You may have noticed it being a bit quiet here recently. A couple of reasons. Firstly, it’s been the Easter holidays – Alton Towers was great, the knackered clutch on the way home less so… Secondly, I’ve been on International Wine Challenge duty, and as one of the 20 panel chairmen, I am tasked (dreadful word) with guiding a set of judges through the good, the bad and the ugly of the wine world – today was good, yesterday was mostly ugly… And if you’re not sure what goes on at the IWC, take a look at these accounts from Kathryn O’Mara of Artisan & Vine and Tara Devon aka Wine Passionista

I have a number of videos in embryonic form waiting to be processed but to be honest, after a day of IWC tasting, the last thing I feel like doing is slaving over Sony Vegas on a hot laptop. So I’m handing over to my mother (1926 vintage) and her scone recipe, captured here in glorious colo(u)r by my Melbourne-based sister Stella on one of her recent trips back to Blighty. Enjoy…