The Merry Month!

May, the month of blossom and celebrating the coming of Summer. It certainly arrived with a bang, the hedgerows making up for lost time and brimming over with snowy white Blackthorn. It is very similar to Hawthorn except the latter has leaf before the blossom, commonly called "May". It is unwise to "cast a clout" before that is out!

We had a busy Easter in Aberaeron, still cool but dry and sunny. Visitors looked happy strolling around the town. Some maybe went on the Easter Egg Trail at the Llanerchaeron estate or visited the Antique Fair at the local Memorial Hall (where Dylan Thomas went to watch the cowboy films many years ago).

On Bank Holiday Monday we walked around the Headland and had it all to ourselves, apart from a few interested heifers. North past the great wall of Aberarth, as pictured, we remembered to take the camera this time. Two miles south of Blaenplwyf on the A487 there is a lay-by near the stile for the footpath leading to this part of the coastal walk. The woodland clinging to the cliff edge at first looks like scrub until closer you realise it is a mature oak wood, but less than 12 feet high. This has survived for more than 2,000 years, very gnarled and twisted but sturdy oak nonetheless. The vanilla scent of the gorse in the sunshine and outcrops of violets in the grass, with an amazing view up the coast all added to the pleasure.

Traditionally May Day is a celebration of international worker solidarity. A recent talk on Radio 4 told of the famous American singer, Paul Robeson and his Welsh connection. Appearing in the London production of Showboat, after the show one night he heard Welsh miners singing in the streets, appealing for relief aid. He found echoes of the soulful quality of his music in the Welsh voices and asked them to join him for supper in a smart restaurant. Thus began a long relationship with Wales, and when his passport was revoked in the 1950's because of his left wing sympathies he was unable to leave the U.S. The narrator recalled one Welsh miners' gathering in Porthcawl when Paul Robeson was invited to sing down the telephone line to the waiting crowd. They responded likewise, including the Treorchy Male Voice Choir!

In Paul Robeson's Autobiography "Here I Stand" he said that he first learned in Britain that the essential character of a nation is determined... by the people... and the common people of all nations are truly brothers in the great family of mankind". What more can I say? Heb ddiwedd bydd i'r gan. The music lives for ever.