WALES – CYMRU AM BYTH

BOTH RECIPES courtesy of ALL RECIPES, IRELAND

Welsh Cakes customerservice@allrecipes.co.uk;

MARCH 1ST. ST.DAVID’S DAY.

The Day of Daffodils and Welsh Cakes and Leek and Potato Soup 

ST DAVID’S DAY 1ST MARCH TRADITIONAL WELSH COSTUME,

ONE OF MANY AS EACH COUNTY OR EVEN TOWN HAD THEIR OWN DESIGN

Real Potato & Leek Soup

Cawl Cennin (Welsh leek soup)

Ingredients –  Serves: 4 

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 large leeks, sliced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 3 potatoes, peeled and diced
• 600ml vegetable stock
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 200ml single cream
• parsley sprigs, to garnish

1. In a frying pan, heat the oil and brown the leeks, garlic and potato for a few minutes until beginning to brown. Remove from the heat and transfer to the slow cooker. Add the stock and seasoning. Cook on Low or Auto setting for 4 to 5 hours.
2. After 4 to 5 hours, puree the soup using a food processor or hand held liquidizer to a smooth consistency and add the cream. Serve hot, garnished with fresh parsley.

With Bara Menyn ( Bread and Butter, Welsh, no salt ) to wipe the bowl out when finished

And here we have proof positive that the seasons have moved forward a bit. When Diddily and her sisters were children, it was part of the Easter Celebrations that we went to the woods and collected the beautiful Welsh Wild Daffodils.

These would decorate our homes, schools, chapels and churches for many a long day.

We would have brilliant Welsh Hymn’s sung in St. Mary’s Church in Cefn Meiriadog, with the sermon telling us to be very good for our Mother… and Father of course,  every spring flower would be there in abundance.

Once again the Chapels and Churches all over Wales would be decorated for the Mothering Sunday Service. Primroses, Violets, Cowslips, Oxlips, Campions, red and white, so many flowers the Angels would be able to smell the perfume where they were sitting on the rafters up above.

I wonder how many more people remember these wonderful days.

WALES FOREVER

              

                           WELCOME TO THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF

Dr. Dodiddily and the Dee-Dot’s

A special set of pages for all the Children of the World.

Please enjoy these little stories, dances and songs

whilst I get on with adding lots of wonderful things to your front page

Welcome everyone, be you a boy or a girl, with Dolly or with Ted.

Welcome to this brand new world where you can rest your head.

If it’s stories that you long for, or tales from other lands,

Then find your world amongst the page and let me take your hand.

We’ll fly in planes , take boats and trains. to a place you’ve never seen,

and leave with lots of memories, tell your teacher where you’ve been.

So climb inside this little world and let me take you there.

Tell Mum and Dad “Don’t Worry,”  I’ll make sure that you take care.”

Dr Dodiddily and the Dee-Dot’s : Blog.

A Coolie Love Ditty, not sure if this was written in China or the USA but it is a beautiful poem.

CHINESE DREAMS FOR ALL THE CHILDREN OF CHINA; WHERE-EVER YOU ARE ! Here’s are a few Songs and Rhymes – Just for you. xxx go to page blog to see the video link Followed by a beautiful verse that I found in a very old book from 1893. It is called ” A Coolie Love Ditty, ” and I guess by today’s political correctness rulings it could be a little old-fashioned. But I think it’s wonderful, such love is he pouring out onto this, his love, that he has just met and loves everything about her from her toes to the top of her head. Wonderful xxx Oh, the feet of Li-Choi are like round little poles or the stilt which the acrobats use. When she walks, her plump soles imprint round little holes, so small are her round little shoes. There are tiny toed maidens, both charming and coy, but none like my lovely Li-choi ! Oh the eyes of Li-choi are so sweetly oblique that they slope like a well written V ; And so small each resembles a hole in her cheek, set with diamonds that sparkle at me. There are black eyes that madden and brown eyes that cloy, but none like my lovely Li-choi !   Oh the locks of Li-choi are as straight as bamboo and as oily as well roasted geese Three hours every week she devotes to shampoo, and an hour every day to goose-grease. There are maids whose  pigtails are objects of joy, but none like my lovely Li-choi ! Oh the skin of Li-choi is like very thin milk or a sunflower at dawn in the dew. She shaves off each hair till her flesh is like silk of a colour deliciously blue. There are maids whose complections a king would enjoy, but none like my lovely Li-choi !   Oh the words of Li-choi are infrequent and few, but they’ve made my emotions intense ; So I bought her today for my wife and cook too, for a dollar and twenty-five cents ! There are maidens as cheap in Hong-Kong or Amoy, but none like my lovely Li-choi.                                                                   Unknown Poet 1892

Seligor’s Castle, fun for all the children of the world. : Children’s Hour.

