1st March is St David's Day. 
St David (Dewi Sant) is the patron saint of Wales and he was a Celtic priest. The date was chosen to commemorate the death of St David in 589 and has been celebrated since then. Traditionally people wear a leek or daffodil (either real or badge) and these days lots of parades and parties take place. Sometimes young girls wear traditional costume - the common image of tall black hat with white cap underneath, woollen skirt, woollen stockings and shawl is being debated as national Welsh dress as it was apparently the daily dress worn over all Britain during the early 1800's. The woman (Lady Llanover) who actively promoted this costume was making an effort for the local wool industries.
This time of year is also when people participate in the Eisteddfod, which is a celebration of Welsh poets and musicians. The earliest confirmed Eisteddfod was in 1176. Competition was originally limited to professional bards and Queen Elizabeth I said they should be examined and licensed to maintain high standards. Interest waned but luckily was revived in the 1700's. These days the competition is open to the public and the International Eisteddfod attracts competitors from all over the world. Youths compete in the Urdd Eisteddfod in singing, recitation, dancing, acting and musicianship. I remember very well the time our school was lucky enough to participate in the recitation. There were about 8 or 9 of us - we thought we were pretty good, and managed to come second. I also made a puppet one year - paper mache head and a knitted body, for which I received a commendation - maybe they don't have 'art' as a category any more.
This year I am celebrating St David's Day in a new country, but am lucky enough to have some daffodils in the garden, planted by the previous owners, and a daffy dog!
It's a while since I posted a blog with pics. We have been busy with lots of things as the weather becomes more agreeable. But one task which is complete, apart from maybe some further wall decoration is the entrance hallway. You will remember that we had some dark green, yellow and orange velour type paper on the walls, and on the floor the greeny-brown tiles which were also in the kitchen and living areas. The ceiling was a sort of brown paper we've never seen before - it took a lot of paint to make it a soft white - I think about 5 coats. front entrance
towards the loo
towards dining room
So a list of what we did - clean, paint ceiling and scotia; strip walls of all paper, sand to remove any glue residue, apply crepi (this is a type of plaster) and then paint the walls; lay and grout floor tiles and plinths; decorate with some second hand chairs we found and our own cabinet and some new light shades; remove, paint and reinstall radiator (this was an awful job....); painting the doors was a huge job and the photos below don't really show the pooey pink they were before they were painted - each door has 18 glass panels and 2 undercoats and 2 top coats each makes........ (18 panes x 4 coats x 2 sides x 3 doors = 432!). One door remains - the door to the dining room. The current one is not big enough for wheelchair access so we have another ready to be installed once the doorway is adjusted.towards our room
lamp
Now we feel that the house takes on more of our character and has a brighter atmosphere.Another decorating story to come as I'm just doing the finishing touches in the loo and back bedroom - after that it will be work on the new bathroom and toilet with special attention to wheelchair access. And of course this will include a stairway to the first floor - we currently have a 'trap' (pull-down stairs). All these things are joint efforts as I need Wouter to do things like removing door handles and knobs, taking down and hanging doors, and so on, and he leaves me with painting while he does another 101 jobs elsewhere in the house or outside. What else? We are working on the web pages so that we can be googled and hopefully get some business from 1st May - yes, we are mad enough to believe we can get all this extra work done by then.... You've seen the TV programmes where the first guests arrive and the painter is leaving by the back door! Also we are busy in the garden preparing for our vegetable and flower crops - have bought lots of seed packets and are weeding, working the soil and planting. Temperatures are becoming more like NZ spring with cool mornings and lovely afternoons. The days are more sunny with about 4 days a week full sun and the other 3 grey, overcast, and a bit of rain - almost perfect. For those of you who haven't had an update recently, after a few meetings and Wouter registering as an auto-enterprise, we are now waiting for the siret number which allows Wouter to trade as an ebeniste and for us to be able to get health insurance. So everything seems to be coming together at long last.
Well, it's a while since I wrote but we've been so busy doing lots of things - like decorating. Will post another blog soon with pics of the new entrance hallway and newly finished toilet and soon-to-be-finished back bedroom.The last couple of weeks we (especially Wouter) have been busy organising stuff for the Chambres de Metier in order to get registered as auto-enterprise (self-employed with no provisional tax for 3 years) and then get a siret number - the magic number which permits trading in a certain profession and allows you to get into the social system here. A few meetings later and Wouter is finally registered, although it was not without hitches. The lady wanted to know our social security number - you don't have one? How is that possible in France? You can't have health insurance without it, and health insurance is compulsory - yes, tell us all about the chicken and egg story......So to backtrack slightly, last week it was Valentines Day and as we are on a tighter budget until we start bringing in some dosh we decided not to get anything for each other. In NZ Wouter would buy some flowers (I told him to pick from the garden as otherwise it's like taking - for the British, coals to Newcastle - for the Dutch, water to the sea) which was really nice, or some chocolates. I can always find room for choccy!This year, no flowers, no choccy, but while we were at the supermarket, we saw some cheese - we debated whether we needed it this week, but Wouter said - let's get it for Valentines Day - so there you go all you people who thought romance might be dead - cheese for a Valentines gift. No complaints as I'm a cheesy kind of girl and I wasn't expecting anything.Today Wouter came home from his meeting from registering, and he said he had a present for me - a kind of belated Valentines gift. I thought perhaps it was a bit extravagant, but it sounded exciting and romantic...... until he showed me the new paint rollers for doing more painting and being able to get behind the radiators a bit better. I guess it was hard to top the cheese.
St David (Dewi Sant) is the patron saint of Wales and he was a Celtic priest. The date was chosen to commemorate the death of St David in 589 and has been celebrated since then. Traditionally people wear a leek or daffodil (either real or badge) and these days lots of parades and parties take place. Sometimes young girls wear traditional costume - the common image of tall black hat with white cap underneath, woollen skirt, woollen stockings and shawl is being debated as national Welsh dress as it was apparently the daily dress worn over all Britain during the early 1800's. The woman (Lady Llanover) who actively promoted this costume was making an effort for the local wool industries.
This year I am celebrating St David's Day in a new country, but am lucky enough to have some daffodils in the garden, planted by the previous owners, and a daffy dog!
