Monday 22 March 2010

SPRING

So it is officially Spring ,and yesterday I dug my vegetable patch over ready for planting. It was a glorious morning, but it rained in the afternoon. Now my garden is full of cats thinking that this soft earth has been dug over just for them.

What makes Spring:the daffodils and bluebells or the bird song. The brighter mornings and the longer evenings. It is all about light. And Easter,that Pagan festival, linking the Passover and the Resurrection by falling on the first full moon after the equinox.

Rabbits, hares,eggs-it is fertility-the birth of the new light.

Saturday 13 March 2010

WRITERS' DAY

What is a group of writers called? A flock,a congregation, a colony a culture, a shrewdness,a murder? Here we all are promoting our books,gathering information,talking writing, meeting old friends, making new ones. It is cogenial especially when you realise how many published writers are actively involved in writing groups in west Wales.

So home with a clatter of books I'm eager to read,but I'm too tired.I arrive home to a different reality,a reality where writing isn't centre stage,and what a group of writers is called is irrelevant.

Sunday 7 March 2010

Imagination

Yesterday I went to see the new Alice in Wonderland or Alice in Underland film. I've never been to a 3D film before and it was different. Objects and characters seemed to fly into the auditorium.

My eldest daughter loved watching Alice in Wonderland videos,but I was never much of a fan. I had an illustrated copy of the book as a child, but much preferred to read Heidi or Little Women.I much preferred the pratical to the whimsical, but have to admit I enjoyd the film.

However, it took me away from the novel I am reading Scapegallows by Carol Birch about the life of Margaret Catchpole, an 18th century woman transported to Australia instead of being hung for stealing a horse.It is an exciting adventure and would make an excellent film.

Monday 1 March 2010

St David's Day

Spring is here at last with St David's Day and a few daffodils in bloom. Yet this morning my car was frosted with ice;it took de-icer and scaping the windscreen to clear it,but this afternoon when I went to the school Eisteddfod it was a sunny Spring day. I seem to have been going to school eisteddfods for ever.Once it was all traditional costume,but now it is rugby shirts.Of course, Wales should not be defined by its costume or its lovespoons,and rugby is an integral part of the land.

This is new Wales,and it is good to see the rugby shirts and dragon flags. Growing up in England we did not have this celebration of a national day-St George and Shakespeare seemed to merge together on April 23rd and mean nothing. They both seemed to be old and mythic. There was no celebration in school,no concert or competing. So Wales eisteddfod tradition is important,and I shall probably miss sitting in a hot hall listening to three versions of the same song and the same recitation.

I think there used to be more hwyl and always the National Anthem was sung.Today it wasn't. Perhaps they ran out of time or felt that with all the red rugby shirts it might feel more like a match than a concert. Of course, there are always the fine voices you know you'll hear again-Rhian,Caryl and Natalie,especially Natalie with her beauty and her voice.