Tag Archives: Lincoln

The Scone Chronicles XXIV

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We took a short ride out on Friday, just to blow a few cobwebs away. I even remembered to take the camera with me.

After breakfast and a couple of errands we swung out to Lincoln to have a look at Whisby Garden Centre. It’s looking a bit threadbare, the butcher has gone and a lot of book covers in The Works are curling due to damp.

On the other hand the staff are friendly, the place has character and I was able to east scones whilst sitting by a wood burning stove and looking out of the window at a duck pond.

We’ve drifted off course this year – with fewer piers and fewer scones than originally intended. That’s partly my fault as I’ve not done enough planning, and partly circumstances – including Julia’s time on jury duty.

If I had to be honest I’d have to say it was mainly down to me because I’ve not felt like walking much, and I don’t like the south-east, where we have to go in search of piers if we are going to be serious. Our last pier expedition was to Wales and the North West and the walk round Llandudno really struck home. There is a lot of difference between this year’s trip and the one we took before all the trouble started.

But, as a Victorian novelist would say, I digress.

The subject is scones. At Whisby we had tea and scones and, as I mentioned earlier, were able to sit with one side facing a duckpond and the other side being nicely warmed by burning logs.

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Not sure what she’s looking at, but she seems worried by something behind me. Note the scarf – it was a birthday present.

If I ever have grandchildren they will probably read this one day in absolute horror. And it won’t be at my deplorable writing style because grammar will have died by then and spelling will have been replaced by predictive text and American spellcheckers. See here for a note on American spelling.

Did my grandfather really burn fossil fuel and choke a nation just to go for a scone? And did he really kill a tree just to get warm? That’s before they get to the point of wondering why anyone would want to eat a scone, which will be seen as a dangerous fat and sugar delivery device.

The answer is yes, and I enjoyed it. Though I would have enjoyed it more if they’d baked it at a lower temperature to avoid the crust, and if they hadn’t sprinkled it with icing sugar – it isn’t necessary.

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Low Cunning and Bidding on ebay

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Last week I bid £120 on a medallion. I’ve already had a discussion on thrift, common sense and my sanity with Julia, so we’ll gloss over that. My defence is that collecting is a mental condition rather than a hobby.

It’s like the one in the header picture but the reverse has the coat of arms of Skegness. The one in the picture is the commoner one with the coat of arms of Lincoln on the reverse.

There is a picture of the Skegness medal and much other material here.

I didn’t get it, and was annoyed to be the underbidder to a winning bid of £122. I was a bit shocked to be honest, as I really thought it should only be £80 – £90. The extra was the safety net to ensure I got it.

Ah well, some you win and some you lose.

Then it immediately reappeared for sale, using the same photographs, but this time with a reserve. Curiouser and curiouser as they say. Well, Alice said it in Wonderland, and there’s a lot in ebay that reminds me of life through the Looking Glass.

I watched it. I considered writing to ask what was happening. I thought of reporting it to ebay, because it looked like someone had bid it up and bought it back themselves by accident. Such things have been known, though I can’t say for sure. I can only say that I was suspicious, and that there were certain indications that this was the case.

Anyway, I didn’t bid. I watched, I compared the bidders with the bidders on the previous “sale” and I waited. Eventually I decided what to do and put a bid on it. Someone outbid me. It was the same bidder that had outbid me last time.

This was where my low cunning came in.

I bid again, just another £2.

They bid again and outbid me again.

But, I think they got the message – that there would be no big bid this time – and they didn’t bid again when I added an extra couple of quid. After all, how many times do you want to buy your own stuff back? It gets expensive when you have commission to pay.

Nobody else bid either and I closed the sale at £87. It’s enough, but it’s £33 cheaper than I bid on the previous one. Assuming my earlier suspicions were justified I’d like to think of it as both a result (better price) and a lesson (greed doesn’t pay).