A Castle and a Gaol

Another truly amazing day. It was a day off from “work” today (I use that word very lightly as I’m having an excellent time “working”). I got up around 8 and went for a run along the tidal river. It was really lovely (and by the way, I’m fully adopting some British terminology, like “lovely”.)At any rate, my run was lovely and my turn around point occurred in a dewy moor, with sunlight refracting off the steam rising from the wet grass. There was a little copse of trees and shrubs and the path continued inside and through it. I had to avoid some of the more reaching branches, but it was again, magic to run through an area like that.

After another delicious breakfast of local eggs, the most delicious sausage I’ve ever tasted, (also local) bacon, my first taste of Cornish clotted cream this trip (I’ve been craving clotted cream since the first time I had it 1o plus years ago) and this wasn’t even clotted cream done right. I just had it on bread with a bit of strawberry preserve. But it really needs to be on a scone with a cup of tea. Then Holly and I did a walk around Lostwitheal and got some souvenirs. I’m quite pleased with the cobalt blue medicine vial I picked up, and after a trip to the local museum, I discovered that cobalt blue bottles with ridging at one time indicated poisonous contents. Kind of a neat fact. I’m looking forward to adding it to my collection of cobalt glass in my studio window.

We met Lisa and Robert at lunchtime and went up to the local castle Restormel (don’t you love it? “The Local Castle”) where we had a lunch of pasties (no, we did not nibble on the naughty bits of strippers)...Pasties are a local delicacy. The are something like a hand-held pot pie. Traditionally, tin miners ate these as a hearty lunch. It’s a pastry pocket which was originally built with potato, then steak and veggies, followed by sweet fruits, and was eaten potato side first. Ours was a mixture of steak, potato, onion, carrots and savory seasoning with the sweet part left out. Where the two halves of this half-moon yummy filled pastry come together, they are pinched into a crusty handle. One end of the crust is thicker, and back when miners took these as their lunch, they held the thicker end because their hands were dirty and greasy. This little dirty bit was thrown to the "knockers" (again, not a reference to strippers...I asked for an explanation of the word, and Lisa said that before a mine collapsed, the miners would hear a terrible knocking sound through the walls as the earth started to give way. The miners called the evil spirits that could cause a disaster in the mine “knockers”.) They tossed them the crusts to appease them. Our Pasties were followed by “fridge cake” which is a cross between fudge and a no-bake cookie/cake. Delicious.

Pasty Smiles!

As I walked through the castle and touch the walls, I was again astounded by the age and history in England (and Europe in general). I touched the same walls that have been touched by human hands for more years than I can imagine and have witnessed so much life and death and are still standing, albeit crumbling in parts. There is such magic to these places it's hard not to have your imagination run wild with ideas and inspiration .

After lunch and our castle tour we popped in a few more shops. I found a little lead sheep which I had to have due to the family's checkered past as sheep stealers. I also found the coolest little compass. It really is a magnificent little find, and not only do I love it for it’s tiny complexity, but because it is the perfect souvenir and reminder of my time here. It makes me think of Robert because he has a thing for compasses, and it makes me think of Lisa because she has a thing for Robert (and vice versa) and it makes me think of Holly and this amazing trip, which would not have occurred if I hadn't met her. This compass jumped out at me in this shop,and it's pointing my life in a new direction.

We had dinner at the Bodmin Jail/Gaol. Walking into the courtyard and looking up at the broken window panes in the unrefurbished pportion of the jail gave me the feeling someone (or something ) was looking back. The execution gallows were still intact and looking at that sends a chill down the spine. On the wall adjacent to the execution area was a list that told of the prisoners executed and the crimes committed. There were more than one sheep stealer listed. Had the Graham clan hailed from Cornwall, I might have seen an ancestors name on that list. Bodmin jail is also the jail that the early settlers of Australia hailed from. How incredible is that?

I had baked cod for supper, with some chips (not to be confused with crisps) and sautéed mushrooms and a salad. For desert we had a syrup pudding (pudding is the word for dessert here, so syrup pudding was a cakey-type lovely with a custardy cream sauce) and meringue with clotted cream, raspberries and blueberries. Mmmm! Really dang good. Again, the conversation was delightful and insightful, full of contrary opinions, revelations laughter and every bit of it so interesting. I’ve never had such exciting and thought provoking conversation as I have with this group of people. I’m having such a time here. Really really really I am so thankful.