Local Art

 I really love this piece of art by Judith Crozier-Banks displayed in a window on High Street - the technique is called dotting. Quite impressive.

Up close, it looks like this, almost reptilian.

Pookie, the Rabbit with Wings

 This is the buff-tailed bumblebee, or I should say, an ex-buff-tailed bumblebee. 

When I saw the delicate, translucent wings, I immediately thought of the 1946 children's story book by Ivy Wallace about Pookie, the rabbit with wings.

Pookie

Moss Finds a Way

Moss! What an incredible plant - it always finds a way to utilize the minimum of soils, even little particles that must have become stuck between the bricks in this wall. And yet, for some reason, people try to get rid of it! It's beautiful, hardy, helps the soil store carbon and also acts as a filter for pollutants in the air. What's not to love?

The moss we've transplanted to our pond's edges looks happy and vibrant.

Welsh as She is Spelled/Spelt

We've come across quite a few different spellings of words or names that we're already familiar with since moving to Wales. When they're explained to me and I read them out in Welsh, I realize that "hmm, that spelling works!" It's just not what I'm used to.

Gilhespy is a surname that we would write as Gillespie

Ifans is another family name, pronounced as Evans (Welsh f has a v sound)

Huw is another way of spelling the man's name Hugh

Sion can be a spelling of the boy's name Sean

Mail box in our town with King George VI cypher, dating it between 1936 and 1952

Welsh has between 8 and 13 dipthongs (vowel combinations) depending on the region, and they harvest them from 7 vowels - A, E, I, O, U, W, and Y - not 5, as in English. This obviously generates more variations.

So, our street name Coed Llan Lane, is actually said as Coyd (as in boy) Hlan Lane.

It's fun learning new things, but it's hard making them stick!