Royal Cornwall Show 2018

This week we went to the Royal Cornwall Show held at Wadebridge. The Show is an agricultural show that has been running for over 225 years. At one stage the show moved around the county, pitching up each year at a different location, it even came to Antron near Helston once.

Once the show settled down at a custom built showground, (by that I mean a group of fields along which they laid concrete tracks and built some permanent sheds), the show has remained pretty much the same. Centred around displays of agricultural equipment and animals, the show also attracts retailers such as garages, clothes and food retailers. Dotted in amongst all of the regular firms that attend are tents full of crafts, by banding together the craftsman can afford the cost of renting space at the show, and some individuals with a particular product to sell. I have to say I did feel a little sadness when I came across a stall being manned by the actor John Challis, where he was selling his autobiography but whenever I passedI didn't see any customers (that's not to say he didn't have loads). I'm not convinced that an agricultural show is the sort of place to attract a lot of readers particularly, a bookshop being a more focused selling opportunity, yet it does afford a very large footfall within a very limited period of time. It may be unfair of me to think of it is sad, I think I am seeing him as an actor selling a book when he is an author promoting his wares.

At the show there are displays of crafts and country skills, such as fly-fishing, sheep shearing, gundog displays, and even horse riding competitions.The show hasn't changed much in that a lot of the displays remain in the same spots, every time we go the Flower Tent, the Churches tent, the vintage vehicle section, the Dog Show to name a few, they are in the same locations.

Here are a couple of photographs from this year's show:




The first couple of photos are from the Flower Tent, a combination of commercial nurseries displaying their wares and selling various items, while also competing against each other for certificates for first, second, third et cetera. (They actually refer to the certificates as medals as they do at the Chelsea Flower Show). The tent also has amateur flower arrangers ranging from flower arranging clubs to schoolchildren. There is always a large central themed display by Lifton Farm Shop. This year's theme involved scenes from Peter Rabbit, where fruit and vegetables were arranged in interesting ways.Lifton also sell baked goods as they have their own cafe so have a food focus too.

The photo top right is of a group of bonsai trees, cultivated from azaleas, all in flower at the same time- something I've not seen before.

The largest of the photos above is from a pitch just along from the Flower Tent where forestry and chainsaw art is created. To the left in the picture is a bench featuring ends with an eagle and, we think, a vulture. On the right in the picture is a hat and coat carved out of wood, varnished by the looks of the sheen, designed to look like they are hanging from a coat hook. The Eagle and bench were made using a chainsaw but I'm unsure as to how they created the hat and coat.

Bottom left in the set of photographs is one I took of Prince Charles, although I was not very close when I used my phone camera he can be seen in the middle. Prince Charles and Camilla were attending the show as Prince Charles is the patron.

The final photograph is of a handmade chicken coop to illustrate a combination of the agricultural nature and the use of crafts.

I hadn't planned to take photographs in order to blog about the show, if I blog about it again I have to remember next year to take some dedicated photos.

We caught up with some of our oldest friends, which was something we wanted to do for a long time, had some nice food, saw some interesting things and generally enjoyed the show, though there's always more to see than we manage to get to in a day.

The thing I most enjoyed from the show was a demonstration of duck herding of all things. Steve Barnes is an Australian chap who talks to the audience while either sheep shearing or running his Dog and Duck Show:  http://www.dogandduckshow.co.uk/

Here is a video intro to Steve although you have to see him to really delete appreciate the humour: https://youtu.be/hwcB8ojcEuk

The Cornish Cream Tea

If I was asked to name four traditional Cornish foods I would choose the Cornish Pasty, Saffron Cake, Hevva Cake and the Cornish Cream Tea. Today I want to talk about the cream tea.

There has been debate as to where the cream tea originated, some say Devon and those who know the truth say Cornwall.
(A similar debate ranges around the audience of the Cornish pasty but that's for another day. )
The difference between the two is quite straightforward but first of all let me list the ingredients in a cream tea:

• a scone  - small item of a bread-alike consistency (a sweetened version of the American "biscuit") See this BBC recipe.
• a portion of jam - often strawberry jam (American "jelly")
• a portion of Cornish Clotted Cream. Wikipedia’s definition.

The type of cream is crucial. I have been to places, sad places where clotted cream is unavailable, that offer a form of whipped cream. (Pause, while I shudder in horror.)

A Devon or Devonshire cream tea consists of a scone with cream placed upon it and on top of that is jam. In Cornwall we always choose to place jam upon the scone, followed by the clotted cream. In my opinion the only time you would want to put your cream on first is if you are ashamed of it!
Here is a link to a long term maker of clotted cream, since 1890, with scientific research carried out to identify the best way to serve a cream tea: Rodda.

