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Tuesday, July 06, 2010

CORNISH HOLIDAY

Just returned from 10 days immersed in Cornwall.


Cornish Wild Flowers


Woodland Rivers


Prehistoric Hut Circles  (What was the life of a megalithic farmer like, tending sheep on these moorlands? Bleak, according to our standards, maybe? Or Arcadian according to theirs? The climate was warmer then. There is clean running water nearby. There are signs of early agriculture. Warmth, shelter, food and drink. It could have been a simple and satisfying life even with an expectancy of about 30 years absolute maximum.)


Tiddy Oggies  (link)


Cornish Clotted Cream Teas

Oh... and the (fairly) new dog, Rex, enjoyed himself having been introduced to "watersports"  - a new experience for him but he took to it like a duck to water!


20 comments:

herhimnbryn said...

Sigh...
ps. Do you remember Jesus in the fish and chip shop?!

Avus said...

HHnB
You have really got me there. I know the Christian religion has Jesus in everything, but in the fish and chip shop.....?

Roderick Robinson said...

Good fish and chips can be a heavenly experience.

Haven't the Corns fought tooth and nail to get European Union AOC on behalf of their pasties? They are not doing their cause any good reverting to such idiomacy (Latter word doesn't exist but should.) I'm all in favour of the AOC pasty. CPs are the most variable foodstuff I know and I can't help feeling - having yet again discarded a 95% turnip CP - that I'm being taken for a ride. Oh, and another thing. Folding over the two flaps may result in an authentic shape but gustatory pleasure goes out of the window, maundering through that great wodge of unfilled pastry. Cream teas? I have no opinion - no sweet tooth.

herhimnbryn said...

When we had F and C while on hols, we would go to the shop near the site. You and me and the bros went there one evening and the guy who served us looked just like Jesus from one of the hollywood films! (red hair). How can you not remember?!!!

Avus said...

HHnB:
After driving down to Cornwall in pre-motoring days - leaving at 5.00am and arriving at about 4.00pm, I remembered very little until after a good night's sleep!

Avus said...

BB:
I agree that there are Cornish Pasties and "Cornish" Pasties. If you know where to find the former (and I do, see: http://www.pengennapasties.co.uk/) they can be superb. Generous with the steak, with finely chopped new potatoes, onions, a little turnip and pastry so good that even "that great wodge of unfilled pastry" can be pleasing to eat.
Supermarket offerings are to be avoided at all costs.

ArtPropelled said...

Thanks for a little taste of Cornwall. I think I sampled the best and the worst of Cornwall's pasties.

Pam said...

Looks lovely - rather better weather than we got in Cornwall last summer.

I wonder if prehistoric farmers got bored with no books, computers, tv? I suppose that's why oral storytelling got invented.

Avus said...

Art..:
There are some pretty awful examples out there - one has to be careful!

Isabelle:
I agree about oral storytelling. Such people had far better memory retention than us (all of Druidic lore was committed to memory and transferred orally - which is why we have no record of that religion).
As to boredom - I cannot think they even knew the condition. Two of my grandchildren, brother and sister, drove down to see us yesterday. Both on holiday this week and were driving around aimlessly and were "so bored"! their minds are not enquiring and they need "experiences" presented to them on a plate, like food.

Kay Cooke said...

Oh so beautiful. A breath of the real English countryside. I remember seeing scenes like these - have been reading diaries I kept of that time and that has also been bringing back the memories (33 years ago now).

Avus said...

Kay:
Glad it helped to enhance those diary memories. Was that countryside better or different from yours in N.Z.?
Personally, your lovely country so overwhelmed me that, if I were a younger man, emigration would have been the next step! (and yet an old friend of mine has joined his family out there and still aches to come home to UK - he said to me "Be careful what you wish for")

Lee said...

A good time was had by all, it seems.

Avus said...

Lee:
Yes - most satisfying and very relaxing.

Lucy said...

Marks and Spencers Cornish pasties were pretty good, I recall. We bought some once in a tiny backstreet kitchen in Falmouth when I was a kid. They were wrapped in newspaper and smelled totally heavenly, but when eaten seemed to be quite bland and with scarcely a morsel of meat. In fact there's a van comes to some of our local markets here, all the way from Cornwall. When we got to them they'd sold out of the 'original' ones and there were only things like pork and apple left, but they were quite good anyway.

The cream tea looks fab too, as does it all really.

Avus said...

Lucy:
An "Oggie van" all the way
from Cornwall? Not bad, eh?
Certainly Cornwall and Brittany always had close links and an almost common language. The term "Great Britain" originally defined this island in relation to "Lesser Britain" (or Brittany), when many crossed from Cornwall to there during the hell of Dark Age Britain.

Vita said...

Dial up internet here. Some of the photos loaded for me to see, but others just took too long, even though I wandered off to listen to This American Life on the radio while I waited. The story ended, but the photos still didn't load. Do you detect self pity? Posted Ducati answers, I hope.

Susan Lucente said...

Such gorgeous scenery! Thanks for sharing your experience and the beautiful pictures! It's especially nice to see as I'm stuck at home with piles of laundry waiting to be folded, dishes in the sink, and my little ones making constant messes for me to clean up. I am envious! :-)

Vita said...

Let the cookbook photographers get a look at your efforts; they'll tuck their tails between their legs!

short breaks in wales said...

Very nice place indeed! I love your blog. Great photos.

Holidays in Dorset said...

Cornwall is so lovely. I can't forget my stay there at Cornwall Holiday Cottages.