Learning - and another look at Welsh history

 Learning is something we do (or should do) throughout our lives.    Though when I happen to look at my dissertation on occasion, I always think, was I really clever enough to research and write that?!  I have certainly let things slip on the academic learning front, but a chance comment on an old (2014) post of mine about Gwyddno Garanhir and Cantre'r Gwaelod has led me down a rabbit hole where Taliesin and the Welsh Mabinogi have Irish roots.  Although Irish Medieval history is a mystery to me (as is much of Welsh Medieval history, since prehistory was my chosen subject at Uni when I read Archaeology), it is always good to learn and to stretch ones thinking processes again.  I have just spent an hour reading and trying to digest a very interesting paper about the religious - and other - influences on what the Welsh have always considered to be their cultural heritage.  It will take several more readings to get a better understanding, as I familiarize myself with the Irish landscape and placenames, as well as patronomics and the ecclesiastical history of Ireland.  It rankles a little to think that Cantrae'r Gwaelod may not/probably didn't exist and that Gwyddno Garanhir was Irish though! Yet at Uni the first thing we were taught was not to bring our own beliefs/baggage to the table or to start with the conclusion of an essay and then make everything else fit.  We had to keep an open mind - I guess having spent half my life living in Wales, it is hard to step back from what I have learned thus far.   Gosh, it is so well researched and written and clearly by a more educated mind than mine!

I am about to get ready to go to a talk/discussion about Bute Energy and what they propose to do to our beautiful landscape, by way of gigantic wind turbines and pylons marching across Builth fields, within sight of us all.  I know - beware of bringing baggage to the table but I am NOT open minded on this and like many others, we do NOT support it.

My other learning today was how to take out an old bulky pocket in a pair of velvet trousers (Tam's) and to replace it with more suitable fabric.  Let's hope my efforts look ok when worn . . .  It was a job I'd never done before.

Finally, the front of the house now all blue where it should be.  I need to crack on with it again tomorrow.