When Spring Comes Back to England

I don't think I could ever settle down abroad; I'd miss the seasons in England too much. My favourite season has to be spring, not just because of my obsession with blossom, but because of all the other beautiful countryside things that begin to wake up over April and May; hawthorn flowers, lady's smock, daisies, cuckoos, sky larks and the anticipation of warmth, and green life of summer to come. Here's a nice spring poem and spring pics, just because I love it.

(Alfred Noyes)

When Spring comes back to England
And crowns her brows with May,
Round the merry moonlit world
She goes the greenwood way:
She throws a rose to Italy,
A fleur-de-lys to France;
But round her regal morris-ring
The seas of England dance.

When Spring comes back to England
And dons her robe of green,
There's many a nation garlanded
But England is the Queen;
She's Queen, she's Queen of all the world
Beneath the laughing sky,
For the nations go a-Maying
When they hear the New Year cry -

"Come over the water to England,
My old love, my new love,
Come over the water to England,
In showers of flowery rain;
Come over the water to England,
April, my true love;
And tell the heart of England
The Spring is here again!"

England's Pastures Yellow

As I entered England on the train home this Easter, the rolling green scenery which had been flitting past for the last hour or so suddenly exploded into vibrant yellow as far as the eye could see. No, I wasn’t on LSD, I’d just forgotten how at this time of year the English fields erupt into waves of yellow flowers belonging to oilseed rape.

It’s exciting to see the landscape bursting into periodic swathes of yellow, in the same way that it’s exciting to wake up and see the fields covered in snow. Although it smells quite odd, oilseed rape has a stunning quality when combined en mass in vibrant rows upon rows that make the landscape look ever more like a patchwork quilt. Some people seem to think oilseed rape fields are unsightly and unnatural in appearance, but I can appreciate the beauty of oilseed rape fields in the same way as I can appreciate the beauty of a collection of wind turbines; for its sheer scale of visual impact.

     

            Living in the countryside myself, when I arrived home I was compelled to go out and walk around in it. I’m a very tactile person, and when I see something that interests me from afar I immediately have the desire to touch and absorb it, so after digging out my old bike from my parent’s shed I went off and explored the lanes to play in the oilseed rape. Yes, I’m twenty-one, and I don’t care if that’s normal behaviour or not.

Diamond in the Roath

Every  Saturday morning in Cardiff, there’s a little food market held in a car park in Roath just off City Road. How I didn’t know about this in the four years I’ve lived in Cardiff is a mystery, but one that I’m glad I discovered.

 

            From award winning Indian cuisine to plant-pot-baked rosemary bread, the range of locally produced foods is impressively diverse. As Cardiff is proudly one of the most multicultural cities in the UK with over 100 ethnic groups, we’re lucky enough to have local foods that are just as multicultural.  After sitting down to a deliciously light, spiced Indian breakfast of various fried bajis and kebabs I bought some red onion chutney produced in Caerfilly and a load of sundried tomato bread.

There was also a little craft fair selling jewellery, knitted clothes, hand stitched bags and various other arty things. My housemate with the romantic obsession with Cardiff bought a water colour painting of Cardiff City Hall from a lady whose father was now too old to come to the fair, and she said now painted from his shed.

Whether you want to support local produce or discover how many different types of bread it turns out you can make, Roath Market is definitely worth pottering around.

Buffalo, Barn dancing and Boobies

When a friend of mine sent me a link to a video from currently under-the-radar band Young Rebel Set, it was love at first play. The link was to “If I Was”, which when listening to, is like stumbling upon a little box of undiscovered love notes; the contrast of the gritty northern voice of Matty Chipchase the lead singer, teamed with such sensitively innocent lyrics provides an irresistibly endearing combination – not to mention a beautifully urban folk-indie hybrid style that sounds like the love child of the Arctic Monkeys and the country side of Rod Stewart.

So when I had a scout for tickets to see if they were gigging any time soon, I was happy to see they were down to play Buffalo Bar in Cardiff, and after listening to their album a few times over we headed to the gig with high expectations. The support bands were OK, and we milled around sipping our 2-4-1 cocktails (which FYI are very good) absorbing the atmosphere and waiting for the main course.

As we were chatting, a grubby looking group of lads sauntered past swigging bottles of beer and accidentally bumped into a girl that was stumbling around drunk. They proceeded to get up on stage and stand behind their various instruments and announce that they were Young Rebel Set. They are an eclectic mix to say the least; the oldest looked in his early thirties and the youngest about fourteen, wearing anything within the spectrum of modern male fashion from denim and leathers to a waistcoat and flat cap. They could have been the selection from cross section of Weatherspoons that had accidentally stumbled into the wrong room.

But when they launched into their first song, any mismatches in their appearance were plastered over by the coherence with which they just work as band. In addition to the usual instrumental set up was a harmonica which just gave that extra folk touch. It really was as if a few guys in the pub had accidentally discovered that they all had these musical talents, and were suddenly thrown into song whilst they were still a bit drunk, which only added to the feeling that we were at a barn dance. The rest of the audience obviously felt the same as a few  arms were linked and a stamping spinning dance broke out, colliding with the dunk girl who was still stumbling over in her spilt beer as her friend danced so hard her boobs decided to come out over her strapless dress to say hello.

Incidentally, their debut album 'Curse Our Love' is out now, so go and have a gand, and if you get the chance to see them, don your best line dancing boots and go along for a foot stampin’ whilst it’s still relatively quiet, because these guys won’t be under-the-radar for long.