Ydych chi'n teimlo'n well?

I slept long deeply last night and woke up blurry eyed with Meg practically sellotaped to my chest at 8am.
I feel a lot better today, slightly washed out but miles better and as I was returning to the cottage one old chap I know from the village stopped to ask me "Ydych chi'n teimlo'n well?" which is one of the few Welsh phrases I actually remember from my time at school...........He kindly asked me if I was feeling better.

Many of the older residents of the village still speak Welsh fluently, which I think is pretty normal for a rural Flintshire village. Generally given our proximity to the English border, the general percentages I guess are much lower than in the rural villages in the counties further West such as  Conwy and ,Gwynedd where up to 80% use Welsh as a first language.In intensive care where I work, out of a staff of around 60 (including 10 Filipino staff) around 12 speak Welsh fluently

The Welsh Assembly takes the survival of the Welsh language very seriously.....every official document, government leaflet and NHS circular has to duplicated, one version in English and the other in Welsh, which is of course, politically correct but also a terrible waste of resources and money..... sometimes the need to be seen to be fair goes a little too far......
I would like to refresh my Welsh just a little, even though it has been over 30 years since I could last hold a perfunctory conversation in fourth form. Alan,one of the nice chaps that helps out with the flower show is originally from Poland and I was impressed with the efforts he made with all of the older visitors to the show when he dropped in little phrases of Welsh chit chat here and there.
Sometimes all it takes is a little more effort to keep the basics going

But things generally are changing. Welsh as a language is dying out in Trelawnyd . Apparently the Male Voice  choir  has and handful of non Welsh speakers in their line up now, and the congregation in the totally Welsh chapel is down to a tiny trickle...... its a long long way from the turn of the century , when the school children at the village school were actively punished for speaking Welsh in front of their teachers

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Today Chris' father arrives from Kent for a visit. He is always an easy guest and will, I know, adore Frankie who has now completely settled into our routine in the cottage.
 
So I am just about to sort the cottage out for our guest, but I will leave you with a little observation I made this morning which related to the four remaining ghost hens.
Months ago these little shells of birds arrived on the field. They could not walk properly, they had never seen the sun before, they were mute, cowed, and sad looking animals without any personality and spark.
I stood and watched four very different animals this morning when I opened their coop. Four confident birds greeted the rain and gales. Alert and interested they bickered with each other like normal hens and bullied the three new Wellsomers as they fought over the best bits of corn .
I allowed myself a whole minute of pride when I watched them
My babies have grown up