Anniversary Cake
A few weeks ago we referred to a splendid interview
with the doyen broadcaster, mountaineer and conservationist Tom Weir by
Dr Jenny Taggart in the February 2005 issue of the Scots Independent.
Our thank to Dr Taggart for her assistance in making the interview
available for Flag visitors. Tom Weir was the first winner of the
SI's Oliver Brown Award and the interview has been added to the Tom Weir
section of the Oliver Brown feature.
Tom Weir in conversation with Dr Jenny Taggart.
A
few days after his ninetieth birthday ceilidh I have the pleasure to
meet the diminutive Tom Weir, resplendent in his trade mark woolly
bunnet, fair-isle jumper and nicky-tams. He is sprightly and energetic,
keen for conversation and eager to enjoy birthday cake and tea made by
his wife, Rhone.
His
earliest recollection is of his grandmother who would give him a penny
to sing ‘Rowan Tree’. “I can still sing it today” he laughs. He
remembers as a child wanting to climb - anything, anywhere. His mother
loved mountains and together the pair would escape Glasgow. A short bus
journey would take them from their home in Springburn to the Campsite
Hills, a place that is still a favourite of Tom’s today. A
commemorative cairn now marks the start of ‘Weir’s Walk’ from Clachan of
Campsie through the hills. From his earliest days, he also remembers
wanting to be a writer. Here he was helped by another member of his
strongly matriarchal family. His elder, and equally weel-kent sister,
Mollie, taught him to touch-type, charging him two shillings and
sixpence a lesson. “It was money well spent”, he says.
I ask
about his experience as a Battery Officer in the Royal Artillery in the
Second World War. “I was in action in Italy. They don’t let you off, you
know. We were called out anytime, day or night. One time the men had
really suffered. We were supposed to have an inspection each day, and I
said to the men ‘never mind that, you’ve done your bit’. I was back to a
private again by the next day because I didn’t get it right. One thing I
will never forget, I was in the cinema in Germany and there was an
explosion and the whole screen blew right out covering everyone with
debris. We fought our way out again. There was the time too when I was
in a top bunk and another chap was on the lower. We were bombed and the
bomb went straight through the two bunks between us.”
He came
back to Glasgow after the war, and began work as a surveyor. But he was
soon able to support himself by his writing, and in1950 took part in the
first post-war Himalayan expedition. In 1952, he was one of the first to
explore the mountains of Nepal and Katmandu. Some of his most difficult
ascents were there. He also climbed in Greenland above the Arctic
Circle, in Morocco, Iran, Syria and Kurdistan, as well as in Scotland.
He says he likes the challenge of the climb and the achievement of
reaching the summit.
Despite
being one of Scotland’s foremost mountaineers, he was never a
Munro-bagger. He has been to the top of most Munros, but preferred to
climb only those he liked best, enjoying the whole experience of the
sky, the lochs, trees, birds, flowers, animals – the spiritual as well
as the physical. For example, the tiny 142-metre Duncryne, known locally
where he lives in Gartocharn as ‘The Dumpling’, has been important
always to him. “I used to climb Duncryne every day, sometimes even at
midnight.” I ask him if this is his favourite place in Scotland. “No”,
he replies, “That honour goes to Glen Lyon. It is a beautiful place. I
call it ‘the three Ls’: the loveliest, the longest and the loneliest. I
like to walk there because of the loneliness.”
He
believes climbing should be safer today than fifty years ago because of
better clothing and equipment. But this has had the contrary effect that
climbers may now extend themselves beyond their ability to prove how
good they are. Consequently, they can be in greater danger. He says,
“For me, it was never what I did, but what I saw, that was important”.
Tom was injured only once in his life, rock climbing on Ben A’an in the
Trossachs. Recalling the incident, he said, “It is a difficult climb. We
were just starting and I hadn’t got the feel of the mountain. I missed a
vital hold and fell forty feet. I nearly lost my life, but it was my own
fault. I was climbing without a belay. I never did that again”.
Tom Weir
has been given many awards. He has received the Scots Independent
Oliver Award in 1983 for advancing the cause of Scotland’s self-respect.
He has an MBE. He was awarded STV’s personality of the year in 1978 for
Weir’s Way, a programme that introduced the Scottish countryside
to many Scots whose lives had given them no prior knowledge or
experience of it. He is most proud of The John Muir Trust Award given
him in 2000. The award, proudly displayed in his home, is inscribed
“Presented to Tom Weir in recognition of his contribution to the wider
understanding of the value of Scotland’s wild places”. The John Muir
Award is not given annually, and has only been given twice in the
twenty-one years of the organisation’s existence in this country. Tom
was the first recipient. All of their married life he and Rhona have
lived on the shores of Loch Lomond. Concerned that the area should be
protected, Tom campaigned to see the setting up of the National Park. He
is proud that this has come to pass and believes that the Park is
necessary for management of the land, the flora and the fauna. He also
campaigned to safeguard the Cairngorms and Glen Nevis.
