Wednesday, September 17, 2008

The Plough at Ollerton and 'Tarte-tatin'

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You are quite right to say "That doesn't look much like a Tudor Country House to me !"

And you would be right...It isn't...

n.b. ... I have decided to keep things in some sort of chronological order - and the Canons Ashby coverage and pictures will follow tomorrow.

The picture shows The Plough at Ollerton now unfortunately closed - see previous 'comments' and the snap is courtesy of Bungus.

I asked him to photograph it specially for the blog because I wanted a picture on record. The pub was part of our North Notts mining heritage and it is so sad that, as a thriving local hostelry,  it has closed.

Picture 2 is also courtesy of Bungus and is his 'tarte tatin' - his recipe can be found in his 'comment' on yesterday's blog-post.



Comments

bungus ........ Thanks for the recipe and, as you say, it sounds delicious. I particularly like the sound of softening the fruit in a caramel of butter and caster sugar..... Is that Delia or you?..... You sound as if you are eating more easily. Is that the case? If so I'm delighted.

I'm sure you are right about hedges ---- you have experience. My only clues are that the hedge follows the line of a fence which belongs to us.... I think ! Anyway, we are such good neighbours I don't aim to fall out over it..... If he laid claim to the fence and hedge I would promptly make him a gift of both !

As a child I did indeed live very close to the countryside. Surrounded by farms, the farmers of which were on very good terms with my parents. I vividly remember when I was maybe 4yrs and being lifted up to ride on the back of a big shire horse pulling a load of corn sheaves. The Threshing Yard was at the bottom of our garden. .... And when we were a little older and out-to-play we could walk over the fields to Dovedale. All my chums and I were keen Arthur Ransome readers and we used to play Pigeon Post and Swallows and Amazons etc.

I don't know the etymology of 'a long chalk' but I shall be interested to know it, if someone does. BTW - another old one I haven't heard recently is "it's a broad as it is long".

reg .... I couldn 't agree more - that the digital/film debate generates far too much 'hot air' and Rob is right that the only thing that really matters is whether or not the result is a good picture.

It is really sad that all these historic pubs are closing and I agree with Bungus that this daft anti-smoking rule is to blame. Nobody wants tobacco smoke where there's food, but what was the harm in a 'smoking room' with a bar ?

Glad you and Brian managed a WoW plus mallard.

Also glad your chip-cob was up to the mark.

jill ...... No need to apologise for missing a day ! It's not home-work where you get 'lines' for handing it in late.

Y loved your long and newsy e-mail and has replied - all by herself. And fancy you telling her not to let me 'bugger about' with her laptop. Now really ! .. Would I ?

What a hoot - going to The Halifax to see a 'financial advisor'. Who gave advice to whom ? Or is that the wrong way round. Roy will know.

4 ticks ..... Likewise, as to Jill. I'm pleased you find the blog interesting, and so will the authors of the 'comments' be.

No time for a quote tonight. And I'm too tired to look one up.

Catch you tomorrow !



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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

That looks a jolly good tarte tatin.

Financial Advuser - he was a very young chap (get back in your pram, Bungus, I'm not being judgemental) probably under thirty, he was saying how the FTSE would never go under 5000 (it did so about two minutes after he said it). But he also wanted us to invest in HBos shares, which at the time he looked were under £1. I saw last night that after the merger with Lloyds they were something like £2.29 - I don't know if that is the rate we would have got? But we didn't feel like buying....

I remember going to Canons Ashby not long after it first opened to public - I didn't drive then, and friend Jenny drove and I navigated, we had a job to find it as at that point it wasn't sign-posted very well, and there was no cafe and only very basic loos. Am afraid I don't remember the place very much at all, hopefully it will come back when you blog about it.

I've never smoked and don't like eating accompanied by other people's smoke, but I do think the new laws are draconian, what's wrong with one room set aside for smokers? Whoever staffs it could be a smoker too. I remember crossing the US on a train, which was entirely non-smoking, they used to have 'smoke-stops', train would pull in at some deserted station in the wilds, and all the smokers would be lining up by the exits, cigs. and lighters at the ready, waiting to jump off the train for a smoke. There were several bars/lounges on the train, why couldn't one of them be reserved for smokers?

Most of the big cruise ships are now entirely smoke free (the biggest danger to a ship is fire at sea, not sinking as you might think), The Queen Mary has a smoker's bar - but only for cigars and pipes....

Anonymous said...

DIARY:
Barium Breakfast this morning (Thur) and same again for Nineses. More to be swallowed at Newark Hospital at 10.30 before I have my MRI Scan and Sandra goes scavenging.
More to follow.

BLOG COMMENT:
Your new lens is good but what about the new police helicopter one that can read a car number plate at 2 miles?

