Well, it's been a strange couple of weeks.
As is often the case, it seems, I found myself winging my way down to Cornwall, to re-acquaint myself with it's shores and my good friends. The reason (excuse) this time was to go to the Royal Cornwall Show, both to fulfill a long-ago-made promise to play music in the beer tent, and to catch up with the local blacksmithing crew.
The blacksmithing bit went well, and old friends were greeted with the usual banter and joshing - blacksmiths as a rule aren't very polite to each other, but there's a certain amount of camaraderie. New friends were also met, notably Dave Budd, a knifemaker (amongst other dubious things, that we will get to). The competitions were the same as ever, with this year's set piece being a rather open "make some door furniture of your choice". I made a pair of hinges that I was quite pleased with, but unfortunately didn't manage to finish them with some pintles upon which to swing, losing me valuable "points". They didn't place. Two hours goes a lot quicker on the anvil than you think. The "Crash 'n' Dash", as before, is a competition where the competitors have half an hour to make anything that could be sold - so pretty much anything. I hacked and bashed and beat and bludgeoned out the ropiest spoon i've ever made (deciding in the last 30 seconds to take a heat and scroll the end wasn't a great idea), but somehow landed 2nd place! I think this was more down to the other entries, but I have to say I was surprised.
I'm fairly sure Lisa got a prize for her competition entry, too. But....I can't remember what! I'm a bad friend...
The usual star of the show, Tristan Kessel (blacksmith and fiddler of renown), declined to enter any of the competitions this year, making a stand against the appalling judging last time around, where a welded, contemporary gate, won the traditional category, amongst other things.
However, after the last anvil rang with the official competitions, and the rosettes were handed around, he suggested a "see how long you can forge a piece of 2" by 3/8" steel in 5 minutes", £2 entry and winner-takes-all. He won, by a good inch. 5 minutes really isn't very long. I clonked away as best as I could, and regretted not bringing my cross-pein hammer.
As for the music, at some point over the few days, the mandola, fiddle, and viola were reunited, and my somewhat-better grasp of tunes came through for once. Tristan had also brought his tenor banjo (after much harranguing from me last year), which was great fun. I had difficulty getting any decent sound out of it, but he makes a fine show of playing it. Lisa's tunes livened up the predictable nature of the Irishness (so so people claim), and I sang a few songs. Naturally, we ended up in the beer tent. Tunes were rattled out, slow airs were langourously played, and the odd sea shanty was sung, all to the applause of the audience. Once the beer had flowed a bit, we adjourned to the woodworker's tent briefly, where Pete the Chainsaw Man (also a brewer) plyed us with some of his fine draught. Then, Sgt. Bidders and Cpl. Lofty (this may be slightly wrong) kidnapped us, and we ended the night (eventually!) playing in the RAF Regiment's rifle shooting simulator! It was a blast, as various military types, and one policewoman, not to mention the local chocolatier (who fell drunkenly out of the wagon so many times people asked questions) danced and wobbled to our tunes. Eventually, the massive amount of concentration it takes for me to keep up with Lisa or Tristan lapsed into inebriation, and she gave me some queer looks.
More updates soon.
When you heading back Talgarth way?
ReplyDelete