February 2015 2 Advertise In Here The Tresmeer Gazette is delivered to local parishes, reaching over 250 households, and is also published on the internet at www.tresmeer.com Published Eleven months of the year (no January edition) and online 24/7 A quarter page business advert for one whole year will cost just £25 (colour) A half page business advert for one year will cost £50 (colour) A full page business advert for one year will cost £100 (colour) One off advertisements will be £15 for half page (colour) - £30 for full page All entries must be in by the 2nd week of each month Please contact us to discuss your requirements Phone - 01566 781636 daytime and evenings Email - [email protected] Address - West Tremaine, Tremaine Cornwall, PL15 8SA. USEFUL TELEPHONE NUMBERS EDITORS: John and James: [email protected] 01566 781319 POLICE NON EMERGENCY 101 VILLAGE HALL BOOKINGS 01566 781819/781339 VICAR Revd Canon Geoffrey Pengelly 01566 785365 CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAU 0844 4994188 NHS DIRECT 111 CORNWALL COUNCIL 0300 1234 100 LAUNCESTON MEDICAL CENTRE 01566 772131 TRESMEER PARISH COUNCIL 01566 773078 VILLAGE SHOP 01566 781819 Tradesmen We have had enquiries about the experience, reliability and quality of work done by our advertisers. We would like to point out that the printing of an advert in the Tresmeer Gazette does not imply an endorsement or rec- ommendation. Many of our supporters are not actually known to us personally. We recommend if in doubt to ask for the name of at least two customers that have used the service/s provided. A good tradesman will not be insulted or upset by this request. 3 HIGHMOOR (Kernow) Ltd Building, Roofing and Decorating Contractors Refurbishment and Renovating Specialists Telephone: 01566 781600 Mobile: 07836253721 Fax: 01566 781517 4 Editorial February 2015 After the festivities of Christmas and the New Year we seem to have lived under a dripping grey blanket for weeks making one long to hibernate. This year we have had some lovely clear frosty days and a dramatic night of thunder, lightening, snow and hail, accompanied by power cuts and the loss of phone and internet. We do have two festivals to look forward to, Valentine’s Day and Pancake Day. Pancake Day or Shrove Tuesday does not quite match the exuberance of Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) and Carnival (Flesh Farewell) as seen in many Catholic coun- tries throughout Europe and Latin America. The origins of Pancake Day are very old. It was a weeklong Slav festival, to encourage the god of fertility and springtime to tri- umph over the evil spirits of cold and dark- ness. Pancakes were hot and round and symbolised the sun and the first one cooked was put in a window. On the last day the pancakes were burnt in a bonfire as an offering to the gods. This be- came transformed in Christian times to a last day of indulgence before the fast- ing of Lent, rich foods such as eggs were all used up before being forbidden. In England there are pancake races and at St Columb Major the unique Hurling of the Silver Ball. Cornish Hurling has resemblances to rugby but is unique to Cornwall. Not quite as exciting as carnival in Venice or Rio! So when you toss those pancakes imagine yourself in Venice or Rio and banish those winter blues! 5 6 Parish Council The next Parish Council meeting is Monday 9th February 7.30 in the village hall. We are delighted for mem- bers of the public to attend. The Parish Council James Leaney (781552), Fenella Wojnarowska (781319), Harold Walters (781339), Sharon Austin (781827), Pe- ter Turner (781808) and Philip Stephenson Parish Clerk (773078) or [email protected]) Closing of St Nicholas A letter received from the Archdeacon of Bodmin concerning the closure of St Nicholas was discussed. The following reply from the Parish Council was drafted: The closure of St Nicholas, Tresmeer Parish Church was discussed at our Parish Council meeting on Monday 12th January. We very much regret this, as it is much loved by the parishioners. Moreover St Nicholas is a beautiful church and is Grade II* listed. We do however understand the reasons for doing this, and hope that as previously it may re-open in the future. We are anxious to know what provision has been made to preserve and maintain the church and the grave- yard. Footpaths It was discussed how the Cross Compliance for the Single Farm Payments lays emphasis on the maintenance of footpaths and preservation of access to the footpaths. It is hoped that this will make restora- tion of the local footpaths easier. The Parish Council agreed to help Cornwall Council with signposting on the footpath to Tremaine. Tresmeer Parish Council Meeting, Monday 9th February at 7.30pm Tresmeer Village Hall DRAFT AGENDA. Chairman’s opening remarks. Apologies for absence. 