Eisteddfod? What is it exactly?

I'm still not really quite sure.. but it comes round every year and makes you feel very patriotic and proud to be Welsh (or adopted by the Welsh). There's a lot of flags displayed, daffodils worn and Welsh spoken. This outward display of patriotism is something sadly lacking in England, (I think the English flag has been hijacked - but that's a whole other blog).

The Urdd (their full title is "Urdd Gobaith Cymru" which literally means Welsh League of Hope) is a movement for young people, from the age of 7 up to 24. The Urdd is organised into local groups whose catchment areas are based on those of the Welsh medium schools of Wales.

The children of the school join the Urdd if they wish. Once a member this then entitles them to attend the active and creative social club, stay at the residential centres and to enter the various competitions organised by the Urdd at school level, and on to county and then national level if they perform well.  Competitions organised by the Urdd include various sports and then the arts, music and literature festival, known as the Eisteddfod (pronounced; eye-steth-vod).

It's a wonderful event. Confidence in the children knows no bounds. They have little problem standing up in front of a sea of faces because they've been doing it since the age of 7. Now G10 might not always get through her competitions (but without the 'losers' their wouldn't be a competition in the first place, right?)  And I for one am always very proud of her for having a go. Entering into the spirit of things. She tries. Could I memorise a four stanza poem in Welsh? Could I play the violin?  No is the short answer to both those questions, so bravo G10.  You're always a winner to me.



Very Proud Mummy Moment.
G10 was a winner in her violin performance;
(albeit that there were only two of them in her age group).



Almost, But Not Quite

It's been one of those 'Almost, But Not Quite' episodes of my life.

I almost went out for a meal with friends... but due to bugs and funerals half couldn't make it so it was postponed.

I almost started a photography evening class... but it got cancelled at the last minute.

I almost posted on a controversial topic... but after some soul searching thought better of it.

I almost got picked to be a giver on World Book Night... (this is a lie - I missed by a country mile).

I almost went to a Welsh language social evening... but lost my mojo.

I almost sold my house... the "Sold" board went up and I stupidly really thought it was happening.

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda \ Happy New Year

You +1'd this publicly. Undo

Not functioning on all four cylinders this morning; so as a picture paints a thousand words I've taken that shortcut.

Iechyd da \ Cheers

Sylfaen Exam

Beth yw'r gair Cymraeg am PANIC.

The longest three minutes of my life is approaching.  Fast.  Three minutes talking Welsh, in front of a bona fide Welsh speaker (rather than the forgiving dog I'm used to, who always wags her tail politely).  This Welsh speaker will listen to me - and worse, will then ask me questions.  I'm going to faint.  The oral is worth a weighty 50% of the total marks - to be recorded and assessed externally.  Oh joy.  Someone else will hear my umms and ahhs, the long silences, the "Dw i ddim yn gwybod" - repeated often, my nervous coughs, my weak guttural ch and my lazy r.

And to think I registered for the exam voluntarily.  Was I temporarily insane?  Will Wenglish work?  #fail.

Shwmai

I've always envied people who can speak another language and play an instrument.  I've encouraged (pushed?) G8 into doing both.  She is fluent in Welsh and is learning to play the violin.  It is the best age to learn and I really do not know why both are not compulsory in school when young, because believe you me it gets much harder to do when you are older.

And I chose Welsh.  Not the easiest language to learn - don't get me going on mutations.  I've been so busy this year for one reason or another I just about made it to the Welsh lessons but did nothing in between them.  And it showed.  The tests at the end of term were just a blur, I had little idea about what was going on.  I had to cheat or hide my paper.  It was embarrassing. 

I have made myself a promise:- Bydda i trio i wneud a tipyn bach o Cymraig bob dydd yn y gwyliau nawr.  What I'm trying to say (it may not be completely grammatically correct, remember I'm a learner) is:- I'll try to do a little Welsh every day in the holiday now.  I am so far behind I really need to do this if I am not to lose the plot completely. 

Although I feel I am still such a beginner and cannot (wouldn't dare) have a conversation in Welsh (unless it's with the dog), it does feel a waste of three years to give up.  And if there is one character trait I have in abundance it is tenacity.  I am a plodder.  I get there in the end.  I hate giving up.  It will not beat me. 

Pass me that guitar.

Another week at the Language Centre - blasus iawn!

The children were sent to the kitchen to begin baking 'picau ar y maen' - see result later in the blog!

We discovered that Welsh dishes and recipes primarily arose out of the necessity to make do with the available ingredients and, more importantly, to make them last. Welsh food has developed to satisfy the needs of hardworking men and women who were doing traditional jobs such as farm labouring, coal mining, quarry work and fishing.