The photo at the top of this page is somewhat fancier than a standard cream tea, in fact the picture shows a Chocolate Cream Tea (pause, while  purists engage in a sharp intake of breath). The cream tea is accompanied by chocolate chip scones and a Canton tea that has chocolate undertones; the plate, in this case slate, was also decorated with a cut strawberry, raspberry, physilis and kiwifruit, along with a fruit like a large blueberry that I couldn't identify. This cream tea is served at the Waymarker, a Cornish food establishment situated between Falmouth, Constantine and Halvasso: set your satnav to find the postcode - TR11 5PW.

I have no connection to the Waymarker. I'm just a very happy customer who has been there on quite a few occasions and always enjoyed the food and the very friendly service. I receive no benefit from mentioning the Waymarker.

A mention for this blog in Cornish World magazine (and some Link Love)

A very flattering mention for this humble and, of late, somewhat tardy Blogger blog and the pressure is on.  The item is in the smartly turned out Cornish World magazine.  (For anyone not completely familiar with the online world, click on the magazine tile in the previous sentence and it will take you to the magazine’s website.)

In addition to being highly flattered at being given a mention, it was particularly pleasing to be featured in a magazine that is both in touch with Cornish culture and bang up to date with technology.  Reading the June/July edition, No. 70, I see they are clued up with a web presence both at www.cornishworldmagazine.co.uk and www.mycornwall.tv, a Twitter account and a Facebook page.

My only regret was a dearth of decent photographs to offer following the death of my Acer netbook, (that’ll teach me to be lax about backups).  The one that was used was not the sharpest of the bunch but, then again it woud have detracted from the writing if it had been pin sharp, so I will console myself that the low resolution photo plays it’s part.

 

If you have come to this blog from reading the article, then welcome gentle reader.  Do visit again and I will aim to live up to the warm reception Catherine gave me in her article.

Of course, you may well be a fellow blogger who has visited in order to confirm for yourself that your efforts trump anything I may have recorded.  So be it, read, confirm any preconceptions and submit your blog for a mention in despatches by emailing catherine@cornishworldmagazine.co.uk.

Technorati Tags: Cornwall,cornishworldmagazine

Putting my best foot forward

Technorati Tags: Walking Boots,Brasher,Lithium GTX

I would like to declare at the outset that this post id the result of a competition that I won recently.

A while ago I started my search in earnest to find a really good pair of walking boots with a view to a trip to the States to celebrate a special birthday for my wife, Cathy.  One of the places I went to look was Brasher.  While on their site I saw they had a newsletter and, as I signed up, I saw that they did a monthly drawing to win a pair of boots for new subscribers.  I signed up in the hope that I might get some sort of discount offer in a newsletter, what I got was a complete surprise.  A few weeks after signing up I found that I had been drawn to win a pair of new Brasher boots of my choice from their catalogue!

The boots arrived today, Lithium GTX, full of Goretex goodness.  I couldn’t wait to get them out to try on. 

These boots mark a change for me.  I have always been a leather boot sort of chap, never gave a lot of thought to newer developments – to be fair I didn’t expect to be buying the top end type of boot and many much cheaper fabric boots seemed to be more like beefed up trainers.

Having the freedom to choose any boot I took time to learn about the many different types and what they were best suited for.  We will be visiting a variety of terrain in the US from mountains to salt plains to westrn seaboard so I needed a boot that was versatile.  We might undertake activities such as horse riding so I needed a boot that wasn’t too bulky.  The boot would also need to comfortable in all sorts of locations as I intend wearing them in urban and country settings, in hot and cold temperatures. 

I needed to have my feet carefully measured before committing to size, since Brasher would be sending the boots direct.  Fortunately with the help of Sarah in Brasher’s publicity department I went along to their Premier stockist nearest to West Cornwall – Penrose Outdoors in Truro.  Cathy and I were treated really well at the store, even though I explained I needed measuring but the boots would come to me direct from Brasher.  While Cathy would need a pair of boots for the US we had decided that the most we would do is by some socks to say thanks for measuring my feet.  (In fact, Lynette at the store was so knowledgeable and helpful we ended up getting Cathy a pair of boots from there, plus some sets of socks and boot care products).

I can’t wait to be able to try the boots out on a walk but that’s another post, as they say.

When does one stop waiting for the big idea?

I have started a bunch of posts over the last month, (yes, month).  Not one idea managed to grow into something resembling my idea of a post.  The month before that I struggled to hold on to the big thoughts I have when driving in this beautiful county of Cornwall; much of what I have to say when behind the wheel relates to the views, reflections and memories of growing up here. But that’s where it stops, (yes, I started a sentence with But – that isn’t necessarily a crime, no matter how uncomfortable it is making me feel.  I am trying to get to grips with whatever creature it is that gets in the way of my writing these days.  With the idea that the human mind will put all sorts of obstacles in the way to avoid change, I am embracing the awkward and uncomfortable, in the hope that I am doing good, making a difference, playing my part in the electronic world I have hung out in for all these years).

