Hairy Snacks and Pies

The Pie Tribe headed to Shrewsbury by train for a day out in the Salopian capital. Not having been there for quite a while we were extremely pleased with what we found and experienced.

The trip to Shrewsbury started well .The Male Trolley Dolley on our train having an unusual sales pitch to shout as he moved between the passengers, "Soft Drinks for Saints and Alcohol for Sinners". After arriving we headed into town passing a sandwich bar en route.

At this point the Pieman spotted a huge pork Roast waiting to be sliced in the window and an overflowing tray of Pork Crackling. The owner of this emporium noticed the Pieman drooling and provocatively waved the crackling at the window under his nose. This was most unfair and too early in the day, so we ran away!

For the next few hours we wandered around this delightful town enjoying its shops, market, river, medieval buildings, museum and people. A number of interesting pies and sausages were spotted in the market hall which also had some excellent 2nd book stalls. The Pink Princess also discovered live lobsters and was not impressed by the fishmonger who noticed this. He picked one up to let her handle and she ran off quicker than the Pieman after crackling.

After Lunch we found the excellent Appleyard delicatessen which stocks a vast array of meats, cheeses, sausages, olives.......and PIES. As soon as you stepped over the threshold into this delightfully crammed emporium of fine foods you were hit by a Pan Galactic blast of odours to make any person giddy with anticipation.


As well products by organic Bridgend piemaker "Jones The Pie" they had Pies by a Bridgnorth based award winning Piemaker Reg May. We were spoilt for choice and particularly tempted by the Ploughmans Pie a Pork Pie with Pickle, Cheese, Spring Onion and Cherry Tomatoes. We settled on Reg's standard Pork Pie and a Pork & Stilton Pie variant. Both I can subsequently report were excellent. Along with some home made fudge some Wild Boar Sausage was purchased by Toutatis.

From here we headed down to the English Bridge and spotted two pairs of Goosanders diving in the river. We have only seen these once before in Dovedale,Derbyshire and they are beautiful. With so much walking Mrs Pieman wears out her shoes and we have to stop to purchase new ones. Also if your looking for wine try Tanners down by the river who have an amazing selection.

After bumping into various colleagues and friends we made our way past the fire eater back to the crackling sorry station. Yes a visit to Castle Banquets was in order for a Pork Roast, stuffing and apple sauce bap with a side dish/order of Crackling (Actually a bagful of the stuff which we were still eating a few days later and weren't charged for! O Happy days). A thoroughly excellent day and worth a visit again some time.

Spring is Coming

Spring is coming the Pie Tribe have been down to Plot 109a to do some digging with help from two drop dead gorgeous ladies pictured above. Fricasse and Stroganoff have taken to helping with any plot holder as soon as digging commences.

The shameless hussies run with the gait of a badly out of shape Pieman after a few shandies ,at the sight of a big fat juicy worm. Many thanks to the owner of these wonderful Black Rocks who parted company with some fresh eggs for the Pie Tribe.

If anyone is looking for some back breaking exercise to work off Christmas excess please contact the Pie Tribe who have some wilderness area which needs some effort. Also if you have any spare manure please let us know!!!

Valentines Day

Who needs a Valentines card with a cookie this size, Wow! Pie would be nice but this beats a card any day. Hair by Draggedthruahedge Ltd. Mrs Pieman got a fork for digging (She is so spoilt).

Gathering 17 - Electric Night

The second night of the Gathering in Llandudno and this time the Dog was left at home as the Dragonslayer drove on this occasion. We arrived and parked easily out front timing our arrival to coincide with the lights going down and a countdown to the band coming on stage.

The only downside to this was missing the superb Dave Sharp in support. But with three and a quarter hours of concert to go we needed to pace our selves.

The Band and Mr Peters were in excellent form throughout the night even with a few Guitar gremlins for the main man. A fairly eclectic mix was offered up with it seemed a particular empathise on Alarm v2 songs, certainly at the start. As ever the set list contain some surprises and plenty of favourites.

The band were joined on stage by Mr Sharp at the end to help finish off a brilliant night marred only by the fact that the Pieman had forgotten his house keys in the excitement and couldn't wake anyone up at home !!!

Gathering 17 - Acoustic Night

Second gig of the year came in the form of the Acoustic night of the Alarm Gathering 17 weekend. The Pieman and Ashman headed for Llandudno giving the Dog a good run with no problems. The venue once again was the North Wales Conference and Theater Centre right on the front.

This year again the room was set in the round with about twenty rows of chairs emanating from a small stage. We settled in to a standing spot by the main stage with a good view. The sound quality this year seemed excellent to the Piemans ears and the whole evening seemed a little bit more relaxed than on some other occasions.

The set list was a nice surprise with a good mix of favourites old and new with some not heard for a long time. Mike Peters actually sat down for a while and there was a good bit of chat explaining the situations in which some songs were written or were inspired by. All in all a great evening of the usual excellent standard.

Where's The Brakes???

We decided to head for Wales for some serious snow and sledging, heading first to the highest village in Wales, Bwlchgwyn. Unfortunately we couldn't find any decent runs and headed to Worlds End and the Horse Shoe Pass.

But just before we reached Worlds End we found a lay-by and a suitable slope. Ski Sunday eat your heart out, excellent fun. The Brakes were a bit iffy and a number of runs ended in a glorious heap of laughter at the bottom of the hill. Best fun since I last had a pie!