For many years now Scraggies have had the job of maintaining the outdoor chapel on our local Scout camp site, a few miles from home. The chapel is a peaceful spot, among maple and pine trees away from the two camping fields, and from the busy area where the various wooden buildings and camp fire circle are located. Last Saturday morning was our annual autumnal leaf clearing session, raking and brushing fallen leaves, moving them outside of the low wooden fence around the chapel. This year the seasons seem to be later than usual, and there are still leaves on the trees, possibly necessitating a second visit is a couple of weeks.
But the highlight of the day was the annual beer and pie festival at the Elephant And Castle in Thurlaston, the village a couple of miles away that you can see from the end of our garden on the far side of the M69 across the fields. Since it coincided with the planned camp chapel maintenance it was an obvious venue for lunch. Most Scraggies drove there, but Richard Hayes and I collected Tia from home, and walked across the fields on a gorgeous sunny autumn afternoon.
As soon as Scraggies had all gathered, we each chose our respective homemade pie from a choice of at least half a dozen varieties – my choice was mixed game, and Chantal, who had driven to the pub to join the rest of us, chose beef and ale. All were properly encased in short crust pastry (none of the exploding puff pastry nonsense) and served with chips and mushy peas.
And, possibly of greater importance, there were the beers;
Ale aficionados can click on the image for greater detail. The northern branch of the family will be pleased to hear that the best option by far was the Leeds Brewery offer of “Midnight Bell”. For those across the Big Pond, I must advise that, having tasted “American Pride” I can confirm that the Americans have still not got the hang of this brewing business. It’s a shame that in 1773 they turfed all those tea bags into Boston Harbour (or technically Boston Harbor, I suppose) since a nice cup of tea is most certainly preferable to American Ale.
Most Scraggy Crows members were driving, and so gently drifted away after sampling 2 or 3 halves of various ales, leaving Richard and I to ensure that we tried at least one of each sample (with the exception of the Everards offerings, which we can sample at any time), plus a few extra half pints of the Midnight Bell, just to demonstrate our hearty approval of this brew. The sun was low in the sky when, guided home by Tia, we wandered contently back across the fields in the late afternoon sunshine.
Technically we live in Oaktree House, but sadly the tree had to go.
We now have a thriving Oakstump at the front of the house.
