Slate, stone and whitewash

A beautiful simple slate worker's cottage, originally built in 1762 in north Wales and now in St Fagans Museum of Welsh History near Cardiff. There are old buildings from all over Wales there, furnished as they were when lived in - it's fascinating and I've always loved it... I even remember some of the buildings when they were at their original sites!

Our Occitan friends loved it too and found many similarities with their own memories of their grandparents' homes and lives. In the school building there is a piece of wood with the carved letters W.N. for 'Welsh Not' - worn round the neck as a punishment for speaking Welsh in schools in the nineteenth century. A similar punishment existed for Occitan speakers in French schools.

It's great fun, and an antidote to sorrow (as we all believe that life must go on, even in sadness), to be with a group of enthusiastic, energetic, talkative friends.... a little tiring too, constantly translating and switching between four languages and mixing them all up, but we'll rest when we get home.