Cornish Pasty

I have been asked by some to throw in a recipe for a real Cornish pasty. Now this is a dangerous venture because A) I'm not Cornish and B) everyone in Cornwall thinks they have the best recipe. Mine is simple and I believe it should be because it was a workmans meal and not 'posh nosh' rubbish - it was meant to feed a working man.

It was probably the first complete take-away meal originally designed for the Cornish miner and farmer who was away working all day and needed a meal but had no facilities to prepare one. The reason the filling was contained in a pastry case with a thick crust along one side was to hold on to, especially as their hands were dirty or tainted with tin, copper or iron. Often in previous times this was discarded or fed to "The Cornish Knockers" (ghosts of dead colleagues said to haunt the mines). The traditional filling was meat or fish, potato, onion, turnip and a little butter or cream.The housewife prepared these daily for the man of the house and for the children who took them to work or school. It was the staple diet of the Cornish for many years. As the mines in Cornwall declined and "Cousin Jack" travelled extensively to find work this recipe went with him and still today one can still find small outcrops of societies all over the world producing the Cornish pasty, especially in Australia, South Africa, Canada and America.

Here is the recipe I have used and it works.

Pastry

You need:

500 gms strong bread flour
120 gms white shortening
25 gms cake margarine
5 gms salt
175 gms cold water

Mix fat lightly into flour until it resembles breadcrumbs.Add water and beat in a food mixer until pastry clears and becomes elastic. This will take longer than normal pastry but it gives the pastry the strength that is needed to hold the filling and retain a good shape.Leave to rest for 3 hours in a refrigerator, this is a very important stage as it is almost impossible to roll and shape the pastry when fresh

FILLING

You need:
450 gms good quality beef skirt
450 gms potato
250 gms Swede
200 gms onion
Salt & pepper to taste( 2/1 ratio)
Clotted cream or butter

Chop the above finely then add to the rolled out circles of pastry raw. Layer the vegetables and meat adding plenty o f seasoning. Put the dollop of cream or a knob of butter on top. Then bring the pastry around and crimp together. The crimping bit takes practice.

Fan assisted 165 approx 40 min (bit hotter and longer in an ordinary oven I guess)

Swede or Turnip?

People get these either way around - here in Scotland they call them the other way they do in Devon. In Cornwall I believe the round yellow one is the Turnip.

Do not use carrots - ever - it is never never used in a true pasty.

a little scrap of life and death

Its amazing how a little scrap of life can find their way into your life and your heart and yet you don't realise just how much until they've gone.
This was Rooney the Love Bird who is no more.
I put his cage outside on a sunny Sunday and somehow he managed to escape. The last we saw of him he was loudly shrieking at passing birds and promising severe times if he caught up with them.
Sad though - he was such a part of our daily life - we talked to him when we went by him - he whistled to us and he was a real character that bought so much happiness and enjoyment into our home.
He will not have lasted long outside - he was born a cage bird and would not be able to feed or defend against wild birds.
I take a bit of comfort from thinking that at least he went out free and flying even if only for a short time - rather than quietly going on the cage floor. How you do get attached to wee scraps of life though.

The Oggy Man

Cyril Tawney (1930 – 2005)

I first started to sing and play guitar as a young lad at a pub in Devonport in Plymouth which Cyril hosted in the late 1960's.
I have always said that whatever I have done since owes it to his songs and singing and I still sing his songs to this day as many others have done.

I have been asked before about the 'oggy man' and what an oggy is.
The song was written by Cyril - longest performing singer in the country, incidentally, who sadly passed away in Exeter in 2005.





His song the oggy man is, as all Cyril's songs, straight to the heart whether in pathos or humour. This is an exquisite gem of a song.
It helps if you know the background to the song . . . . . .

Before the war (WWII) in the old days, you could buy oggies at many places in Plymouth, but sailors coming back to the Dockyard last thing at night were most likely to get them from the man who sold them from a box outside the Albert Gate.

Before the war the Oggie Man had no competition, simply because there was no room for any. The Blitz, however, cleared a space right opposite his pitch, and in the late Forties first one, then two or three, caravan snack bars appeared on this bomb site, selling a variety of snacks, not just oggies. It was only a matter of time before the Oggie Man, as such, disappeared, either to retire from business or to get his own caravan and join the others. In the song, this change has taken place while the sailor has been away.

Picture a dark evening in the rain outside an old Dockyard gate in Devonport Plymouth . . . .

and slowly sing . . . . .