I didn’t really expect the ‘Wreck of the Tarte’ picture to be published. The ‘recipe’ I gave was just a summary from which an experienced cook would no doubt be able to make ‘something like’.
I will email what I actually did so that you can provide a link – but I devised it from googled information if anyone wishes to follow their own route to culinary disaster.
I followed Delia’s method for the fruit, more rather than less.
But the answer to your solicitous enquiry, unfortunately, is that eating is not more comfortable and unlikely to be until mid October when I finish my treatment.

Most people are lucky enough not to run into boundary conflicts. But it is as well to have some idea of the score.
If, for instance, you did give ‘your’ hedge to the neighbour, his successor might decide to remove it and put up an ugly 6’8” fence. Not the end of the world but perhaps not what you would want.

The nearest countryside I had when young was Ling Forest which was about a mile distant – fine for cycling to. There was also Garibaldi Woods, with 2 murky ponds, a bit further away. Otherwise, the Racecourse – with bowling green, tennis courts, 18 hole pitch & putt, cricket and football pitches, children’s play area with mountain slide, see-saws and swings, and a good stretch of the original ‘straight’ bordered by gorse bushes for concealment and early ‘courting’ and 'piking' –was less than ten minutes’ walk from home.

To use a phrase which fell out of fashion some time ago, anyone who doesn’t know the meaning of ‘as broad as it is long’ must be a ‘square’.

Reg:
I think most of us agree it is the final image that matters, preferably not too ‘boggered about’ with. But who am I… ?

On the pub front.
After her bricklaying session at nightschool on Monday night, Sandra and a classmate went into The Snooty Fox (Old Ollerton). It was about 9.00 pm and there was one other customer. When she left just after ten there were just 3 regulars in. It was there that she heard about The Plough closing and was told by a member of the Fox staff that if it is wasn’t for the food custom (good value) their doors would be shutting too. It is a well managed free house but with a not very good selection of beer. John Smith’s Smooth used to be the best but last time I went in they had at least got Pedigree.

From what you have written I presume Greene King took over the Kimberley houses?

Around here, the Geordie Club (Boughton Social Club), The Silver Dollar (another club whose name I forget) and St Joseph’s Social Club are somewaht cheaper than the pubs, Ollerton & Bevercotes Miners’ Welfare (The Palladium of the North) isn’t and is considered doomed.
The cheapest place, I understand, is Sam Smiths’ Hop Pole Hotel where I believe the bitter is still under £1.50 if you can drink it.

We once took Gonzo, our hand-raised moorhen chick, for a caravan holiday to Elvaston. We held him to hoover up flies from the gutter of the car and also fed him on tiny fish from the lake. At home he liked to roost on the Amstrad but he wasn’t computer literate.

Jill:
Your lunch sounds good although around here one would expect a Xmas Menu for that sort of 3-course price.

Can’t wait to hear what Halifax sing about next!
I have never ventured into Financial Adviser country – I think of them in the same frame as Estate Agents although my favourite niece-by-marriage (I am an only child) has recently taken to one, a work colleague, as her second husband (she ditched the first one, prior, which leads me to the thought that people now tend to treat marriage like their power suppliers – “‘ark oo’s talkin’!”).
My response to the crisis is to buy more Premium Bonds in cae A&L crashes.
Touché! I think it would be pushing it a bit to say that calling anyone ‘young’ is being judgmental.

I recall going to the cinema in a rural part of Norway in 1951. Halfway through the film they stopped the showing and opened all the doors wide to let out the smoke. Nothing wrong with that although it seemed a little peculiar at the time.
I’m with you that regarding a ‘smoke room’ as an infringement of the human rights of a non-smker who chooses to take a job at the establishment is taking things to extreme and ridiculous limits. What next? Severely physically disabled police and firemen?

The last time I travelled on a train I used the ‘smoking’ carriage where I was one of only three passengers – there were no seats elsewhere.

I need more time to think before commenting on cruise ships and the Queen Mary's 'cigars and pipes only' bar.

4 Ticks:
Enjoyed your comment.
See RG’s remark to Jill, ‘it isn’t homework’!
I only write so much because, having become a recluse, I’ve nothing better to do.

Anonymous said...

I have sympathy for you Bungus, I had an MRI scan about a month ago and my ears are still ringing, how are yours? Mine took an hour, how long did yours take? Has your spine quite got over lying on that narrow strip of whatever it was, I thought I might fall off but at the end I couldn't get off, one needs to be a tightrope walker to cope. Thought I was going to fall off and they simply wouldn't help me.
FOOD ~ Charlie next door gave us some tomato plants earlier in the year and the left over ones, when we'd filled the greenhouse, were planted by the back fence. Himself picked them yesterday, all green, and Margaret next door gave me a bag full of cooking apples. I now have to make green tomato chutney. I found 2 recipes which I shall mix together for effect. We'll let you know how it turns out.

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