Very few cereal crops could flourish in Wales’ bleak uplands apart from oats. Oats therefore became part of the staple diet and were often included in cakes, soups and porridge. In the "Laws of Hywel Dda" (Welsh law) of the 10th Century Hywel mentions that the only two vegetables cultivated in Wales were cabbages and leeks.  Leeks are indeed common in Welsh cuisine. The foods that are considered to be most traditional throughout Wales include bacon, cheese, Bara Lawr (laverbread), Bara Brith (tea bread) and Cawl (a Welsh stew often with lamb and leeks).

Although we were unable to try Cawl in the classroom we were given a recipe to try out at home. It is very representative of Welsh food. In the past Welsh lamb was considered a bit of a treat. Pork though was eaten as part of the principal diet as homes situated in rural areas and in semi-urban parts of Wales housed a pig-sty (twlc) at the bottom of the garden. Bacon in particular became an essential element in Welsh cuisine as it forms a key ingredient in Cawl. This classic one-pot meal varies from region to region and even from house to house.

Our first taste was of cockles. For hundreds of years, the cockle men and women have harvested cockles across the Gower peninsula. This shellfish is an inexpensive source of protein and remains popular. They can be served in a variety of ways although usually steamed. Unfortunately as they were only selling fresh cockles Saturday when G8's language teacher was buying they wouldn't have been very fresh by the time we got to eat them, so we had to make do with a pot of them in vinegar - yum all the same.

 Next on our agenda was the Bara Lawr, (although bara is Welsh for bread it is in fact seaweed.) This came again from the Gower peninsula. I had never tried it before and wasn't entirely sure I wanted to try it now, oh well in for a penny (and I'm always telling G8 to try food first before she says she doesn't like it). G8's language teacher had come well prepared with her toaster. She had been told it was especially nice on warm buttered toast. Actually I found it quite an understated taste despite the look, although it hasn't quite made my top 10 of favourite things to eat! Another way to serve it apparently is to mix with oatmeal, form into patties and then fry them in bacon fat. Unfortunately we didn't have a cooker or pan to try it this way, but if I get the opportunity in the future I just might.

Then came Bara brith, "speckled bread", it's a rich fruit loaf made of marmalade and dried fruit that is steeped in tea. You can butter it or eat it as it comes. It's best plain in my opinion - although I'll eat in any which way.

Welsh cakes (recall the picau ar y maen at the beginning of the blog) are sweet-dough, griddle scones with currants and sultanas.  Remember from last week that maen means stone, well picau means little cake \ little piece. These were again locally sourced from Rhydwen Bakery in Clynderwen BUT I have to say those baked by the children were even better as they were warm and filled the room with a gorgeous mouth watering smell.

Various cheeses are produced in Wales, these include Caerphilly, Y Fenni, Hen-Sir, Llanboidy. We tried some locally produced cheeses from just up the road from us here in Llysyfran. You can find them the other side of Maenclochog in Rosebush, see www.pantmawrcheeses.co.uk/ My favourite was Caws-y-Graig, a goats cheese - truly delicious! I shall be buying some more of that!

Things really started to look up when I spied a box of Pemberton's chocolate. They are really delicious (and I think I might boycott Cadburys in protest of Kraft's recent actions and buy these instead.) Join me at www.welshchocolatefarm.com/

Now we really were cooking on gas when the cups came out. We tried a wine from Cwm Deri Vineyard in Narberth, Pembrokeshire - it goes without saying that I liked that very much.  www.cwm-deri.co.uk/

Other things we didn't try but we talked about were:

• Welsh rarebit, which is milk or beer, mustard, Worcestershire sauce (optional) and Caerphilly cheese melted on top of a slice of toast 
• Traditional Welsh breakfast, a hearty breakfast of local eggs and cockles fried with bacon and sausage, served with laverbread.

If I've wetted your appetite - literally, try www.pembrokeshireproducedirect.org.uk/ to order direct to your door.

I could hardly move afterwards, but it would have been rude not to try it all!

Welsh place names and a little bit of history thrown in...

Hi, a more educational grown up blog today!!  Some interesting things I learned about the area I now live in from my second week at the Language Centre.

Maenclochog means 'ringing stones' (maen = standing stone + cloch = bell + og = fast\sharp).  It is thought the name refers to a large stone, several tons in weight, nicely poised upon three small upright stones.  It vibrated with the slightest touch, and when struck it sounded like a bell: this curiosity was destroyed by some of the inhabitants, who thought they might find some hidden treasure underneath it.  They blew it up with gunpowder.  Some rocks on the Preseli hills do have curious resonant properties. Was it this characteristic that made the bluestones special, explaining why some were believed to have been taken to Stonehenge?

All villages with Llan at the beginning and there are a few, is because llan means church.  So for example Llan-y-cefn: llan = church\parish + y = the + cefn = ridge\back.  Another little common one, cwm = hollow\deep valley, so for example Cwm Gwaun: cwm = valley + gwaun = moor\low-lying marshy ground\meadow.

Llysyfran

llys = court\manor house\hall + y = the + fran (mutated form of brân) = crow\raven i.e. court of the crows.

