The Weekend in Black and White

Dragon Box

Some time ago a friend sent me a lovely little trinket box with the Welsh Dragon inlaid in the lid in mother-of-pearl. The dragon's shape is just right, although he should properly be red, and he glows beautifully against the dark brown wood.

Many fine black and white photos can be found through the links on the Home Page.

Dragon Hunt Day 5

This is my offering today for Melli's Dragon Hunt.

My wooden Welsh Dragon hangs on the wall. He should be red, of course, but he's carved out of wood.

Melli has more dragons.

Thank You

I've been a bit "under the weather" so I didn't post yesterday - just visited a bit now and then. So I'm writing this now to say a big

THANK YOU

to all of you who visited my PhotoHunt entry and left such kind comments. I really appreciate the fact that you took the time to look in and let me know you were here.

To those of you interested in plants, I have to confess that I have no idea what one of those in my planter could be. There's the pink primula, some variegated ivy, a small tree-like plant that looks like something I've seen called "Goldcrest" (whatever that is!) and the mystery plant. This plant looks at first like the herb rosemary, but it's much paler in colour and hasn't the distinctive scent. As I said, I've no idea what it is, but it looks good!

My dragon is from a pewter pendant. Apart from the colour (which is pewter, of course!) it is the dragon from the Welsh national flag. He's a very friendly dragon, and gets on well with all the others. Oh, I wish there were dragon-eggs!


Editing this to say I've just realised that this was my 100th post. And to think I'd no idea what to do with a blog when I started!

I must extend the above thanks to all of you for making my on-line life so interesting.

Saturday PhotoHunt - Wooden

This Week's theme for the Saturday PhotoHunt is Wooden. I love wood. I love good wooden furniture. I love the smell of newly worked wood. I love wooden ornaments, wooden bowls, wooden toys, even wooden jewellery. Choosing from everything was hard. I finally decided to go with this.

My spinning-wheel.

There is - naturally! - a story behind this. I am Welsh. I was born near the end of the Second World War. My father was a meteorologist with the Royal Air Force and stationed in England, and my mother was with him. So almost by accident I was born in England.

When I was old enough to go to school I was told I talked "funny" (Welsh accent picked up from my parents.)
Fast-forward a bit, and we were back in Wales with my grandfather. In school I talked with a "twang".
It's possible that the above left me with a desire to be recognised as Welsh. I know I was interested in Welsh history and culture. There was a decorative brass plate on the wall featuring a lady in Welsh costume standing by a spinning wheel. I wanted one, and I wanted to spin.

Fast-forward quite a long way. 1990 saw us, as a family, living on an Irish island. We rented our cottage from a local man. His wife was from Wales - and she was a spinster.
Brief digression - spinster now means an unmarried woman. It used to mean the eldest daughter of the house who had the duty of spinning the yarn for the clothing - she was the spinster until she married and went to her husband's home.
Anyhow, this lady could spin, and she taught me.

Yes, the Welsh woman had to come to Ireland to learn spinning from another Welsh woman. Life can be strange.

This spinning-wheel is of Irish design. The main difference between this and the Welsh design is the footman which joins the crank to the treadle. This is is made of cord. In the Welsh wheel this is a wooden rod, which makes for slightly easier use.You can see the cord footman here (click to enlarge!) although the photo's fuzzy again I'm afraid.

Well that's my wooden post . If you fancy joining in the PhotoHunt fun, visit tnchick who started it all.

HAPPY HUNTING!