St David's Day

Another almost cloudless day today, just what was needed after the gloomy grey of yesterday.  Cloudless skies aren't the best for sunsets, and it's the post-sunset colours which are the best.  Looking downstream  from the pier in Arnside is for me the best view of the estuary, in the trees, the Ashmeadow spit and the hills above Grange and Kents Bank, it has its fixtures.  But otherwise the view is never the same twice, the mudbanks shift and the water picks up the colour of the sky.  Sometimes the gulls are loafing on the water, sometimes in flight, or they've already moved down channel to the vast expanse of Morecambe Bay.

 It's the 1st of March, St David's Day and the Welsh flag was being flown on the pier (see extra).  St David's Day for me is the pervasive smell of leeks in Assembly in Cowbridge Grammar School in South Wales.  Many pupils had them pinned to their lapels as an alternative to daffodils, and would gnaw on them as the Headmaster conducted the assembly.  Few people spoke Welsh at the school, but there was still a strong sense of Welsh identity.