HAKA BALWEYTH (Cornish Mining Chant) Kober! Arghans! Sten! Sten! Sten! Yn pub karrek? Yn pub men! Kober! Arghans! Sten! Sten! Sten! An gwella sten? Yn Kernow! [Audio version of this chant to encourage the Man Engine to rise: HERE – … Continue reading
The Man Engine is the largest mechanical puppet ever constructed in Britain. He stands at 4.5m when he’s on his transporter, or when he ‘crawls’, rising to 10.2m when his ‘transformation’ has taken place and he ‘stands’ erect. … Continue reading
My latest posts have resulted from my end-of-holiday travels in this beautiful county of Cornwall as I strive to make the most of my fortunate location before work resumes soon. On Sunday we went to the Roseland Peninsula, named according … Continue reading
Yesterday’s post about my trip with my wife to Penwith, in the far west of Cornwall, ended with a mention of an art gallery in St Just: the Jackson Foundation. Kurt Jackson is one of our favourite artists, and probably … Continue reading
My long summer break is coming to an end, so my wife and I are trying to make the most of our beautiful county of Cornwall. Yesterday we drove down to St Just in Penrith – the most westerly of … Continue reading
So, Lawrence has established himself in his ‘Promised Land’ of Cornwall. He’s aware it’s not Florida, where he’d hoped to establish his Utopian ‘colony’ of artist-philosophers, Rananim, with disciple-friends like John Middleton Murry and Katherine Mansfield (‘truly blood kin’, he … Continue reading
“When we came over the shoulder of the wild hill, above the sea, to Zennor, I felt we were coming into the Promised Land. I know there will be a new heaven and a new earth take place now: we … Continue reading
Mick Jackson, The Underground Man. Picador paperback, 1998; first published 1997. Nancy Mitford, Don’t Tell Alfred. Penguin paperback 2015 reissue, first published in 1960. One of my first blog posts was about Mick Jackson’s charming ursine caper Bears of England. I didn’t … Continue reading
I started assembling examples of the florid, over-written style Mary Shelley adopts in Frankenstein, but that way led to madness, so I’ll start afresh. Here’s just one random example; the Creature’s threat to Victor if he refuses to comply with … Continue reading
Our Cornish ramblings continue, but work resumed this week, so they’ll probably subside now. We went on Monday to Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens, near Penzance. The name derives from the Cornish tre-menhir, ‘standing (or long-)-stone farm (or place)’. Another site near St … Continue reading