More Strange-Weather Days
It’s a Welsh trait to be pessimistic about the weather – any kind of weather.
If it’s a glorious, sunny Summer day, I hear the comment “Ooooh, we shall suffer for this!” It’s usually said in the sonorous tones of an old-time Welsh preacher. If it’s an icy day in mid-Winter, the words are “It’s too cold . . .”
I have to remind the speakers that seasonal weather is seasonal weather, and that it gets warmer and sunnier in Summer, and colder in Winter.
But, as I’ve commented before in this column, Mother Earth is moving through “strange weather days”.
This Winter has given us very little snow, very little frost – comparatively speaking. And you may be one of the people of Wales who was seriously affected by last years flooding.
So it was good to hear Derek the Weatherman sort of agreeing with me about the inaccuracy of contemporary forecasting. He said, on Radio Wales, that forecasts are “not set in stone”.
Therefore, perhaps we should continue to prepare our homes – and ourselves – for sudden strange happenings when it comes to the weather.
A Meaty Topic
If one is a carnivore, why would one object to eating horse-flesh? I know horses are attractive and intelligent beasts. Cows are nice to look at, too. And the delightful little “Spring” lambs that we’re seeing now will, one day, make delightful meals for someone.
(A quick plug: buy Welsh lamb – we’re seeing a lot too much imported, which does not help our own farmers.)
The only objection I can see to eating horses is that their carcasses may contain drugs which may not do the eater any good.
But the meat-trade has just been exposed as being corrupt. Horses are slaughtered and passed off as beef, for instance. At the time of writing, even Wales seems to be infected with this corruption. A couple of people up near Aberystwyth are under arrest (at the time of writing) for alleged offences.
The Farmers’ Union of Wales is horrified by the mislabelling of so much meat, by the way – and rightly so.
It is wise, in the light of the current news, to ensure that your local butcher (and you do shop locally, don’t you) guarantees the meat you buy is firstly Welsh produced – and secondly what it is advertised as being. There is very little difference in the taste of cooked cow to that of cooked horse.
5WA
No, that’s not secret code to let those in the know that the revolution has begun to free Wales from Mother England’s tyranny!
It’s the name of the radio station which started ninety years ago and which can be described as an ancestor of Radio Wales. The station stared off in Castle Street, Cardiff. To be a little more precise, it started to broadcast on 13th February, 1923, starting at five o’clock in the evening. Now that is precise, eh?
One of the features of that evening was Mostyn Thomas singing “Dafydd y Garreg Wen” – so the Welsh language was recognised as important back then.
So there’s a bit of our nation’s history which is rarely mentioned for you to pass on to your families and friends.
Filling A Gap
I’m pleased to here that, at last, Richard Burton is being commemorated on Hollywood Boulevard, alongside other great Welsh performers.
It’s the result of the Western Mail’s efforts to have the situation corrected.
Burton’s voice was so memorable, so Welsh – “My spiritual home is Port Talbot.”
I still love to listen to him as he spoke the opening words of the original radio performance of Dylan Thomas’ “Under Milk Wood” – a truly great sound drama.
“To begin at the beginning . . .”