It’s views like this when nipping down to the shop, that pass me by nine times out of ten but that one time pulls me up short every time. 

Thoughts that occur to me, when I visit coastal locations similar to Porthleven, I immediately think about how closed in they feel but I never think that about my own village; even though, looking out from the Harbour Head (as the grassed area at the back of the harbour is called), I struggle to see the open sea.  Where the natural geography stops the man made finishes off the enclosure but I do not normally see that.  When I say don’t see i mean that I have a scotoma, as Lou Tice would put it, I just couldn’t see it.  I can look at it but I couldn’t “see” it.  It could be because I have climbed the sides of the village and see the open sea but I don’t think so, I think that like so many people before I see the world in a drop of water, the world in the life of the village.  Porthleven, built from the fractals of the rest of the world.

I have been thinking about houses lately, in comparison to many our little cottage is plain but I have decided that I don’t mind what the house looks like – when it comes down to it, if I live in a house it’s the outside that means more.  There are places in Cyprus which are pretty much boxes but that’s fine, they have something to look at, greenery, sea, whatever, heck in the right location most of life can run outdoors.  When things are rough weatherwise, I can be at home in a room, this netbook my window on the world. 

A musical interlude at this point.  As I go to write more, in the background the theme music from the science fiction series Star Trek Voyager isplaying.  I love this piece of music, with it’s classical and futuristic associations.  Here is a link to a version on YouTube:  

Technorati Tags: Porthleven,Star Trek,Music,Houses

All at sea

In the seaside  village of Porthleven in Cornwall in the UK, where I have lived all my life to date, I have thought of there being two groups of people: those who farmed and those who fished.

My family and most of my associations when growing up were from the farming side, even though the Methodist Chapel I attended through my childhood was a predominantly fishing orientated one. Consequently I never developed links with the sea and had never been on a boat I the harbour.

I say had never because this weekend was something special that changed that.  My best friend Jer bought a boat designed and built in Porthleven by someone I knew when growing up.  The boat was called Girl Ruth (and yes in a moment of synchronisity I know the actual Girl Ruth it was named for). 

After a couple of years of work Jer had the boat ready as above and the day for launch arrived.

First it needed to be taken from Jer’s home down to the harbour

The person in the yellow oilskins and driving his tractor is one of my personal heroes – that’s my Dad Spencer, (or Spencer Cornet as some children used to call him when he was still selling ice cream).  Dad and my youngest brother Chris restore old tractors and go on tractor runs and local shows; specifically Ferguson T20 tractors as in this picture.

The route the tractor took was down to the main street of Porthleven, down it past Fore Street Methodist Chapel and into the shipyard, in preparation for reversing it down the slipway.

The big challenge would be in lowering the boat carefully down the slip while maintaining control at all times.  I was not concerned in the slightest with the launching, as Dad can get his tractors to turn on a pin, he is such an excellent tractor driver (comes from growing up with them I guess).

The boat is one designed by Dennis Swire, a ship’s architect of many years standing.  The interesting thing about this all wood boat is that Dennis designed it for himself and it was built in the village, at a guess in the late 1960s when the shipyard functioned as such.

Dad reversed it slowly across the road and down the slipway.

The weather wasn’t sunny but the rain was only very light so everyone who came to watch were able to do so without getting soaked.  Eventually the boat was ready to be floated off it’s cradle. At this point  a number of seagulls hoved into view, thinking that the boat had just come in and there might be scraps to eat.  Aboard her for the launch were our best friends Wendy and Jer and our Godson Neythan.

 

This was quite a momentous day already with the launching of Jer’s refurbished boat but more was to come for me, after a snagging check.  Jer sensibly had advice and guidance from another local fisherman Robert, who came along side and accompanied the sea trials that came next.

Jer asked for volunteers to go on the boat’s maiden voyage since refurbishment and I jumped at the chance.  As I  said I fell into the farming camp when growing up, so had never been to sea from the village.  I had a few slight qualms about how I might feel, being in a boat many times smaller than the ferries I have mostly travelled in previously in different parts of the world. 

We set off into very calm waters off the village, which was good – given that the harbour existed in particular to give shelter from storms that ravaged shipping in the 18th and 19th Centuries.

In all the time out and back I was mesmerised.  I had seen a film made of a boat trip out of the village but that is no substitute for seeing it with your own eyes.  Everything was fascinating and I only wish I had a more powerful camera to be able to zoom in places, but am happy I got some decent shots with the 5 megapixel Touch HD phone.

The boat rolled up and down as it crested the swell and turned but not once did I feel anything other than excitement and fascination,  (no doubt this will change one day when the weather is less friendly). All too soon we were back at the slip and the trip was over.  Before I accompanied Dad back up the road, with the now empty trailer, I took a quick shot of what it must have looked like when we went out.

It was a fun day out and I hope to be able to try that again.

Some shots from St.Ives