 

CHILDREN’S HOUR

WITH SELIGOR IN THE CASTLE LIBRARY

dottido@hotmail.co.uk will reach me from wherever you are.

 

THE STRANGE JOURNEY OF TUFLONGBO

From Edward Lear’s 1927

“A Book of Nonsense and other Absurdities

“When I set out on my long journey,” said the Tuflongbo to the Fairy Queen, “I took the south road through Shineland, meaning to pass by the country of the Picknickers who work in the mines. But I gave that up because the Magpie I met foretold ill-luck if I went there, and leaving that route, I turned off to the west and travelled on till I came to World’s End, which was bounded by a high brick wall. When I saw the wall my heart failed me, though at that very moment I was on the very eve of the proudest day of my life!

Over the wall grew a stout trailing plant, with a five-peaked glossy leaf, and clusters of dark purple berries; and up it I climbed till I had gained the top, and through tears of joy beheld a strange country stretching beyond.  As my eyes grew clear again, imagine my delight at seeing in the plain below me a vast body of men in blue aprons. What do you think they were doing ? Cutting up the old Moons and making Stars of them!”

      Here Tuflongbo paused, utterly overcome, but the Fairy Queen slapped him on the back and he came to, and continued his tale:

      “Yes, a band of men in blue aprons cutting up the old moons and making Stars of them! I was so lost in wonder that I remained for some hours spell-bound, and watching the process of conversion undiscovered; but at length one of the star-makers threw back his head, opened his mouth in a wide yawn, and I caught his eye. The only thing left for me to do was to bow and introduce myself as Tuflongbo, the great traveller from Shineland. He laughed and yawned by turns, as he tried to repeat tuflongbo; and then invited me to make a stay in his house, I excused myself as I had a long journey to make.

      “At that the, the moon-cutters all threw their blue aprons over their heads and moaned aloud. So I hurried off as fast as possible, and travelled on till one evening I came to the shores of a vast sea, upon which no sail was to be seen. My heart sank as I paced the shore wondering how to cross the water; but at length I was relieved to see a lanky old man coming along with a bundle of nets in his arms. I began to question him excitedly about this strange sea and its far off opposite shores. He did not seem to understand at first, but then he replied, that if I crossed the sea I should come to the country of Applepivi.

      “But how am I to cross it?” I asked him.

      “Cross it? It is only three sights over,” he replied.

      “Three sights over?” I repeated. “Will you be pleased to explain your meaning?”

      “Only this: Stand on the shore, look to the horizon, and jump – that is one sight. Pause, look, and jump again – that is two sights. Pause, look and jump again – that is three sights. And then you are landed in the country of the Applepivi!”

      “But how can I jump as far as I can see?”

      “Nothing simpler. Just watch me, and you will be able to do it. I will jump across to the country of Applepivi and back again in the winking of an eye,”

      “So done, so done! With one jump, he leaped to the horizon;  the second carried him out of sight; and before I had time to cry out, there he was again standing besides me. I then shook hands with him, thanked him for his jumping lesson, took off with a mighty spring – once, twice, thrice, and found myself safely landed on the snow-white shores of the country of the Applepivi!

“Yes – those three springs landed me sound in wind and limb on the snow-white shores of the country of the Applepivi, into which, before me, no traveller had ever gone. At first I could see no people there, but in fact the Applepivi had received warning of the coming of a powerful over-sea leaper, and had retreated to their houses, leaving the open country deserted. But I found a beautiful tree near the sea-shore, on the fruit of which I supped deliciously.

