Y Sessiwn Fawr

We're a funny people, we Welsh. A Rock Concert in a small town in north Wales, called Dolgellau, stair-rod rain as per usual; a few thousand people in the audience having partaken of various forms of recreational aides - liquid and tablet.

On stage, the headline act.....Cerys Matthews, ex-Catatonia, now in acoustic and maternal mode, but still with that unique, child-like quality to her voice. She 'WOWS' the crowd....finishes her set, but is called back....does two more numbers - one a traditional Welsh folk song set in the locality.....the other? A Welsh hymn...the crowd join in....harmonising as the Welsh do, and the gig becomes a Cymanfa Ganu!! Could only happen in Wales.

Roots.

I've mentioned before, I think, that I'm originally from Mid-Wales which is a deeply rural part of the country....it is a part of the world in which, even today, a life style that I love and envy continues to be the order of the day. Next week, the annual celebration of that lifestyle takes place with the holding of the Welsh National Show, and I've booked a day's holiday.....and all being well, I'm going. This year it is the hundredth anniversary of the Show, so it'll be quite an event...these days it is held on a permanent ground show, with wonderful facilities, but for most of its early existence it was peripatetic, travelling from North Wales to the South in alternate years. I remember two - the one in my home town of Machynlleth which was blighted by the wettest period of weather imaginable, even for that part of the country.....that was in 1954. I also remember being inspected as a member of the Red Cross, by Princess Alexandra at the Show in Aberystwyth, again in the 50's.

Usually I attend on a Wednesday, which is the day on which the Welsh Cobs are shown.....invariably, I shed a tear at the magnificent presence of these creatures, which every year seem to have such a rapport with the gathered enthusiasts....and appear to put on a special show for them. Unfortunately, I can't go on the Wednesday this year and intend going on the Monday, and so I shall catch the Shire Horses....another magnificent spectacle.

I'm not really a 'horsey' person, by the way....I prefer dogs - but it is impossible not to be in awe of both the Cobs and the Shires .......and the former are very much the "galacticos" of the Show, even to the uncommitted watcher. I remember, again in Machynlleth, a local breeder winning the Section D (Cob Stallion) class, and most of the town turned out to meet him when he returned home.

In similar vein and of similar vintage, although I cannot remember being involved, my parents used to tell me of the town turning out 'en masse' in the early hours of the Sunday morning,following the Saturday of the National Eisteddfod, when it was being held in North Wales. The reason for this annual nocturnal practice?....it could only happen in Wales!! The National Eisteddfod is the cultural equivalent of the Welsh Show and is held in the first week of August....it continues to be to this day, a peripatetic festival, and in the 50's started on Monday and finished the following Saturday. The last competition on the Saturday was the Chief Male Voice Competition and most of the premiere choirs were from South Wales....they used to travel up on the Saturday, book a Chapel vestry in Machynlleth for a last rehearsal and continue their journey. These were the days when Treorci, Pendyrus, Morriston Orpheus and Pontarddulais used to compete and on the way home to the South, the victorious choir would stop in Machynlleth by the Town Clock in the centre of the Town, where the crowd would be waiting for them, and they would give an impromptu concert. Nowadays, alas, only Pontarddulais occasionally compete......

Anyhow...news of my visit to the Show, next week.

An eerie sky

There was something strange about the sky tonight....about 2130 hours, it was getting dark...... but there was a rainbow high in the sky and in the west there was the most evil, lowering, smouldering sky that I have ever seen. It was the sort of vista that gets you running about shouting DOOM.......still, three hours later and we're still here.

Talking of doom and portents of disaster.....................

Tony Blair has said that climate change is the greatest single threat at the present time....I suspect that this is one he's got right. In order to address the problem he is considering the nuclear option, and is being encouraged in this by the USA - for those of you of a nervous disposition (most of us I imagine, when Good Ol' George and Tony get together!!) - I don't think they're going to save time and nuke the world. No, he's reconsidering nuclear enegy...this'll take around 10 to 15 years to come on stream and leaves the problem of storage, security and disposal of the resultant nuclear waste to succeeding generations.....the end of the world is not now 'nigh'.....it's a couple of weeks later.

And so to bed.....

Nos Da.

Simple Pleasure........

.....took Del for a walk on the fields this evening.....the horse population is corralled in another field, so there are a couple of fields available to saunter in. The horses are quite friendly but Del is a sheepdog......her mission in life is to round up everything that moves, so I try to keep them apart. After a good chase around I sat underneath an old oak tree and just enjoyed the stillness, whilst she who had been doing the chasing around, sulked.

It was a glorious evening and although I do not live in the back of beyond it was a glorious rural experience - no noise intrusion, no traffic...no people. One of these days, when my ship comes in, I'm off home, I think, halfway up a mountain in mid-Wales.

Is it because I'm getting older that I feel that there are more negative developments in the world than positive ones - why does the population of Britain need an additional 150,000 4 X 4 vehicles during the last year.....why do we need an additional motorway between Manchester and Birmingham....why do we need 4 more houses in the village - the plots sold for between £75k and £100k - when there are already houses and bungalows for sale. The hidden cost of this particular development is the felling of some 12 mature oak trees.

I accept that progress is inevitable and people's aspirations have to be met. As a species, humanity has an innate drive to better itself, but why must this be at such cost to the environment and other species which cohabit this earth with us? Is it because we can? Some day we shall have a rude awakening......unless before that time somebody does something.

Perhaps, in these days of globalisation what is required is a global revolution, which will bring those national governments and those companies which ignore the plight of the world to their knees...in which position they might see the light. I am not suggesting a 'bloody' global war but rather a war that uses the technologies that facilitate the "bandit" nations and companies of this new century.

I've gone off on one again, haven't I.......sorry.