Nadelik Lowen

[lesleys]

Christmas greetings to all our Cornish cousins.

[MarkJ]

Yn wir!

Nadelek (po Nadelik yn Kemmyn) Lowen!

Oll an gwella,

Mark

[Ladkyis]

Nadolig Llawen from us yer in souf Wales like innit.

[daleaway]

Cornwall flung them far.

Ngā mihi o te wā me te Tau Hou,

from New Zealand.

[Rubina]

Av a guddun love - from Manchesta!

Av a reet good'en chucks - from lancashire!

Lang may yer lumb reek - from Glasgi! (actually this is more of a new years greetings!)

[GeoffD]

'Tis almost Tom Bawcock's Eve, time for stargazy pie.

[MarkJ]

Indeed it is Geoff!
Having been to Mousehole at Christmas, I can recommend it to anyone who happens to be down there around this time of year. Not sure about the Pie mind! Lance (sandeels), Murgy (dogfish) and a lot of other less than appetising fish are mentioned in the old rhyme as well as the pie itself. I shall stick to a nice pasty and slice of saffron cake myself, washed down with a nice dish o' tay!

Mark ;)

[GeoffD]

Yeah, it doesn't sound too appetising, but if you're hungry enough ....

And what is this 'tay' of which you speak? Unless, of course, there's 'a little something in it'.

[GeoffD]

And, in this festive season, let us not forget the brave lads and lasses of the Penlee Lifeboat (and all the other RNLI crews) , and take a few quiet moments to spare a thought for the lives lost 27 years ago.

[MarkJ]

Tay? A nice dish o' tay is always popular here in Kernow Geoff! It is the dialect way of pronouncing "tea!". The "dish" is another dialect word meaning cup ;)

There is a little booklet called "A Nice Dish o' Tay" or something similar which can be found in various outlets in Cornwall and is basically a dialect book.
Although I speak Cornish (the language), I don't have a Cornish accent as such (well, a little bit perhaps), because my parents were (father) brought up in Lancashire from the age of 9 and (mother) a Lancastrian, so I have a fairly bland accent.

One of the lines in the poem is something like -

"When Morgy broth has cleared the path.."

Morgy is literally Mor (sea) and the mutated Ky, i.e Gy (Dog) - dogfish. Yuck! Whatever the chip shops in the UK tell you, dogfish is pretty grim - they call it "rock salmon" :(

But, as you say, if you are hungry enough....

Inland - where I am - they had equally gruesome foods! When you have a minute spare, lookup "squab pie", "windy pasties" and other "luxury" foods from Cornwall!

I shall stick to my saffron buns, cream and pasties I think!

Mark :)

[MarkJ]

And, in this festive season, let us not forget the brave lads and lasses of the Penlee Lifeboat (and all the other RNLI crews) , and take a few quiet moments to spare a thought for the lives lost 27 years ago.

Indeed!
I was working in the Newlyn, Penzance,Paul area back then and remember the day well - rather like the way folks recall where they were when JFK was assassinated.

19 December is a day I always reflect on.
It had a very sobering effect on me that Christmas - and must have been terrible for the people in the community. On the 20th, there were people collecting money for the widows and orphans in the streets. I lost count of the times I donated to various boxes and collections - all worthwhile.

Mark

[GeoffD]

:D at Squab Pie. Ruddy Phoenicians have a lot to answer for. :confused:

[GeoffD]

Now you've started me on a path from which I might never recover.|help|

http://www.cornwallinformation.com/info/cornish-recipes.php

CURRANY ‘OBBIN

Make a stiffish paste with flour and lard and a pinch of salt. Wet it up with milk if you got it, and water if you ab’n got it. Roll it out nice and thin and sprinkle it all over with currans, nice and thick. Then roll it up careful like you would starch your clothes, squeeze home the ends and brush it over with the white of an egg if you want it to shine. Then clap’en in the ob’n. The children do dearly like it, and as they say currans be full of new-fangled “vitamines” the Doctors be always ordering, they ought to be good for ‘em.

If you get tired of currans you can make a “Figgy” wan for a change... and "figs" is just Cornish for "raisins".

[MarkJ]

Ah - FIGGY 'Obbin you mean!
Tis some 'andsome you!
Not tried it with currants myself, but Figgy 'Obbin is still something we have down here ;)

Now then - the Squab Pie recipe is a bit posh on that there website you! A real Squab pie had birds in it.. ;) Ideally, pigeons (baby pigeons are called squabs), but all sorts of birds went into them - blackbirds, cormorants - whatever was available at the time :)
Bird beating was a popular activity in Cornwall even into the 1930's - although it seems to have died out now. Night time - windy night. Leeward side of hedges etc and a big stick....
Not something I have ever done myself, but I have spoken with older Cornish residents who used to do it to supplement their family diets.

Can't say as I agree with the derivation of Heavy Cake either to be honest! Heavy cake is, as the recipe suggests, a currant based thing. However, the pilchard fishery in Newquay for example used the word "Heva" or alternatively spelled "Hevva" as a call for the fishermen that a shoal of pilchards had been sighted in the bay (the lookout post still exists in Newquay - the Huers Hut).
The criss cross pattern was indeed a representation of the nets used to catch the pilchards.

No pilchards here these days mind. The shoals moved with the water streams and stopped colouring the water with a reddish sheen in the late 1800's/early 1900s.

The old fish cellars - where the fish were processed - still exist in Newquay and St Ives I believe. Certainly, the Newquay ones are still well known places, Fly Cellars, Active Cellers etc are well known landmarks here.

Mark (A Heavy Cake fan!)

[GeoffD]

If I ever get over there, I shall engage Mark as culinary guide to Cornwall. |biggrin|

As this this thread has wandered a bit (mainly my fault), I will suggest here that a search of the Flickr website can lead one to interesting aspects of one's family history. A search on, simply, "Mylor" brought up a photograph of the water pump from which my grandfather's many half first cousins would have drawn their drinking water, some lovely views of the area, some photos of addresses that had been only a word or two in a census record, and a bit of dark naval history, all in the space of a few minutes. Who knows, a picturesque gravestone photographed by a "flickrer" could be a long-lost rellie. Try it!