A little different but it's very nice! .... honest!

CROESO CYMRAIG
which means
WELCOME TO WALES

1. TEISEN GOCOS ~ COCKLE CAKES

Fresh cockles always, buy enough for everyone at the table. Stand overnight in water sprinkled with oatmeal. Wash well and boil. Dip in thick batter and fry a spoonful at a time in hot fat.

The Welsh make everything simple.

2. BRITHYLL A CIG MOCH ~ BAKED TROUT AND BACON

Line a pie dish with thin slices of streaky bacon (cig moch), Split and clean the trout, (I bone my trout first) and place on the bacon. Sprinkle with chopped parsley, pepper and wee pinch salt. Cover with tinfoil and bake for twenty mins 200°c, serve with minted new potatoes. I grow my mint and rosemary etc in wide mouthed flower pots outside the kitchen door. (Major aroma's at night when planted next to stock and wild honeysuckle.)

3. PASTAI BRAIN BACH ~ ROOK PIE!

It was usual to have a "rook shoot" in May, when the farmers shot many young rooks. I must admit I never had a rook pie, but, I had many a Pigeon Pie, and a dam good pie it was, as well. It was made the same way as rook pie, (remember the rhyme 4 and 20 black birds backed in a pie) rooks my dears!

Only the meat from the breast of the birds was used, and this was put in a pie dish lined with short crust pastry. Chopped bacon, chives, and thyme were added to the meat then seasoned. a little stock (today's bisto) was added and a pastry lid covered the whole and it was baked in a moderate over about 180° till golden brown.

I remember one night my dad came home from a pigeon shoot, which I must admit ended after the "Dolben Arms" closed 10pm then. He had 12 pigeons and in his inebriate state he sat at the table. (typical Welsh kitchen table and proceeded to pluck the birds. Come the morning when us girls got up, the kitchen was covered in feather, my father asleep in the chair by the huge fire-grate. What a mess my mum went crazy and he spent the next three days in his potting shed. But she did admit later that the pigeons were plucked to perfection. You can tell were Dodie gets her devilment from. Mother always said we were like two peas in a pod,

Just a little reminder of how wonderful the Polish Artists are, courtesy of diddilydeedot.

Some beautiful Polish Artists and their work

POLAND - POLISH Perun, the Thunder God, by Polish artist, Zofia Stryjenska (Used with the kind permission of Dr. Piotr Wiench The most creative artist interested in paganism was Stanislaw Szukalski, son of a blacksmith and émigré from the town of Warta, born in 1893. Grown up in the USA he was sent by his father to study art in Cracow, Poland. His unique and imaginative style has drew much from pagan and folk tradition. He created a circle of his disciples, known as "Tribe of Haughty Heart", which issued a magazine called "Krak" (a name of legendary Polish count, founder of Kraków - Cracow). Just before the outbreak of the WW II Szukalski went back to the USA and he lived there until his death in 1987. His ashes has been placed, according to his will, at the feet of one of the sculptures on the Easter Island. Similar interests can be found in paintings and graphics of Zofia Stryjeñska. Looking for inspiration in the Polish folklore she tried to portray Slavic deities and depict traditional festivities. The interest in paganism was not limited to the artistic circles. It began to manifest itself in the form of a social movement. The leader of this movement was Jan Stachniuk, born 1905 in Kowel. After completing his university studies in economy he began to publish books presenting his views on paganism. In 1937 he founded a pagan magazine "Zadruga". An interesting trait of Stachniuk's thought is sacralisation of intellectual creativity and the cult of a cosmic energy, which manifests itself in strong will. According to Stachniuk, one cannot obtain prosperity by prayer and the success depends on one's own efforts and active, creative attitude towards one's life. It resembles in some way a protestant ethos. In Poland there are still living collaborators of Stachniuk from the pre-war time. A group of former members of "Zadruga" lives now in Wroclaw and publishes a series of books on paganism in their own publishing house "Toporzel". One of members of this group is Antoni Wacyk. In his book on Polish philosophy he underscores the personal dimension of the religious experience, which should preclude any forms of demonstrativeness or any mediating role of professional priests between people and the sacred. A pagan religion, according to him, should concentrate on a mystical experience. Wacyk urges also for revision of the national history, pointing out that historians tend to glorify losers. A neopagan group influenced by "Zadruga", "Association of Indigenous Faith", has been founded in Wroclaw by a right-wing pagan Jerzy Potrzebowski. ***************************************

* * * * * * * Ireland, Ireland, Ireland * * * * * * *

HERE ARE TWENTY FIVE FACTS ABOUT THE WONDERFUL IRISH

AND THE PLACE THEY LOVE.

