Welcoming Summer

It’s hard to think of summer on a day like this. The forecast ‘light rain’ is currently lashing down relentlessly - in fact, as I write, it has turned to heavy hail, so Bealtine seems very far away, and plans for tiny posies of wild flowers are definitely abandoned. 

Instead, today’s blip is of a piece my son designed for a calligraphy competition when he was 10 - and yes we have it still, framed in fact! He’s now an architect, and would be mortified to know I’d used it! 

Welsh spring and summer is the time for Eisteddfodau with competitions in music, dance, poetry and art - and back then when they were little, our boys were heavily involved. It may well be this is as close to Bealtine that we ever get. 

The poem describes the countryside in spring and early summer - flowers in the hedgerows, cuckoos, farmers working in the field. It’s rather bitter-sweet, however, bemoaning the idealised version of the Welsh countryside in summer which has no place for the harsh reality of rural life. Not ones to look on the bright side, us Welsh - unless there’s rugby involved of course! 

The extra shows a group of little flower girls - local children who perform a dance in Eisteddfod ceremonies where Wales awards the year’s winning  poets or bards - possibly the closest thing to welcoming in the summer. 



Thanks to freespiral for hosting Tiny Tuesday.