from grade school?

I am not in touch with any of my grade school friends.

high school?

There are a group of friends from high school that I’ve been in contact with, especially during the short years we lived in Camarillo (2006-2008). We had several mini reunions. I attended our 50th high school reunion in Montebello in 2018. We still exchange Christmas cards with two of my high school friends.

college if you attended college?

My best friend from Cal-State LA married my cousin. (She’s on the left in the photo) We’ve had a lot of contact the past fifty plus years. During my college years my friendship with Heidi developed not from school but from our Russian Baptist Church in L.A. (She’s on the right) We continue our friendship and cherish each other even though we live far apart.

I’ve also kept in contact with my first college roommate from the University of Redlands.

Having friends that are ‘forever friends’, ‘through thick and thin friends’ or ‘a friend that sticks closer than a brother’ are a treasure. We have a few of those kinds of friends we’ve made since college, too.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Speaking of Sticky Toffee Pudding…

From The Turf in Oxford, England.

From Dublin, Ireland, we ordered the pudding to go promising to return the plates and utensils.

We’ve enjoyed versions of it here in the USA, too.

This Sticky Toffee Pudding was enjoyed on the Sunset Terrace at The Grove in Asheville, North Carolina.

We made homemade Sticky Toffee Pudding for a British Pub Sunday Roast at our home. You can find the recipe here.

I is for…

For April I’m challenging myself to an A-Z photo a day excluding Sundays and in addition to any regular posts that come to be.

Today is Thursday April 10th and besides my Truth for Today post I’m publishing my I post.

I is for…

The Isle of Iona

This little Isle is rich in history and beauty.

The Isle of Iona is in the Hebrides. We traveled from the city of Oban on a ferry to the Isle of Mull then took a bus through the Isle of Mull to get to a small ferry crossing to the Isle of Iona. This was in May of 2006.

History of Iona

St. Columba, an Irish scholar, soldier, priest, and founder of monasteries, got into a small war over the possession of an illegally copied Psalm book. Victorious but sickened by the bloodshed, Columba left Ireland, vowing never to return. According to legend, the first bit of land out of sight of his homeland was Iona. He stopped here in 563 and established the abbey.

Columba’s monastic community flourished, and Iona became the center of Celtic Christianity. Iona missionaries spread the gospel through Scotland and North England, while scholarly monks established Iona as a center of art and learning. The Book of Kells – perhaps the finest piece of art from “Dark Ages” Europe – was probably made on Iona in the eighth century. The island was so important that it was the legendary burial place for ancient Scottish and even Scandinavian kings (including Shakespeare’s Macbeth).

Slowly the importance of Iona ebbed. Vikings massacred 68 monks in 806. Fearing more raids, the monks evacuated most of Iona’s treasures (including the Book of Kells, which is now in Dublin) to Ireland. Much later, with the Reformation, the abbey was abandoned, and most of its finely carved crosses were destroyed. In the 17th century, locals used the abbey only as a handy quarry for other building projects.

Iona’s population peaked at about 500 in the 1830’s. In the 1840’s a potato famine hit. In the 1850’s a third of the islanders emigrated to Canada and Australia. By 1900 the population was down to 210, and today it’s only around 100.

But in our generation a new religious community has given the abbey new life. The Iona community is an ecumenical gathering of men and women who seek new ways of living the Gospel in today’s world, with focus on worship, peace, and justice issues, and reconciliation.

The island is car free. While the present abbey, nunnery, and graveyard go back to the 13th century, much of what you see today was rebuilt in the 19th century.

ht: history and other information taken from Rick Steves’ Great Britain

Another Year

We grieve with Great Britain at the passing of beloved Queen Elizabeth II on her death yesterday. Shedding tears here. It was her appointed time dying at Balmoral, a place that seemed to bring her lots of comfort. We have no idea how the grieving period in Great Britain will impact our trip this coming week but our time will be historic.

Today is Dear’s 69th birthday. We will be celebrating his last year in his 60’s tonight and tomorrow, too. All these photos I’m sharing today are from 2006 when he was in his 50’s. We recently copied the photos from a disc from our trip with friends on what we called a Walking Tour of Great Britain. We were in Conwy Wales, The Lake District, Oban, Edinburgh and York from May 2nd until the 12th, 2006.

We flew into Manchester. There were six of us on this trip. We rented a vehicle and headed to Conwy, Wales.

The view from our bedroom at our Bed and Breakfast in Conwy.

The 2nd day in Wales we attempted to climb Mt. Snowden.

Still smiling at the beginning of the hike. It really was a difficult ascent and much more difficult descent because of the slipping steep shale path. Jan and I made it 2.6 miles and we decided to turn around and head back. The other 3 troopers carried on for another mile but had to turn back because of the high wind. It was windy enough to move our bodies. In total 5.2 miles for Ellen and Jan, 7.2 miles for Bob, Dear, and Jody. We were sore and our knees suffered for the rest of our trip.

The very bright side to this day was our dinner at Bistro Conwy. One of the best meals we’ve ever enjoyed at a restaurant. Leek soup w/potato and bacon, Casaba salad with melon-strawberries-kiwi-with a raspberry sorbet sauce-mushroom tartlets-lamb shoulder in reduction with potatoes and vegetables. Sticky toffee pudding with chocolate sauce for dessert.

From Wales we traveled to the Lake District and stayed on a working farm. We had a few Derwent River walks.

While Bob, Jan and Jody scaled this path to the top of Cats Bells, Dear’s knees stopped here on this grassy knoll and we made our way back to our Farmhouse B&B.