March 1st - St David's Day

 The flag of Wales has the symbol of the red dragon against green and white.

March 1st is St David's Day. St David is the patron saint of Wales.

Prince William, the Prince of Wales, and his wife Kate, Princess of Wales, visited Wales, held yellow daffodils, the national flower, and spoke in Welsh.

In Wales

A parade of people dressed as dragons or wearing Welsh costume, is held in the capital, Cardiff.

The day is celebrated in Wales by people wearing daffodils, or leeks. Eating Welsh cakes - which are like think small pancakes or thin scones, yummy when served hot with butter melting on top.

What to do in Wales? 

1 Visit castles. Stay in a castle hotel or a hotel with a view of the castle. 

2 Eat Welsh food. Lamb and Welsh cakes. 

3 Visit Museums In Wales.

4 Learn Welsh. Start with words on trains from Paddington, in London, to Cardiff. Notice signs on stations. Learn Welsh on Duolingo.

5 Hear Welsh music. Welsh male voice choirs, singing in Welsh and English. Harpists who also sing. Esteddfod festivals.

Visit a Welsh museum. 

My favourites are 

1 The Roman Museum near Caerleon. 

2 The tapestry in the library at Fishguard.

3 The free museum in Cardiff, the capital.

In summer you might visit an open air museum, go down a mine. 

Fun Photos In Wales

Castles. 

Yourself and a castle. 

Yourself wearing a Welsh hat.

Souvenirs Of Wales To Buy Before Returning Home

You might buy Welsh souvenirs such as 

1 Carved love spoons. 

2 Welsh dragon or flag symbol 

On tee shirts or aprons or tea towels.

3 Welsh Words

I bought a book on Welsh words in a supermarket. 

4 Welsh Cakes

I bought Welsh cakes on the train home to London from Wales, but ate them cold which was not as nice. I should have saved them for later and heated them up.

Welsh Food

1 Welsh cakes

2 Lava bread (seaweed)

3 Lamb Casserole (

4 Leeks

Words in Welsh

Dewi Sant - saint David (adjective second after the noun, like Spanish and French)

Do the little things in life. (Quote from St David.)

gwnewch y pethau bychain

Useful Websites About Wales and St David's Day

Report of the royal visit on Sunday March 1st 2026

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c70n99e396jo

Language misunderstandings

 Duolingo tells me that my friends will 'defraudara' me. Defraud me? Cheat me? That can't be right.

I looked it up with a little help from handy AI. Defrauda means will disappoint.

I wonder what else I am misunderstanding?

I half remember that there are lists of false friends in Wikivoyage. Spanish and Italian and Portuguese have false friends - words which sound similar in two languages but have different meanings. Often they are cognates Let's look at them again.

Useful Websites 

 

Brixton, bustling, bohemian

 

The streets thronging with people

Old and new architecture. Art deco. Neon.

Mural and music at the station. And the aroma of marihuana. 

Everything and everyone all around you. Happy smiling youngsters. Sad, shuffling old people. Beggars lying propped up against the wall with signs. Groups gaily greeting each other. Singles and couples dancing along. McDonalds for fast food. Morleys department store opposite the station for fashion and big name brands. Wide pavements crowded with people.  It feels like you have got in free to a festival. Or a hairdressing contest. Just like the rest of London. But more so.

We changed from train to bus here, in busy Brixton. We were on our way to quiet, elegant, empty Dulwich, a complete contrast.

Strings of red double decker red buses take you from Brixton back into London and onwards around the area and out of London. 

Useful website on Brixton

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brixton

Dulwich wine bars with wonderful Portuguese wines

 

Wine from Quinta Das Bageiras. Bruto natural (dry), and rose.

Portuguese pink sparkling wine.

Delightful.

Inexpensive. Under ten pounds a bottle online.

Drop Dulwich Wine Bar, 1 Melbourne Grove, London.

About four minutes from East Dulwich Station which is about 15 minutes from London Bridge station.

Useful websites

https://dropdulwich.co.uk/

London Bridge Station

 

• London Bridge logo. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Quite a walk through vast high ceilinged halls from the overground to the underground. 

Shops including Hamleys toys.

Attractive, colourful murals of London landmarks. The Royal Albert Hall. Liberty's department store.

On the platform, we met a mouse. It ran very fast. Zig-zagging.

Useful Websites

https://bugwomanlondon.com/2023/04/07/mice-on-the-underground/ 

Spanish words which sound similar to English

 I have been re-learning, revising, Italian which I learned two years ago on Duolingo, but using Spanish as which I have been learning for 6 months, as the instruction language. A huge number of words in Spanish sound similar to English. Once you have learned the correct translation, the Spanish words is easy to recognize.

Here are the ones I have found.

Spanish - English

acerca de - about (think of encircled by)

ahora - now (now is the hour, as the old song said, on the hour) (not to be confused with allora, Italian for now, let's go, then)

allegra/o - lovely

amatista - amethyst

ascenso - ascend/rise

asi - so (ah - see, so)

borrar - delete (brush off, rub out)

clic - click

descenso - descent

describir - describe

division (accent on the o) - division

empleo - employment

escribe - write/inscribe

estado - status (in Spanish the letter e often goes before s at the start of the word, like the name of the country, Espana, escuala - school)

felicidades - congratulations (felicitations)

gramaticales - grammatical

impresionante - awesome/impressive

legas - leagues

minutos - minutes

perfecta - perfect

practicar - practise

reportar - to report

terminos - terms

utilizar - to utilize

zona - zone

verdad (Spanish)/vero (Italian) - true (like the English word verify)

 

Spanish and Italian, which is which: e and y and io sono and yo soy

 Spanish

Spanish has the letter y for and. I am is yo soy. The letter y appears in both words.

Italian

The word for I starts with the letter i like the word Italian. io sono. Io sono di Italia. I am Italy (from Italy). The letter i after d, di, in Italian, which starts with the letter I and has the letter I twice.

Useful Websites

duolingo

duolingo.com

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