Happy St. David’s Day! Whilst the rest of the country seems to be covered in snow flurries, Portsmouth is intermittently bright and sunny and the daff’s in our front garden have opened just in time.

St. David’s Day, which is sometimes known as International Talk Like a Boyo Day is an annual event, though you might be forgiven for missing it if you don’t happen to (a) live in Wales or (b) live with or near an expatriate Welsh boyo or (c) be and expatriate boyo.

Traditional Welsh Costume

On Dydd Dewi Sant, traditional Welsh attire is worn by all schoolchildren in Wales.

There is a traditional Welsh costume for boys, but I never saw any male under the age of 15 wearing it because of the poor cost-to-usage ratio: i.e. outfits that can be worn once, that are outgrown before the next St. Davids Day, are not particularly popular among Welsh mums, go figure. In my junior school this meant that all the mums pinned a small leek or a daffodil to their boy’s school uniform (which we only wore on special occasions).

Girls however, especially schoolgirls, ladies who work in tourist centres, and local television presenters, always seem to turn up in the full outfit of red skirt, cardigan, shawl, and, most importantly: an upended vase for headgear. It’s true.

Daffodils

Our daffs, incidentally, are looking marvellous and they’ve given the garden it’s first wash of colour for the year. They brighten up the street too.

I’ve taken a photo of them, not to show how lovely they are, but more as a kind of record that they really do/did exist. The local shops are beginning their merciless wind-up to Mothers Day, so (based on previous form) the local bookies are giving pretty poor odds on any of our daffs completing the month in the garden. The smart money, in fact, is going on the side bet of wether or not we’ll catch the little misappropriating rascals on webcam.

Fingers crossed, eh?