I ask
Tom if he believes in Scottish Independence. He replies “Scotland could
easily do it. It has everything. There is no reason why we can’t look
after ourselves. I believe we should, but I have never been actively
involved in politics”.
“Do you
believe in God?” I ask. He is sure of his answer: “No. Everyone has one
life. That’s all it is. No spirit looks after you beyond death. I was
lucky not to have been killed in the war. I was lucky not to have been
killed on Ben A’an. I don’t believe the world will be in existence in
another one hundred years. Man is outliving himself. The atomic bombs
dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima were terrible. Now climate change is
destroying the world. I have lived long enough to see the difference
from when I was young. Life was more free then.”
What is
the secret of a long life, I wonder? “Good health, good friends, and
enough money to live at your own level. Always be doing something you
enjoy doing. Good and happy memories”. Has Tom Weir, legend in his own
lifetime, enjoyed his life? “I enjoy it still. Every morning I wake up
and there is something else to do”.
The
secret of long life is always be doing something you enjoy.
Biographical
note
Tom
Weir was born in 1914 in Springburn, Glasgow. His father was killed in
the Great War later the same year. He was brought up mainly by his
grandmother, while his mother painted railway wagons to support Tom, his
brother Willie and sister Mollie. After leaving school at 14 years, Tom
worked as a grocer’s boy. Later, in the late 1940s he worked for a short
while as a surveyor for Ordnance Survey, before becoming a full-time
climber, writer and broadcaster. For 56 years he wrote a monthly column
for Scots Magazine. He has published 14 books on climbing and on the
wildlife and natural history of Scotland, writing his first book,
Highland’s Days, while on active duty in the Second World War. In 1976,
he made the hugely successful Weir’s Way for STV, a programme that is
currently being rerun to record viewing figures despite being broadcast
at 3.00 a.m. He has won many awards including the first ever Scots
Independent Oliver Award in 1983. He still enjoys a level of fitness
today that many half his age would envy.
Anniversary Cake is the appropriate recipe to
celebrate the inspiring life of 90-year-young Tom Weir and this week you
also get the bonus of a further recipe for Almond Paste!
Anniversary Cake
Ingredients:
350 g (12 oz) butter; 350 g (12 oz) soft brown sugar; 6 eggs, beaten;
350 g (12 oz) flour; pinch of salt; 1 teaspoon baking powder; 1 teaspoon
mixed spice; 1 teaspoon grated nutmeg; 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon; 350 g
(12 oz) sultanas;350 g (12 oz) currants; 225 g (8 oz) seedless raisons;
100 g (4 oz) mixed candied peel; 175 g (6 oz) glace cherries, finely
chopped; 75 g (3 oz) blanched almonds, finely chopped; finely grated
rind and juice of 1 lemon; 4 tablespoons brandy, rum or sherry
Method:
Grease a 23 cm (9 inch) square cake tin and line with a double layer of
grease-proof paper. Brush with oil. Beat the butter until soft and
light, add the sugar and cream together until light and fluffy.
Beat in the eggs a little at a time, adding a little of the measured
flour if the mixture shows signs of separating. Sieve the flour
with the salt, baking powder and spices into a large mixing bowl.
Stir in the dried fruit, candied peel, glacé cherries and almonds and
mix thoroughly. Fold into the butter and sugar, adding the lemon
rind and juice and half the spirits. Mix well together, then spoon
into the prepared tin. Spread level.
Bake in a warm oven (170°C, 325°F, Gas Mark 3) for 3½
hours or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out
clean. Cover the cake with foil if it becomes too brown during
cooking. When cooked, remove from the oven and leave to cool
slightly. Prick a few holes in the top of the cake with a skewer
and spoon over the remaining spirits.
Leave until cold, then turn out of the tin and remove
the greaseproof paper. Wrap in aluminium foil and store in an
airtight tin for at least a month to improve the flavour, spooning over
more spirits from time to time, if wished. Cover with Almond Paste
before icing and decorating.
Almond Paste
Ingredients:
350g (12 oz) ground almonds; 175g (6 oz) caster sugar; 175g
(6 oz) icing sugar, sieved; 1 egg; 3 egg yolks; 1-2
tablespoons lemon juice; few drops of almond or vanilla essence
(optional); about 3 tablespoons sieved apricot jam, warmed
Method:
Put the almonds and sugars in a bowl and mix well. Beat the egg
and egg yolks together with half the lemon juice, and the essence if
using. Add to the almond mixture and mix carefully until the paste
comes together, adding more lemon juice if necessary, but do not
overwork. To add to cake work as follows: brush the top of the
cake with apricot jam. Halve almond paste and roll out one piece
on a board sprinkled with icing sugar, to a round slightly larger than
the cake. Lift on to the rolling pin and lay over the cake.
Trim. Brush the sides of the cake with the remaining jam.
Roll out the remaining paste into a rectangle, long enough to go half
round cake and twice as deep; cut into two. Press one piece at a
time on to the cake, cutting away any excess along the top. Smooth
the joins with a palette knife, smooth the top of the cake with a
rolling pin and roll a straight-sided jar round the sides. Leave
to dry for at least one week before icing.