Oggy Man

Well the rain's softly falling and the oggy man's no more
I can't hear him calling like I used to before

I came through the gateway and I heard the sergeant say
The big boys are coming, see their stand across the way

Yes the rain's softly falling and the oggy man's no more

It was there that she told me when she bade me good bye
There's no one will miss you one half as much as I

My love will endure, dear,like a beacon in the squall
Eternal as the oggy man beneath the dockyard wall

Well the rain's softly falling and the oggy man's no more

Beautiful isn't it?

Cyril's wife Rosemary keeps the official site where you can learn about the man, other songs and buy recordings - do yourself a favour and do that.
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/cyriltawney/enter.htm

You get oggys - or pasties as they are more often known nowadays all over the world where ever Cornish people went. They were often taken by tin miners because they were easy to handle and contained a meal in one. What is a real oggy - and how do you make it - there's another blog and some risky territory.

Beryl Cook

Sad to hear that Beryl has gone - a wonderful British painter.
I knew Plymouth in the 1960's - played at a Folk Club at Devonport and first heard Cyril Tawney sing 'The Oggy Man'. Another item to tell that one - Prince Albert Gate at Devonport Dockyard.
Union Street Plymouth - famous in every port in the world - haunt of sailors and ladies was just the colourful and vibrant place that can be seen in Beryls pictures. She paints the action , the fun and the characters she has seen. Here is description from her web site . . . . . .
" . . . . there is nothing dark in her world. The appeal of Beryl Cook’s paintings is their directness, exuberance and the instant laughter they create. Her characters are always enjoying themselves to the full. Beryl is the least pretentious of painters and an artist in the same tradition as Breughel, though perhaps via Donald McGill! She was described by Victoria Wood as ‘Rubens with jokes’.

Beryl Cook’s work is particularly interesting when viewed in the context of the tradition of British social realist painting and she could easily be described as a contemporary Hogarth or Gilray, although she has a more sympathetic view of the human race. She is like those painters above all a social observer. She records human frailties and the absurdities of human behaviour with her own unique vision."

Go visit her work - maybe you can afford to buy a painting!

http://www.berylcook.org

having a moan

I enjoyed teaching in the 70's in South Devon - there was the freedom to be spontaneous, take children to adventures and make memories. At one time I had Gerbils, ducklings, fish, rabbits and even a couple of lambs for a week - children used to arrive at 8.00 in the morning and be prised away in the afternoon. They could all read well, knew arithmetic, had manners and were curious and interested about learning. They were outdoors a lot more, ate better, were active and could entertain themselves better.
There was no trace yet of was the track suited sullen youth walking around with a phone permanently fastened to its face, eating junk and staring mindlessly at a game console or television for hours a day.
Teachers and school, if not always enjoyed, were respected and were empowered to set standards and codes of behaviour.
It wasn't perfect - far from it - and there were some really poor schools and teaching. There was the need to review and change curriculum and teaching for sure - it was, at its worst, a wandering and liberal self indulgence education experience.
The change however, when it squirmed forth as the National Curriculum was a catastrophe and in true 'baby and bathwater' many values, excellent practices and teachers were wasted.
The N.C. - often concocted by people with little real experience of schools or child learning, caused anguish and turmoil and became a monster that schools were unable to manage effectively. Staff were ill trained in it, schools were underfunded for it and once motivated teachers were bludgeoned into being tickers of boxes and forced to parrot a sterile and target based curriculum.
It was a time of nightmares, late nights filling in endless record sheets, and being part of a system with a high built in failure factor. Very demoralising and soul destroying for thousands of dedicated teachers who , like me, fell out of love with the job. More energy went into administering the Curriculum than in delivering quality teaching.
I heard recently that in Scotland they are moving back into a project and enquiry based curriculum to try and raise standards and child enthusiasm. I also note that SATs are not considered to be a good idea. We could have told them all that 25 years ago.
Having said all that, I admire teachers today. -They are, from the ones I know, hard working and trying to do the best while battling against awful attitudes and low motivation.
I do not however envy them.
I see the older youth in Secondary education become part of a cynical, careless and gimme culture that has scant respect and ever declining values - I pity them and see why some use the phrase 'the lost generation'. I see younger children in Primary schools being forced or enticed into adult attitudes and perceptions and childhood more and more truncated.
Of course there were problems 30 years ago and yes, its easy to look back and remember only the summers that seemed to last longer then. But there was also a more optimistic and happier society than there is now - not the 'must have' greed, banal television programming that rakes up ever more cheap, degrading, cynical and lewd trash it can throw at the public it can get away with. And yes - I will say it - I believe children were happier and more stable.