• Ireland's largest church is St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin?

• The Popularity of Patrick as a Christian name in Ireland is due to the great 17th century general, Patrick Sarsfield, not our patron saint?

• The word íochtar (eek-tur) literally means lower part and is often used for the youngest child in an Irish family?

• George Bernard Shaw bequeathed one third of his estate to the National Gallery in Dublin, claiming that he received his education there?

• Guinness's fermenting vessel ferments 2,304,000 pints at one brewing?

• According to old custom, a piece of candle, a coin and a small quantity of wine or spirits should be placed next to someone who has died? The candle was to give the deceased light, the coin was to pay the fare over the river of death, and the liquor was to sustain him or her on their journey.

• Mass has been celebrated every Sunday at Ballintubber Abbey in Co. Mayo since 1216?

• Swallowing a live frog was an old Irish cure for a stomach ache?

• St. James's Gate Brewery is built on the site where, since medieval times, Dubliners held an annual drinking festival every 25th July to celebrate the feastday of St. James?

• Emmett Square in Birr, Co. Offaly, marks the centre of Ireland?

• Dublin was originally called Dubh Linn meaning Black Pool? The pool to which the name referred is the oldest known in Northern Europe and currently forms the centre-piece of the penguin enclosure in Dublin Zoo.

• Chieftains in medieval Ulster went out of their way to marry Scotswomen because their dowries consisted of axe-wielding galloglass mercenaries? When Turlough Luineach O'Neill married Lady Agnes MacDonald of Kintyre in 1568, she brought 10,000 troops with her.

• Ireland's smallest church is at Portbraden in Co. Antrim? Only ten feet long by six feet wide, the structure is dedicated to St. Gobhnan - the patron saint of builders. (huh?!)

• Mulgrave Street in Limerick, which contains two hospitals, a prison and a lunatic asylum, is known as 'Calamity Avenue' by the locals?

• The sinister sounding Bloody Foreland in County Donegal owes its name to its magnificent sunsets?

• Every spring, more than twenty million eels swim into the River Bann to breed?

• In the village of Ballyporeen, Co, Tipperary, there's a pub called The Ronald Reagan Bar?

• Charles Stuart Parnell was known as the Uncrowned King of Ireland?

• Irish women received the right to vote before American women?

• A river called the Poddle runs under Dublin Castle?

The Last Fight in the Coliseum

Thu, 04 Jun 2009

The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, as told in 1864 by Charlotte Mary Yonge

Every Italian child, particularly if he has been brought up in the country side near Rome, must have felt something of the charm of the buried world beneath his feet, the world of long, long ago, buried cities, temples, palaces, wonderful statues, lamps and vases of gold and silver and bronze. Ancient Rome Charlotte Mary Yonge was born in Otterbourne, Hampshire, England, on 11 August 1823 to William Yonge and Fanny Yonge, nee Bargus. I think it was around 1864 that Charlotte wrote about the Gladiators, I searched through the websites and found this; It is from a book called the "Book of Golden Deeds by Charlotte M Yonge:" The Last Fight in... "His dress showed that he was one of the hermits who vowed themselves to a holy ... shrines and keep his Christmas at Rome--they knew he was a holy man--no more, and it is not even certain whether his name was Alymachus or Telemachus. Which is the story I have just written out for you, I am new to her works, but crikey,according to Wiki, she had almost all the Pre- Raphaelite Movement in her list of Fans. THE LAST FIGHT in the COLISEUM By Charlotte Mary Yonge. As the Romans grew prouder and more fond of pleasure, no one could hope to please them who did not give them sports and entertainments. When a person wished to be elected to any public office, it was a matter of course that he should compliment his fellow-citizens by exhibitions of the kind they loved, and when the common people were discontented, their cry was that they wanted panem ac Circenses, "bread and sports," the only thing they cared for. In most places where there has been a large Roman colony, remains can be seen of the amphitheatres, where the citizens were wont to assemble for these diversions. Sometimes these are stages of circular galleries of seats hewn out of the hillside, where rows of spectators might sit one above the other, all looking down on a broad flat space in the centre, under their feet, where the representations took place. Sometimes, when the country was flat, or it was easier to build than excavate, the amphitheatre was raised above the ground, rising up to a considerable height. The grandest and most renowned of all these amphitheatres is the Coliseum at Rome.

Ancient Rome