Pies from Frank Spurgeon made a welcome return to the pie munchers walk this week. Six sombre munchers set off from
St. Michael & All Angels church after inspecting it internally & externally and finding
two scratch dials. We set off northwards, leaving the church and the cold war early warning station behind us.
Then, turning west, we followed a footpath that passed through a garden with a beautiful, crazy puppy that was so pleased to see us. This lifted our spirits and of course we had to make a fuss of her... We continued to Smallburgh and
St. Peter’s church for lunch at just shy of two miles. Here we found a badly weathered
scratch dial.
We then crossed the A149 and picked up the old road and headed east in search of liquid refreshment, passing through a field of cows and calves that were very interested in us and followed our exit from the field. A short walk up the A1151 took us to the
Wayford Bridge Inn that yielded an insipid pint of Theakston's
Black Bull, possibly due to the fact that it’d been chilled so much. Returning down the A1151 a little way before picking up a picturesque route south that reunited us with the car and the feast within. This was consumed in the porch of St. Michael & All Angels, due to the ever threatening rain. Charles produced a wonderfully messy first course of marinated Anchovies in olive oil with garlic – these had to be skewered with a tooth pick... Next we had Sardine stuffed cherry peppers with raisins and pine nuts. Frank Spurgeon’s small pies were sliced revealing a dark filling and a hint of jelly. When the pies were tasted back in
May 2007, the pies had a pink filling. These pies had low aroma and the pastry was crisp and very tasty, the filling less so, but pleasant. The pies came in with a score of 7.66666 with a standard deviation of 0.40825, below their previous tastings when they scored 8.1. Shortbread completed the munching, that gives Frank Spurgeon a normalised score of 7.5.
Then, turning west, we followed a footpath that passed through a garden with a beautiful, crazy puppy that was so pleased to see us. This lifted our spirits and of course we had to make a fuss of her... We continued to Smallburgh and St. Peter’s church for lunch at just shy of two miles. Here we found a badly weathered scratch dial. 
We then crossed the A149 and picked up the old road and headed east in search of liquid refreshment, passing through a field of cows and calves that were very interested in us and followed our exit from the field. A short walk up the A1151 took us to the Wayford Bridge Inn that yielded an insipid pint of Theakston's Black Bull, possibly due to the fact that it’d been chilled so much. Returning down the A1151 a little way before picking up a picturesque route south that reunited us with the car and the feast within. This was consumed in the porch of St. Michael & All Angels, due to the ever threatening rain. Charles produced a wonderfully messy first course of marinated Anchovies in olive oil with garlic – these had to be skewered with a tooth pick... Next we had Sardine stuffed cherry peppers with raisins and pine nuts. Frank Spurgeon’s small pies were sliced revealing a dark filling and a hint of jelly. When the pies were tasted back in May 2007, the pies had a pink filling. These pies had low aroma and the pastry was crisp and very tasty, the filling less so, but pleasant. The pies came in with a score of 7.66666 with a standard deviation of 0.40825, below their previous tastings when they scored 8.1. Shortbread completed the munching, that gives Frank Spurgeon a normalised score of 7.5.
