:: The Wendy House ::

After button-driving the Honda Civic rental across the county, 

today       I     arr       mostly     bee-in’      in       Cornwall, 

doing Cornwarllish type things,

without internets

with Cornwall locals

who’s larder looked marmite-tastically like this last time I visited. 

Hoorah!

 All examples here use a teabag in a mug with hotwater poured onto the bag.  The first photograph is in the kithcen of a Portsmouth home.  Using a pint of semi-skimmed milk from Asda and a mug featuring St Georges cross in front of a glass electric kettle.

 This is on a beach in Cornwall near Cawsand.  3 mugs of tea and two mugs of chocolate for the short people.  An inovative water-boiling-on-the-beach contraption helped ensure the water was the right temperature for tea brewing.  Once the tea had brewed sausage sandwiches were made then we finished off with another cup of tea.  The perfect way to start and wrap-up a hike to the beach.

 This is from home in Bristol.  It’s the pre-breakfast table at 7am,  my first, second and third cuppa of the day normally come from this productive little pot.  That is cup number 2 and I’m about to refill the pot with fresh tea for the biddies as they start to wake up and potter about.

Cornwall is a nation.  Technically it is part of the United Kingdoms of Great Britain.  Geographically it is part of England and labelled on Wikipedia as a ‘county’ within England. Cornwall has maintained a strong independent streak.  The national language,  Cornish,  was spoken within Cornwall until as recently as the 1890s.  I once spent a summer holiday listening to a Cornish man tell stories of the Piskies, Sprigans and Knockers. Captivating.  Many poets and story tellers have drawn on and referenced these fabulous faerie tales.  The most well known Cornishman, of legend, is King Arthur.

Cornwall is internationally famous within the mining industry for pioneering deep mining and steam pumping technologies,  the BBC provides online media clips (Realplayer required) outlining the rise and fall of the Cornish mining industry.  Along with the frequent visits to castles my parents ensured my childhood was full of visits to Cornish tin mines.  I appreciated visits to tin mines.  Have you seen those beautiful old steam pumps?  These Newcomen engines were even classified as sensual by a picky pre-teen Wendy….  lets watch the pump PUMP!  Now breath slowly and draw a long slow mouthful from a large mug of black tea with a liberal dosing of milk.

The gold rushes lured many Cornish mining experts to America,  who continued moving west to California, excerpt:

The gold mines of California attracted the Cornish miners …  …By 1856 Nevada County had a population of 25,000 and hard rock mining was the driving force of a vigorous economy. How many were Cornish miners is hard to establish since the men moved from strike to strike, often before they could be counted.  

The Cornish brought their folklore tales with them.  Leading to many familiar stories legends here in the US like the Tommy Knockers.  They probably helped secure the awesome showers in Idaho.  These Cornish men appear to have mined all over the world.  In the US the Cornish were referred to as ‘Cousin Jack’,  a reference to the Cornish legend of Jack the Giant Killer.