So, truly, I feel sorry for young people growing up today and having to cope with the pressures put uppn them in so many ways. Most youngsters are OK people - trying to do well and treat their world and people fairly but the values they are having to handle are too often driven by the worst of attitudes and behaviour to the point it becomes cool to be bad. Young people will always be ambivalent and emulate the outrageous but what they given to emulate today is just scary.
What I see generating the standards is not the best of young people but a low, base and unpleasant culture that expresses the worst of attitudes and behaviour as acceptable. Media, fashion and music all cash in on to promote and sell to a teenage customer base that nowadays has spending power unheard of in my day. Along with others, I have watched standards increasingly devalued and wasted by the 'do-good' influence that broadens the tolerance of low morality, poor standards and appalling behaviour to the point where teenage deaths are now regular and some old foolish old dollop this week whines about it being unfair to stop thugs and search them for knives. Try telling that to the parents of a youth stabbed to death.

If we are prepared to tolerate our children growing up in standards from the gutter what hope is there for our society? Is it too late anyway?

MELDREW I sound like for sure. So be it.

the song the linnet sings

I have never actually seen a Linnet until one popped onto the seed pot on the bird table early on this morning.
At first glance I saw Sparrow until it turned and the red colouring showed. It is a pretty little finch and a bit like a Twite which very occasionally wander down from the hillside.
It didn't sing so I still have yet to hear its beautiful song reason it was kept as a cage bird by Victorians.
Since it has been under threat it is good to know there are some of these lovely little songbirds still around. I couldn't get to my camera in time so I have borrowed this photo from a superb photography site www.djsphotography.co.uk - hope they don't mind! Go see for yourself how to photograph wild birds!

to be or not to be

For a child - what is the most dangerous place to be in the U.K?
Frighteningly - the womb. According to Anne Widdicombe 200.000 unborn children have their lives terminated every year.
If that was a child mortality rate - or criminal figure the United Nations would be involved!
She went on to observe that of two children, out of the womb at the same time, in the same country one can have all the care, love and attention possible lavished on it while the other is left to die - unwanted and less than garbage. I don't have fixed views on abortion and tend, as many do , to wander about in the rather dangerous middle and undecided territory because I can see arguments for and against. Also I am am man and have no right to make decisions for another person's body in this sense. Perhaps I am, in maybe a cowardly way I admit , thankful that, as a man, I have never had to make such a terrible decision for I cannot imagine the emotional pain and grief it must be for some women who have had to.

Evolution

My daughter is studying Archeology at University and had to give a presentation debating whether our development was due to Darwinistic model of evolution. She is way beyond me in understanding how this this works or most other things by now but it is an interesting notion to throw around. My understanding of the Darwin idea is that things change is the need for adaptation in order to survive. Well that's my simple notion of it anyway. If that's true then all that we are today is the result of the need to adapt.
This is some archaeologists primary interpretative tool - I am told.
I have a problem with that in some ways because while I can accept that paintings like the Lascaux ones above may have been re-enactments to empower hunters I find it a struggle to fit Monet's Lily Pond paintings, a Mozart Symphony or a poem by Walt Whitman as merely a desperate struggle to adapt in order to survive. Change, experimentation yes - survival of the fittest no.
Its just too mechanical for me. It denies that people, whenever, made, created, invented, thought, dreamed or created because they just wanted to and because it excited them and gave aesthetic pleasure for its own sake..
As usual I am probably missing the point and archaeologists would send for warm milk and a blanket for the poor old sod. I just get hacked off sometimes with Science thinking that everything has to be objectively quantified and explained without expression from the soul.
Nobody will ever convince me that the person who painted those wonderful vibrant animals on that cave wall was merely creating a utility wallpaper hunting manual.

Mornington Crescent

Having listened to ISIHAC for decades now and mentioning same at the Company Relaxation and Gossip Suite ( Water Cooler) today I was asked about this most British of games that was a regular feature of the show. As most people know it is based around the London Underground layout and its decorative and charming station names. Played at a starter level most people with even a moderate I.Q. soon grasp the basic rules and quickly pick up the basic game which I must say honestly is best learned by watching some more experienced players rather than trying to grapple with the complexities of the rule book. After a while more subtle strategies can be introduced such as a Baker Street impasse or the ever popular if sometimes cruel Finchley Road Fortitude. These are not to difficult to employ but can entangle the novice onto seemingly endless circles. It is for the Intermediate players with some years experience - 26 in my case - that the nuances and subtleties become a complex of 'side moves' and 'undercut reveals' (known as 'coddles') . Now the game is played for serious and while banter and humour are heard it often serves to disguise and conceal real intent that may be given away with an accidental twitch or lip movement. Many a game has been closed due to an waywardly ascending eyebrow. Being able to finesse with a 'marble arch' and send a hapless opponent far away on another circle is every players goal. A usual game can last for hours and the record I believe was for a game lasting over 2 1/2 days uninterrupted. For the player who has employed maybe four or five 'coddles' and battled against masterful opponents to be finally able to close the game with final triumphant "Mornington Crescent!" is a moment to be relished. Of course the beauty of MC is that it can be played anywhere and requires only a copy of the London Underground. These can be purchased from HM Stationers or reputable bookshop and travel versions on silk are available from the MC website. If you are tired of the usual drivelling T.v. soaps , banal game shows and the like revitalise your life, make new friends and find a reason to want to get up in the morning - discover Mornington Crescent. You will never be the same again. But be careful - it can become a compulsive and a jealous mistress !