     “This fruit was large and oval in shape, the colour of it being a delicate brown, light as puff-paste. On breaking through the crust I found the inside to be luscious, sweet and juicy. The fruit grew in clusters of four at the end of each branch, and some trees were so heavily laden with with it as to be almost bent to the ground.

    “After I had eaten of this luscious fruit,” Tuflongbo went on, “a drowsiness overcame me, and lying down under the tree from whose branches I had plucked it, I enjoyed a long refreshing sleep. I slept till morning and then rose, wondering where I was. Near me grew a tall plant, like a foxglove with purple bells, and I picked one long stem.  Carrying it I took my way through mazy groves of fruit trees and at last came suddenly, in an opening upon a cluster of round straw huts. Out of them poured swarms upon swarms of small people – the Applepivi, humming and buzzing angrily. I turned to fly for my life, and then thought better of it, and drew softly near them holding out  the stem with purple blossoms. After a moment of hesitation, one of the Applepivi darted upon the stem and thrust a round little brown head into the cup of a flower; after which the others followed.

     “Then I saw this curious small folk had tiny wings under their shoulders, and talked with a humming noise. The strange thing was I understood what they said. They first of all asked me my name, Tuflongbo,” I answered, and I told them I came from a country across the sea called Shineland. 

Tuflongbo, Tuflongbo!

Back to Shineland let him go!”

 some of them buzzed in my ears. But one of them, who had been buried in my purple bell, came out of it and said, 

“Let us hear a little more about it, Tuflongbo. What have you Shineland folk got to give the Applepivi?”

“We can give you moors of purple heather, and fields of bean-blossom,” I said.

“But the rest of the Applepivi only buzzed the louder:

Tuflongbo, Tuflongbo!

Back to Shineland let him go!”

           “So back I came, over the sea of the three leaps, and over the wall of the World’s End,” said Tuflongbo, “and here I am.”

     “Is that all? said Muffin. “I don’t think much of that. As for your Applepivi, that’s only another name for —–!”

“Shut up, Muffin!” cried the Fairy Queen, “It’s supper-time, and I should like some bread and  honey, and apple-pie and cream!”

     So they had a jolly good supper, and when it was done the Fairy Queen told Tuflongbo to stand on his head. When the Fairy Queen took her last spoonful of apple-pie and cream, an apple pip that had by the cook’s mistake, got into the pie, made her cough.

“Slap her on the back, Muffin!” said Tuflongbo. That made her Majesty monstrous angry, and she took the pip out of her mouth between her finger and thumb:

“I don’t think your journey did you any good Tuflongbo. How much of what you told us is true ?”

      “Not a word of it, your Majesty,” said Tuflongbo, with a grin: “I made it all up as I was eating a Ripston pippin after breakfast.”

I have found quite a few reprints of stories about Tuflongbo, but I haven’t come across it anywhere on the net. There isn’t an authors name akin to this actual story and I can’t find any images either, not from “The Strange Journey of Tuflongbo.” But here it is and with a few pictures from other stories. 

Seligor

 

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Seligor’s Castle, fun for all the children of the world. : Blogs.

Seligor’s Castle, fun for all the children of the world. : Homepage One.

A POEM FOR MARCH

FROM WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

William
Wordsworth is a very famous poet from the Romantic Era. His work is
said to be some of the greatest romantic poetry written. He had a very
strong appreciation for nature, which was unusual for people of that
era. However, he began a movement which influenced people to forget
about their busy lives and take a moment to take a good look around
them.

This website explores just how relevant Wordsworth’s poetry was to the Romantic Era, which is unquestionably beyond doubt.

A MORNING IN MARCH

The cock is crowing,

The stream is flowing,

The small birds twitter,

The lake doth glitter,

The green field sleeps in the sun;

The oldest and youngest

Are at work with the strongest;

The cattle are grazing,

Their heads never raising,

There are forty feeding like one.

Like an army defeated

The snow hath retreated,

And now doth fare ill

On the top of the bare hill;

The ploughboy is whooping – anon -anon;

There’s life in the fountains;

Small clouds are sailing,

Blue sky prevailing;

The rain is over and gone.

William Wordsworth,

who also wrote about the Daisy and the Daffodils, amongst many , many other poems about Nature.