National Trust scones (cream or jam first?)
Guest blog from Kathy.
I would like to introduce you to a very good friend of mine called Sarah.
Sarah and I go back a long way (to the days of 100-mile round trips on a Friday evening to Rock City in Nottingham from our Northamptonshire hometown, to see some obscure rock band and get stuck to the carpet. But that's another story).
These days we only reminisce fondly about those formative trips, but one thing that hasn’t changed is Sarah’s talent for writing. She was always a literature buff at school, devouring the classics and going on to get a first-class honours degree in English from Nottingham Trent University. I don’t believe that Sarah ever really put her skills to use outside of a work capacity until she conceived of a wonderful idea involving scones.
I tried to write my own version of Sarah’s story, but there’s a reason she’s a published author and I’m not. So, I will hand over to Sarah to explain.
Turning 39
"In February 2013, two things happened: I turned 39 and I joined the National Trust. Other people in my position would have thought ‘I’ll hit 40 this time next year, I’m off on a hedonistic rampage’ and have gone to Ibiza for twelve months. Not me. It’s for the best: I’m not making a fool of myself in nightclubs and now we have a nice sticker on our windscreen.
"We joined at Chartwell – even with my terrible maths, I could see that joining and getting access to 500+ places was better than paying to visit one – and I was very excited about it. But months went by and no second outing took place. And when I did finally travel the massive 1 ½ miles from my house to Osterley Park in London, I enjoyed it immensely but couldn’t remember anything about it when I got home.
"And so I formed a mission: I would travel to every National Trust place. At each one, I would record the most fascinating bits of its history and I would reward myself with a scone. And so the National Trust Scone blog https://www.nationaltrustscones.com/ , featuring reviews of both properties and their scones, was born."
150 scones and counting …
Sarah has gone on to visit a lot of NT properties, taste over 150 scones and, the icing on the cake (or the cream on the scone), the National Trust approached Sarah to ask if she would write what became their best-selling ‘National Trust Book of Scones’!
So, if you love scones (whether you call them 'scons' or 'scowns' as Sarah writes, or put the jam or cream on first) and enjoy a good NT property why not subscribe to Sarah's blog.