Have I got news for you?

Humphrey Lyttelton

1921-2008

So you're dead Humph.

I saw you underneath

Amy Whitehouse overnight in jail.

No juicy knighthood dinner.

You had the antidote for that

Swanee Whistle panel game of

even though you had Eton.

But no tears eh - they bunged you a

Lifetime Achievement Award at the Post Office British Jazz Awards

for swinging your ass off.

Getting to Mornington Crescent

was not the point was it -

it was the how.

That's what you gave our clueless time

the news about.

So, thanks Humph.

FRIDAY
How to cope with Friday.
Friday is not like other days - not just because its a different day of the week but because it has different implications for work.
Monday is fairly quiet because everyone wishes they were still buried under the duvet swamp and trying to avoid the agony of dragging to work for a whole week ahead. Not that I have trouble waking up on Monday. I am awake sharp at 6.45 ready to go. But then I was also awake at 5.45 and 4.45 also ready to go. I feel for people who can't wake up in the morning. Whe a horizontal teenager I was given an industrial strength alarm clock which went off like a tornado and I spent the rest of the day cringing if somebody whispered too loudly.
Setting you radio alarm to very loud is not a good idea either because you spend the day jumping when somebody talks to you. From experience, any problems getting up in the morning are simply cured simply by an infant/toddler/child.
Getting up also means you get to the shower first when the towels are not soggy lumps. eating without screams and watching Breakfast TV which is full of necessary and interesting information about house prices, how to hang out washing and the latest global famine.
But as said Friday is different. The downside is that you may have to face doing the nasty bits of work you have been putting off all week or face the horror of them still being there Monday when you creep in. Also, people or things you have managed to avoid all week zero in like missiles and make sure your diary is cram full well before next week. It is also the best time to go into the garden when its quiet, the birds are singing and you can hear the neighbours fighting.

My advice for Friday is to try and slide all unpleasant and unwanted tasks in the bin or next door. Also, tell the receptionist/person who takes calls you are very busy and to take messages - lose all such messages on Monday morning and deny all knowledge later.
The upside to Friday is that in the evening you can live it up a bit. I always have big plans for Friday evening. Mostly though by 9.00 pm I am reaching for the Drinking Chocolate and headed for the duvet zone, a book and the Shipping Forecast. Wild times or what!
But then of course there's Saturday - now that's different.

Death by cow

Apparently there are 10 or so cow related deaths every year in the U.K.
Hard to believe for sure that these gormless looking creatures could do such.
I quite like cows unless they come too close and they come up to stare at me with those misty glued up eyes and lips dribbling with mucus the consistency of batter.
As long as there is a stout fence between them and me and they haven't acquired vertical takeoff capability I'm happy to chat. Mind you when the tail goes up like a pump handle I get the message.
They also have poor taste in ear rings.

I didn't include Angie

Back in the days of yore any self respecting guitarist learned a tune called Angie or went home. It was the passport into a folk club.
'Angie' was written by the now legendary Davey Graham - paving the way for Martin Carthy, Bert Jansch, John Renbourne and many others. Davy experimented with music from many places - Morocco, Bulgaria to add new textures to English folk music. One of his great legacies for guitarists was the DADGAD tuning - I have used this for many years now as well as others such as CGCGCD. He has a website. Angie was made famous by Bert Jansch and copied (as were many things) by Paul Simon. Davey's version is, for me, the best - he manages to get a subtle swing into his. John Renbourne also does it great credit too mind you.
Out of respect I have omitted my version because I learned the Paul Simon version and have been ashamed ever since.
After years of obscurity Davy is back thanks to the efforts of Mark Peavey and his CD is out and titled Broken Biscuits. It is a collection of tunes - nothing too special and nothing like the old Graham - well in fairness it wouldn't be - not the fiery young man any more. Rumours of his gigs speak of poor performances and drink. Sad.