Pentre Ifan

Pentre = hamlet, village + Ifan = person's name.  Ivan's village was a settlement in the parish of Nevern,  North Pembrokeshire.  It contains the largest (the capstone weighs over 16 tons) and best preserved neolithic dolmen in Wales dating from approximately 3,500 B.C. and was used as a communal burial ground.

Mynydd Carningle

Mynydd = mountain Carn = rock.  Carn Ingli is a small mountain\hill near Newport in Pembrokeshire.  It's less than 400 meters high but it is near the coast and dominates the surrounding area.  It's always had sacred associations; according to legend in the 5th centuary Saint Brynach used to climb to the summit to find tranquillity to pray and to talk with the angels.

We learnt a little about The Merched Becca - The Rebecca Riots which took place between 1839 and 1843 in South and Mid Wales.  They were a protest against high tolls which had to be paid on the local turnpike roads. 
Roads were especially bad in Wales. To remedy this turnpike trusts were set up here (as they were in Britain). A number of people (known as trustees) made up the trust and they improved the roads. In return for this they erected toll gates and collected charges from road users (similar to crossing the Severn Bridge today). Farmers were hard-hit by this as they used the roads to transport lime to their farms to improve the soil.  The rioters, many disguised as women, destroyed the tollhouses and gates. Each leader was known as ‘Rebecca’ and followers were ‘her daughters’. They took their name from the biblical prophecy that the seed of Rebekah would ‘possess the gate of those which hate them’ (Genesis 24, Verse 60).  The riots ceased prior to 1844 because the act to consolidate and amend the laws relating to turnpike trusts in Wales was passed.

There is a belief that Preseli Bluestone, (some 480 million years old, a dolerite found in the Preseli Mountains) was 5000 years ago moved some 200 miles to Salisbury Plain, where they form the inner circle at Stonehenge. Legend has it that Merlin himself moved the bluestones from an older circle to Stonehenge by magically lifting them into the air.  Although there is now debate that the bluestone (a "generic" label of more than 20 different rocks, rather than a geological term) did not originate from a single source, but from widely spread locations in North Pembrokeshire, but I'm an old romantic and like to believe in Merlin.

Wales rules!

I received an email from G8's language teacher, an extract follows...

I would like to invite you to take part in a new project that the Language Centre has in partnership with Menter Iaith Sir Benfro (Pembrokeshire’s Language Enterprise) and Bwrdd yr Iaith (The Welsh Language Board). The aim of this project is to offer sessions for the whole family to help you assimilate with the area. By providing these sessions we hope to give you a better understanding of the linguistic nature and traditions of the area, which will in-turn, benefit you as you support your child’s education.

What a welcome (albeit a bit late in our case).  The first session included a task where we were asked to list what we think of when we think of Wales; rugby, sheep, singing, red dragons, castles, beaches, farming, community, going back in time, the language etc etc.

We listened to Max Boyce at a rugby match and found out about some local history.

I really can't wait for the food tasting session to come.

When I travelled round the world, one of the girls I travelled with was Welsh and she did the whole flag waving bit - ALL the time.  I understand now, the culture wrapped around her as she grew up gave her so much pride in her roots.

One little session has made me feel quite patriotic and proud to be Welsh, and I'm not Welsh, but if this inclusiveness continues I hope they might adopt me soon.

Welsh Language & Schools

My daughter goes to a school where Welsh is taught as the first language. My Mum and I decided we'd like to learn it too, dyn ni dysgu Cymraeg! We have been trying for three years now - without much success I have to say. My Dad tried for a year then gave up with the lame excuse that he has too much to do! (Wish I'd thought of that one).

I ask my daughter about the mutations, she assures me it's just to make the words sound better, but I'm an adult, I need rules and it panics me, she doesn't worry about it and is fluent. Hmmmm.

I am continuously astonished at how easily she has picked up this very difficult to learn second language. It struck me that we ought to do this in the English schools, the Canadians do it with French - this immersion technique and it appears to work, perhaps because a young child lacks self-consciousness and negativism? My daughter did have some intensive language lessons for two days a week for a little over a year, outside of her normal schooling (we didn't move until she was in year 2). Since then she has been simply immersed in the language at school and has gone from strength to strength. She has not lost ground in the standard subjects, in fact she is as bad at maths as she would be in England :).

One other brilliant positive, is that Welsh schools don't have national testing HURAH. My daughter is always the very youngest in her year, we were still in England when at just a few days older than six she was being prepared for the SATs. After two years of enjoying school she started to dislike it, this was serious stuff. The pressure was on; spellings every week, homework for the weekend, reading every night. We had parental guidance notes about what to encourage when we were working with our child so that they would jump through the hoops and pass the tests. I felt pressure and put pressure on my child - I tried not to, but I did. Why do we do that? Surely if you allow children the space to enjoy learning - they will actually learn.

No testing here, but the school my child will end up in is far, far better rated then any of the local senior schools in the area we left. Says it all really.