This month's guest is Duncan Waterston.

Unlike Senga McClutchie, our previous guest, who works in the catering industry, Duncan deploys his impressive skills in the pastry department as a bit of light relief from the day job - he's a dab hand at all things electrical.  Married to Wendy, Duncan spends what spare time he has (work and master-baking aside) with his good lady in the service of the Barony Players in Bo'ness. 

There's nothing he likes better after a hard day's graft than whipping out his tools and giving it laldy in the theatre. "I can turn my hands to most things behind the scenes", says Duncan.  "Yes, yes" avers a smiling yet haemorroidically-challenged Allan Brownlie, a colleague behind the scenes at the theatre.  Along with Sandy Queenan, this triumvirate comprises the solid backbone of the workshop team at the theatre.  Allan and Sandy tread the boards too.  Indeed, Sandy's Throbbing was much admired by the ladies in the last production of Habeus Corpus. Duncan is not given to strutting his stuff on the stage: he prefers to give his all where the audience can't see him.  Occasionally, however, Duncan appears in all his finery - in the picture, he can be seen sporting his dickie.  We would expect nothing less, of course, from the Chair of the Barony Players.

To the scones.  Duncan's love of scones is due to the efforts of his mother, Evelyn, a dab hand herself in sconology.  His favourite, he says, is a fruit scone with cinnamon, but due to the demands of his schedule, he doesn't get the opportunity to make scones as often as he would like.  He compared the frequency of his scone-making to that of his sex-life, but the detail has had to be censored.  To the Sconemaster's surprise, Duncan does spend a good bit of his baking time on projects other than scones.  His baked cheesecake (yes, baked, to give it a more solid consistency) is one of his favourites, particularly the blueberry variety.  It's no surprise that someone as close to the theatre as Duncan should be into cheesecake, of course. His pièce de resistance, however,  is his coconut and lime cake.  This is a very fine sweetmeat indeed. 

Duncan's recommendation of a scone shop to visit?  Ashwood's Garden Centre in Swindon, West Midlands where the almond and and blackberry scone is to die for, according to Duncan, seconded by Wendy.  Who could argue with such a pair? Next time the Sconemaster is in the vicinity, that's definitely on the list for a visit.

Thanks Duncan for guesting on the site.  Keep up the good work behind the scenes fiddling with Sandy and Alan.

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