The odd bits of guitar tunes here of mine are a bit old now - I am waiting to get my new multi-track powered up and do them and others properly.
Bob's Song is a tune by Martin Simpson and Flower of Sweet Erin is also after his arrangement.
Heartsong is a take of a Gordon Giltrap.
McGee's Rag - an old standard - I have always enjoyed rag tunes - listen to John Pearse to hear it done properly.
Bogie's Bonny Belle is the tune of a wonderful bothy song - best of Scottish songs for my money.
My Highland Lass is a tune I wrote I moved to Scotland.
Beachcomber is based around an old Gordon Giltrap tune - Gordon is one of my favourite players - not recognised enough for the really gifted musician and composer he is.

All played on an old Takamine with a Zoom effects and an ancient coal fired Laney amp.
I enjoy it all whatever anybody says.

Crumpled paper in Photoshop

I like messing about with Photoshop so here is a neat way to make crumpled paper effect.
Its not an original idea but this is my simplified version.

Make a new file, a bit larger than you want your finished paper to be – white background.

Then make a new layer - use that to make the paper.

• MAKING THE TEXTURE

Choose your Gradient tool .

Change the Mode to Difference.

From the Gradient tool's Shape Options choose

Diamond or Reflected.

Choose black and white for your Foreground/Background.

Drag your gradient across your canvas over and over, going in different directions each time, and starting from different points.

The more you do it the more crumpled your paper will be in the end. It will look something like this.

• GET THE PAPER EFFECT

Filter - Stylize - Emboss. Choose the angle for where your light will be coming from. I like 135°.

Choose a Height and an Amount that give you good results.

2-4 pixels for Height and an Amount of 200-300%.

• CUT OUT THE PAPER

To get the paper shape use the Polygonal Lasso tool , carve out some crumples from your edges.

After you get your selection made, click the Add Layer Mask.

• ADD A COLOUR with Hue/ Saturation in Image > Adjustments.

• Add a DROP SHADOW by clicking on the button at the bottom of the Layers palette.

To add to the shadow use a soft brush gently.

Get on with Giovanni Palestrina

I've always liked the motets of Thomas Tallis and still listen to Spem et Alum even after hearing it many dozens of times over the years.

But Palestrina (left) 1525 - 1594 does it all and listening to his seamless music is a glimpse of his heaven. He was educated and choirboy at Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome and looking up at the arches and curves he worked under is reflects his music which too curves and soars amongst itself. Look for yourself and play the clips in the music player at the top of the page to see if you agree. Listen to how he makes the separate melodies weave in and out and meld into one glorious harmonic joy.

Musically its called polyphonic - I just call it sheer beauty.

Interesting about his times was the debate about music concealing the scriptural words - which to the Church the most important part. Palestrina overcame this despite the fact that up to six lines of music are sounding at the same time. If you haven’t heard these 16^th century wonders – or indeed William Byrd – greatest of the Elizabethan composers who took polyphonic church music and songwriting on further and higher -
then rush out today and do so.

You will never be the same person again.

Joan Baez

JOAN BAEZ MUSIC

I first heard Joan Baez in the 1960's singing Farewell Angelina. As I had when I heard Bob Dylan singing Don't Think Twice I was bowled over by the guitar playing and vowed to play like them. Unlike Bob who moved away to become Bob Joan epitomised the protest of those days along with Pete Seeger and many thousands of others who wanted to change the world. Like many others including Bob Joan looks back to Woody Guthrie - too often uncredited with the immense influence he had on that generation.
Strange now, for the first time she is openly endorsing a candidate running for the office of President of the United States. She has chosen to endorse Senator Barack Obama. I haven't got her latest CD - Bowery Songs but I notice it has two songs that I also struggled to play way back then - •
Silver Dagger
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
Both of them are classic Baez - you can hear samples on the site above.

strings

Martin. These are good enough strings, and they really warm up with a little playing in but I thought they were quite a harsh sound at first though. Quite easy to bend with, despite not being the lightest gauge.

D'Addarrio Not so keen on these nowdays. Basic response on all strings but the G and D do hold up well - I find they are usually the first to go dull. 5 pack tin is cheaper then 5 individual pack. Martin Simpson is endorsed by D'Addarrio - I guess he needs a brighty string with his style and that fearsomely lovely Stefan Sobell guitar.

Rotosound 12's are strings I like now - great tone,also easier playing as the stripped windings at the bridge very slightly lower the action and make things a little smooother all round. I use them with a Takamine cutaway electro acoustic which always had a slightly snappy plugged-in tonal character,but using the CGs it is substantially warmer. The 11's are a bit light unplugged - better with 12's.
John Renbourne uses these and that's good enough for me.