St David’s day

So, spring is in the air, the mornings are lighter and – just before the promised arctic cold lands on us – the sky’s blue and the daffodils are perky.

March 1 is of course St David’s day and I’m feeling a bit remiss for not sending the girls to nursery sporting daffodil buttonholes and Welsh hats… At school (in Wales, of course) St david’s day was a riotous affair of Welsh costumes (of wildly-varying degrees of quality and commitment) and leeks. The boys ‘wore’ leeks to school and the girls wore daffodils. Over the years the leeks got bigger and more extreme until they reached Max Boycian dimensions…

The festival mood was supplemented with a pervasive smell of onion-breath as the leeks were slowly nibbled and then used as bludgeoning instruments in the playground… Ah – happy days!

Rhys, at the Swansea University Computer Society has put together a nice page on St David’s day at secondary school and has linked, kindly, to the vitally important page on how to make “Cawl” (Welsh soup). The recipe’s nearly right (!) – I’d ease off on carrots (yuk) and salt but use both turnips and parsnips. There’s lovely for you!