By: Blonde Two
Felly dyma yw’r Blonde. Yn ei sach gysgu – Big Oren.
A oedd hi’n dod o hyd i’r Bwthyn ?
Oedd hi cynnau’r tân?
Oedd hi gael noson dda o gwsg ?
Bydd rhaid i chi gyd aros i weld !
Welwn ni chi yn nes ymlaen !
Felly dyma yw’r Blonde. Yn ei sach gysgu – Big Oren.
A oedd hi’n dod o hyd i’r Bwthyn ?
Oedd hi cynnau’r tân?
Oedd hi gael noson dda o gwsg ?
Bydd rhaid i chi gyd aros i weld !
Welwn ni chi yn nes ymlaen !
So here you are, just a bit to my right (I’m writing facing Abergavenny) regurgitating Welsh verse but without your mascara. You must be feeling pretty confident but then confidence is your default state – with or without Blonde One. Let me briefly commend you to Wales, my adopted land of beauty.
When we bought in Hereford we had all sorts of priorities (must have garage, three loos, a main bedroom that could double up as a ballroom, a bargain price, etc, etc). Adjacent Wales came as a complete bonus. Admittedly as a place where we drove rather than walked for we are sere and eternal winter beckons. Even so there is the shabby West Arms at Llanarmon Dyffryn Ceiriog for secret getaways, there is the exhilarating “shortcut” from Llanidoes to Machynlleth, there is the strange architecture of the waterworks in the Elan Valley. Look I am not trying to seduce you away from Dartmoor (nothing could) but it is a delight to have you play an away game now and then, as with Austria last year, and read you reacting to comparative newness.
I hope you are allowed to sing now and then. In sentimental mood I imagine you dropping almost an octave and joining the tenors in All Through The Night. You may be deficient in your normal quota of torches but I am sure you are lighting up this wonderful landscape with your intrinsic brilliance.
And here’s further sentimentality:
Ble mae’r toiled?
Carwch eich swyddi, Roderick. Mae’r llinell olaf oedd naid i mewn i’r tywyllwch, annwyl Bardd.
Alas, alas. My smart-alec post-scriptum was taken from a phrase-book and I’ve no idea whether Starfire is insulting me or garlanding my brow with laurels. A case of creative ambiguity.
Goodness, Starfire, I never realised it was that easy. I’m flattered beyond belief. And yet you don’t blog, you’re simply an itinerant commenter. Perhaps you can solve a problem that has brought me to my knees with sorrow. Why does Waitrose in Abergavenny no longer sell Teisin Lap – the truly adult Welsh caky thing that I adore above all others (excepting VR’s seed cake). I accused the staff of being anti-Welsh, which was pretty silly given their accents. But they merely looked at me smugly, their eyeballs rotating like cash-register displays as they totted up their personal dividends prior to Christmas. Or is there another source? Don’t leave me in suspense.
Do they have bara brith?
I’m a terrible cook, but I have scrounged this from BBC specially for you:
Ingredients
8 oz plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of nutmeg
4 oz margarine (a mixture of lard and butter was traditionally used)
7 oz sugar
8 oz currants
3 eggs
Milk
Method
1.Pre-heat the oven 180oC, gas mark 4. Grease and flour a shallow (9 inch I think) tin.
2.Sieve together the flour, baking powder and nutmeg.
3.Add the sugar and fruit. Add the beaten eggs and mix well. You want a soft, dropping consistency so add as much milk as is needed.
4.Put the mixture in the tin and cook for 20 minutes before lowering the temperature to 170oC, gas mark 3, for another 40 minutes or until firm.
5.Cool, remove from tin and sprinkle with sugar. Store in an airtight container.
Though a purist would say you must cook it on a dinner plate, not in a tin. Don’t be tempted to smooth the mixture down on the plate – it needs the air inside it.
Howzzat? Love from ItCom
They sell proper Welsh bara brith in my local supermarket chain, Booths, and I often buy it. I was introduced to it during my 58 day walk round the Welsh boundary in 2011. I also discovered cawl, a hearty meat and vegetable broth served with a hunk of bread and a hunk of cheese – thanks for reviving the memories.
Appreciate your effort, Starfire. Desperate for teisin lap, we did try a recipe off the Internet. Although VR is a great and frequently inventive cook and patissier the end-product, while definitely a cake, lacked any individuality. Mind you as far as I can remember the recipe lacked many of the tips you included. I’ll print it out and see what VR says. If it works we’ll crack a bottle of Cristal at the West Arms and toast you luridly. Of course if you happen to be there at the time, this won’t be necessary.
Well, unusually for a bothy, there was a toilet but we didn’t find it until the morning!
You are right about Wales, I fully intend to go back and explore the Elan Valley more thoroughly. It is a wonderful and wild place despite the hand of man being so firmly upon it.
You are spookily right about the tenor voice (I am usually a soprano). I love All Through the Night and have a particular passion for Welsh male voice choirs, they make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up!
“Though sad fate,
Our lives may sever
There’s a hope that leaves me never,
All through the night.”
I do have a Welsh dictionary app on my iPhone and iPad but it is a bit tedious except for single words so I cheated only to find the mystery remains with unanswered questions (as far as I could interpret), but I look forward to reading the answers.
Mwynhewch weddill eich gwyliau
Hee, Morning Conrad! Copied/pasted into Google translator en masse – I like this game!
I did enjoy it thank you. Very much. Watch this blog space for details!
A oedd oren Big gynnes yn ddigon?
A oedd y bothie yn un neis?
Roeddwn i’n arfer yn perthyn i Gymdeithas bythynnod Mynydd.
Gyda llaw, wnaeth y parsel mawr yn cyrraedd mewn un darn?
A oedd yn y parsel yn iawn?
P. S. Rwy’n hoffi y gem hon!
This Welsh thing is hard enough to write but even harder to say. Try being in a (very, very friendly) Welsh pub and not even being able to tell people where you have just been walking because the place-name you are saying doesn’t make sense to them!
Big Orange was fabulous, will post photos at some point.
The parcel did arrive and elements of it have happily already been used for bike races, playing loud tunes, munching and being missed in the bothy (left behind to save weight) when someone was walking around with plastic bags on her feet!
Diolch i chi!
Plastic bags are MUCH lighter, hee. Did you photograph your tootsies in them? You could try writing your blog in a different language each day and seeing how long it was before someone replied in the right one?
Come to think of it, if you typed the place name into Google translator and clicked the speaker icon, it would probably have pronounced it for you!
Oh my gosh, my eldest daughter and my younger sister are now speaking in tongues! I hope they understand each other? B2GM
And it isn’t even Pentecost – though we’ve had the wind, and hopefully there was fire in the bothy.