Dates to remember in March

 

Dates to remember in March 2024

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

March 1^st is St David’s Day. St David is the only patron saint to be born in Britain and he died on this day in 589 AD. Welsh people will display their national pride by wearing daffodils or leeks and dressing in national costume.

 Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus!

9^th to 12^th March at the NEC in Birmingham will see the annual dog show, Cruft’s. It is an opportunity to see well-bred pedigree dogs trotting their stuff and also to witness the extraordinary lengths their breeders and owners go to in presenting their charges at their best.

On grooming tables, hapless pooches will be strung up tightly so that they can be ‘trimmed’. Some will have curlers in their fur, later to be brushed out and completed with a pretty bow. Others will have chalk applied to the white parts of their coats, though Kennel Club rules demand that no chalk is left in the coat when the judge ‘goes over’ the dog. Chalk is also used when people are stripping their dogs’ coats, to give a better grip.

All the exhibits are required to have short, neat claws, so there will be a great degree of nail clipping going on.

Apart from the beauty pageant, there are many other things to see. At ‘Discover Dogs’ 200 breeds of pedigree dogs can be seen and petted. Friendly and knowledgeable owners are very happy to talk about their chosen breed and advise on their suitability for specific circumstances.

The Kennel Club Dog Hero Award competition is an opportunity to honour and applaud the very special relationships that arise. Some dogs show exceptional bravery, others are support dogs, sensitive to the indications of approaching epileptic seizures, or diabetic problems among other things. Some are assistance dogs that help owners with disabilities, like deafness or autism. Then there are the Search and Rescue dogs, the police and military dogs.

Agility and flyball competitions are a great favourite with the crowds. Many of the dogs participating are small breeds, and inclined to be fairly vocal. The ones that win the hearts of the audience are the mischievous dogs that don’t quite do what they should and make everyone laugh.

‘Heelwork to Music’ is a chance to see what dogs are capable of, given the chance.

Police and Gundog displays are always impressive and ‘Scruffts’ is an arena for the beautiful, intelligent, non-pedigree dogs to shine.

The last day of the show is where every human competitor longs to be, in the finals. The dogs don’t care one way or the other. I hope the winner this year represents a healthy breed that hasn’t been adapted to man’s opinion of what is beautiful and ruined in the process.

My Velcro dog, Frodo the Faller, qualified for Crufts in 2002. You can read about him here and velcro here.

So what did you do on St. David's Day?

So what did you do on St. David’s Day?

We had a fun-filled, action-packed day. I woke full of enthusiasm for the day ahead. Actually, that’s not true – I never feel like that in the mornings. I’m not a morning person. Annoyingly, Barry is. He’s very chipper from the moment he wakes and still, after four decades, attempts to engage me in conversation first thing. Two of the daughters are larks like him. Gillian is ready to talk as soon as she gets out of bed. Susannah gets up ridiculously early – half-way through the night, really – and is busy and bright all day until she’s exhausted and ready for bed by six o’clock eight o’clock nine o’clock. The son and the other daughter are more like me. Gareth’s approachable but quiet. Bethan has warning signs all over her. She’s polite but don’t push your luck.

As for me I’ve learnt that if I chatter and smile too early in the day I’ll end up in a bad mood. I’m an owl. That’s to say, I used to be an owl, able and happy to stay up half the night. Things changed when the babies came along. What a silly expression that is – ‘when the babies came along.’ It sounds as though they had free will in the matter and trotted into my life as and when the mood took them. What’s that? Gooseberry bushes and storks? Really? You believe all that? Tsk!

These days I’m more of a half-past-two-in-the-afternoon sort of person. I build up to that pinnacle which lasts about an hour and then experience a rapid decline. Then I sleep. At least, I try to sleep. I’m a light sleeper and the smallest sound wakes me. My theory is that I’m alert all night because of the training I received at the hands of the crying babies who became comfort-seeking infants and then trying teenagers. Some days one teenager would be getting up in the morning as another came through the door to go to bed. Barry slept through all of that. I don’t mean he was Rip Van Winkle, just that as a young officer he acquired the knack of sleeping through anything. Army training, eh? Bit worrying, though - if these army types can ignore disturbances how do they know when it would be advisable to wake up and do something? Does part of the brain listen out for stealthy footsteps or differentiate between the insistent cry of a toddler and the approach of a rioting crowd?

Anyway, last night the dogs were restless. Bertie’s tummy was gurgling and whistling and the last time that happened, a couple of weeks ago, he made a hasty and unsuccessful attempt to vacate the house. Instead he vacated himself on the stairs, poor boy, at two thirty in the morning. So, while I was cleaning and disinfecting the stairs Barry and the other animals – no, let me rephrase that, the rest of the animals and Barry - snored through it. That night I didn’t get back to sleep until dawn.

As it turned out Bertie was fine. Frodo was bumbling round and somehow got tangled up in the chair that serves as my bedside table (!! that’s another story!!) and knocked it over. Barry snored!

 It was foggy in the morning but gradually the sun burnt through and it was a lovely day, perfect for a bracing walk with the dogs. I intended to go in the gym and also have a swim. At one o’clock the washing machine and tumble dryer switched on. At the same time the pond pumps came on. A couple of minutes later the internet went down and half the electricity in the house cut out. That’s when we discovered the meaning behind ‘emergency cover’ and that our insurance didn’t cover us because we still had some electricity. We also discovered that the main switch for the electricity was locked on and we could no longer shut off the power.

The electrician who came admitted that he came into the house full of optimism that a solution to the problem would soon be found. An hour later he was less hopeful. Two hours on he was wishing he was a plumber! He checked all the sockets in the house – oh, the shame of it! If I’d known every nook and cranny was going to be investigated I’d have vacuumed every corner and washed all the paintwork and put away all the piles of (Barry’s) stuff.

Eventually, Dave-the-Electrician located the problem in a forgotten and unused socket in the dining room. Sawing noises ensued as the floor was opened to reveal sixty-year-old wiring that had seen better days.  By the time he left, around six o’clock, the dogs were tired from the unusual activity and we called it a day and had supper early.

It was an interesting start to the month. In the summer we’ll have the wiring replaced in the old part of the house. That will be fun!

March 1st – St David’s Day

Welsh flag, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

March 1^st is St David's Day.
St David (Dewi Sant) is the patron saint of Wales and all across the principality proud Welsh men and women will be wearing daffodils or leeks, the national symbols of Wales.

Many girls and young women also dress in national costume on St David's Day.

Young Welsh schoolgirls in traditional costume. Photograph courtesy of and copyright of Mike Kelly

Dewi was the grandson of Ceredig, King of Cerdigion (Cardigan) As a young man he undertook a pilgrimage through South Wales and the west of England and is believed to have established a religious centre in Glastonbury in Somerset. He also went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem where he was appointed archbishop.Eventually he returned to Wales, making his home in St David's (Glyn Rhosyn) where he founded a very austere religious community. He was said to have performed many miracles and was canonised in 1120 after which St David's Cathedral became a focus for pilgrimage.
St David died on March 1st, 589.