2.0 Member’s declarations of interest in matters on this meeting agenda. 3.0. Minutes of the meeting of 12th January 2015. 4.0. Matters arising from the minutes not included elsewhere on the agenda. 5.0 Planning applications 6.0. Accounts/financial matters: balance at bank. 7.0. Correspondence & invitations 8.0. Parish matters. 9.0. Parish & Neighbourhood Plan. 11.0. Footpaths KJ Bromell PVCu WINDOWS & DOORS CONSERVATORIES BATHROOMS GLASS BALUSTRADES BUILDING SUPPLIES KINGS HILL INDUSTRIAL ESTATE, BUDE EX23 8QN www.kjbromell.co.uk 01288 357020 We manufacture, supply and fit double glazed PVCu windows, doors and custom designed conservatories Open up the view from your patio or balcony with glass balustrading supplied and fitted by our skilled craftsmen At our site in Bude we have a large building mer- chants – open to both trade and public Opening times Mon to Friday 7.30 am – 5.00 pm Saturday 8am – 12.00 Trading since 1979 Family Business [email protected] Come and see what we have to offer 7 Poetry Corner This month Poetry corner brings you two poems. They were both written in the Seventeenth Century about the same time by two different poets. Abraham Cowley (1618-1667) was something of a child prodigy producing accomplished verse at the age of 10. He was highly regarded on his day not least by the King Charles 11nd. Drinking is his amusing celebration of what was in Cromwell’s England a vice. Andrew Marvell (1621-1678) was known more for his politics than his writing. He was an MP for Hull, first opposing Cromwell and then becoming an admirer. He was a brilliant political satirist and wrote on a wide variety of subjects includ- ing this, The Fair Singer. Most of his poetry was published after his death by his housekeeper who claimed to have been his wife. Drinking (Abraham Cowley) The fair singer (Andrew Marvell) The thirsty earth soaks up the rain, To make a final conquest of all me, And drinks and gapes for drink again; Love did compose so sweet an enemy, The plants suck in the earth, and are In whom both beauties to my death agree, With constant drinking fresh and fair; Joining themselves in fatal harmony; That while she with her eyes my heart does The sea itself (which one would think bind, Should have but little need of drink) She with her voice might captivate my Drinks ten thousand rivers up, mind. So filled that they o’erflow the cup. The busy sun (and one would guess I could have fled from one but singly fair: By’s drunken fiery face no less) My disentangled soul itself might save, Drinks up the sea, and when he’s done, Breaking the curled trammels of her hair, The Moon and Stars drink up the Sun: But how should I avoid to be her slave, They drink and dance by their own light, Whose subtle art invisibly can wreathe They drink and revel all the night: My fetters of the very air I breathe? Nothing in Nature’s sober found, But an eternal health goes round. It has been easy fighting in some plain, Fill up the bowl, then, fill it high, Where victory might hang in equal choice; Fill all the glasses there – for why But resistance against her is vain, Should every creature drink but I? Who has the advantage both of eyes and Why, man of morals, tell me why? voice; And all my forces needs must be undone, She having gained both the wind and the sun. 8 Cottage Farm If anyone had told us in 2004 that we’d now be farming in Cornwall, we wouldn’t have believed them. We lived near Sevenoaks, Kent, and my husband, Paul, ran a market re- search agency - we had no plans to move. But by the end of that year we became aware of the predicted effects of climate change and the energy crisis, and how they would af- fect our way of life. So within a month, we made a huge, life-changing decision - we would sell up, move to the country, buy a farm, keep animals, grow our own food, use renewable energy and become as self-sufficient as possible. When we told our friends, half said we were mad; half said we were brave, but I preferred mad since brave made it sound far too serious an undertaking. We decided to move to Cornwall where we thought farms would be more affordable, and there was plenty of wind for a wind turbine and sun for solar panels that would be essential for our new way of life. The trouble was we knew nothing about farming. How much land would we need? What animals would we keep? How do you actually look af- ter farm animals and farmland? Soon after we started looking at farms, we had the luck to find a course called ‘Cows for Beginners’.