Happy Saint David’s Day to any Welsh people out there. It’s an odd thing that all sorts of people celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day while not having the least connection to Ireland but poor old Saint David is largely ignored. Maybe it’s the amount of alcohol consumed on Saint Patrick”s Day
Patrick is supposed to have driven snakes out Ireland: quite impressive. But David’s best-known miracle is said to have taken place when he was preaching in the middle of a large crowd at the Synod of Brefi: the village of Llanddewi Brefi stands on the spot where the ground on which he stood is reputed to have risen up to form a small hill. A white dove, which became his emblem, was seen settling on his shoulder. Welsh historian John Davies notes that one can scarcely "conceive of any miracle more superfluous" in that part of Wales than the creation of a new hill.
There was a Welsh musician on BBC Radio 3 last night reminiscing about St David’s Day traditions. Girls got to wear daffodils but boys were supposed to wear leeks. The big challenge was to have your leek survive intact to the end of the day, at which point you were supposed to eat it … raw. He didn’t say whether the girls had to eat their daffodil.
There was no drama on my run round the village this morning, for which I am quite grateful. I enjoy being out and about early. What I don’t enjoy is getting out of bed to go out and about. My alarm rings, I snooze it and spend some time putting off going out and about. Maybe it will be easier as the morning grow brighter earlier but somehow I doubt it. As it’s now March I took another photo of what we laughingly refer to as “my” tree. I plan to post a picture each mont this year. Its March photo is not significantly different, however, from its February or even its January picture.
No drama here, but plenty elsewhere.
Iranian media and officials are reporting that a joint US-Israel attack on Iran struck a girls' primary school in the southern part of the country, killing 85 people.
The IRNA news agency said the majority of the casualties are children at the Shajareh Tayyebeh all-girls’ school in Minab. Dozens more are unaccounted for, the state-run news agency said.
A local Iranian prosecutor was quoted in the IRNA report. Reuters could not independently confirm the reports. US and Israeli military forces did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
I get a nasty feeling of déja vu.
In return, Iran struck the world-famous Fairmont hotel in Dubai, setting the hotel alight, as the war launched by the US and Israel on Iran quickly spread to the rest of the Middle East on Saturday.
Residents watched in shock as an Iranian missile hit the five-star hotel in Dubai’s luxurious Palm Jumeirah area. Social media videos showed fires breaking out near the entrance of the hotel, which led to four people being injured.
And so it goes on.
There’s also Pakistan and Afghanistan. And Israeli settlers are still creating havoc in the West Bank.
Here’s a reminder of the wrongness of it all. Bob Dylan’s words from all those hears agp still ring true.
Come you masters of war.
You that build all the guns.
You that build the death planes.
You that build all the big bombs.
You that hide behind walls.
You that hide behind desks.
I just want you to know I can see through your masks.
Let me ask you one question, Is your money that good?
Will it buy you forgiveness, do you think that it could?
I think you will find, when your death takes its toll, all the money you made, will never buy back your soul.
President Trump no doubt dismisses him as ‘just a singer’.
Meanwhile, anyone wanting to flee the Middle East conflict zone will have problems. Hundreds of thousands of travellers were either stranded or diverted to other airports after Israel, Qatar, Syria, ItanI, Iraq, Kuwait and Bahrain closed their airspace. There were also no flights over the United Arab Emirates, the flight tracking website FlightRadar24 said, after the government announced a “temporary and partial closure” of its airspace.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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