Since I have gone “full time” making instruments, I have been able to put a great deal of time into research and design. I am now able to offer new keys and options on my wooden whistles. They are now available in the keys of D, C, and Bflat. A second “body” can be ordered along with a D whistle to allow one to play in C as well.
I am also offering 3 piece tunable flutes in Af. Blackwood for $250 as an introductory price.
Best of good fortune to you, David. Be sure to ask Dale before you post anything that might be interpreted as commercial. Like I do… Of course, there are certain people who consider the mere fact that I post at all, as commercial… hmmmmm…
serpent
So, I ate too much haggis, (isn’t that any haggis??) and when I fell asleep, I had this rather odd dream of being chased by a dancing Native American with a NA flute and a Scottish burr, who was shouting "Davey! Davey! and brandishing a tomahawk… I ran and ran, and finally came to a staircase extending upward through a giant alumin(i)um tube, so I climbed up and up, and met a pair of dancing whistlers on a balcony… the NA flute player kept pursuing me, and finally I exited the staircase, and stepped out…
… into the window of A BIG GIANT ALBA LOW D
and then I woke up. It so unnerved me, I’ve vowed to never eat haggis again. Gods alone know what I might find in an SE!!!
I talked to someone formerly in the food business who knew the inner workings of a major hot dog plant. Just as bad as a description of haggis. Hot dogs sort of lost their appeal after hearing about it.
Funny part is, I grew up in rural Pennsylvania, Penn Dutch country. Lots of sausage, scrapple, etc. Folks made it themselves, or got it from a local butcher. I’ve made my own sausage more than a few times. Frankly, I don’t see what the big deal about haggis is. It’s just an oversized sausage with oats added as filler.
Actually, the best thing about haggis is that it’s not made by major meat-plants. It may have a lot of “odd” things in it, but at least they are clean and properly handled odd things.
On an interesting note, old (19th century) sausage recipies very often used bread or similar fillers in sausage. It drastically changes the texture of the sausage from the all-meat versions we are used to today. I like it, but it took getting used to.
I don’t know about getting you into trouble. Times in the Scottish highlands and Hebrides (in effect, the Scottish Gaeltacht) were often rough and people subsisted on a rather sparse diet. Gaelic culture was heavily suppressed there as well as in Ireland. One way of getting some protein into your diet was to occasionally bleed your cow into the oatmeal which was the staple of the diet. I suspect not only haggis but also black pudding might have their origins in this practice. Does anybody actually know?
My Gaelic speaking grandmother passed on many highland and Hebridean recipes, some being humble versions of rather grand Scottish dishes like cock a leekie soup. Lamb would be substituted for chicken, barley for rice and so on. Offal figured quite a bit in the traditional diet but she didn’t process it into haggis.
I agree with msheldon - it’s just a kind of sausage. As are the much-more-common black and white puddings.
When I first started travelling to the UK, I avoided both black and white pudding, just because I knew what was in 'em. But once I actually tried them, I had to admit they were pretty good.
Slightly more on-topic: the best black and white puddings I’ve had were in Cork (same place I started with whistle). Some of the best stout, too.
I don’t know about the celts, but there are tribes in africa where the blood of cattle is their major source of protien. Their cattle are too valuable to slaughter.
The Hot Dog Plant is often maligned but more often consumed. It, of course, depends greatly on the soil conditions and the number of nemitodes there in. Properly grown and harvested at the peak of there growth the hot dog plant is a true delicacy. Coorprate farming is to blame for the poor quality and taste of most hot dog plants but they are easy to grow in your own garden and it is hard to beat the taste of a fresh from the garden hot dog plant.
By the way I just got my hands on an Alba low D and it is the finest low whistle I have ever played.
Hey Tom, did that Alba Low D come filled with whatever it is Stacey uses to help “inspire” all those avatars of hers? Maybe you should clean it out before playing any more, or those hot dog plants might start coming after you!
..it’s absolutely amazing to me the LIFE these threads take on…someone just wrote “…back on topic..” …has this thread strayed anywhere NEAR to being on topic since in was launched??
…ahhh haggis, I was once served a rather lovely dish of haggis, after remarking that it didn’t taste as I had expected it…well..the person who had prepared it especially for me warned me to stay away from “tourist haggis”..this of course was said with a rather evil, malevolent look in their eye… “Ah look, isn’t the bus tours coming in? Get out the spam haggis!”
..I shudder to think what might have been..“there but for the grace of God”
Back on topic, then. Those are some fine looking whistles, David. A bit out of my price range at this time, but I can dream. (As long as I don’t eat haggis. Then I have nightmares. )
Thats right
So pack it in 
