Roft or Crofft

 Ok we are slumming it slightly with the plastic Union Jack bought from the "Royal Wedding" shelf in Sainsburys but from today we are flying the flag for Royalists everywhere and will be building up quite nicely thank you towards the Royal Wedding celebrations.
I know its not trendy
I know its not fashionable
But I don't give a stuff.
"Gawd love 'em" that's what we say!
(thanks Craig)

One of the St Trinians killing a mouse on the field

 Its been a quiet-ish sort of day. Chris has spent an age weeding the garden (!) whilst  I have pottered around planting out violas. and clearing the winter dead wood..
By mid afternoon, I decided to walk the dogs around the village and what started as a brief amble

aubretia growing on the old wall in Chapel Street

 turned out to be a bit of a marathon, as nearly everyone I bumped into provided me with some help with my new blog..
The nice Chap from Ty Wynne ( Wynne House) in the centre of the village stopped me with some interesting historic photos and information about his house, another lady from Bron Haul called me over to collect a book which would be useful for some background research for the blog and amateur sleuths Kit and Stan Hopkins waved me over to their neat bungalow to give me the results of their investigations into the historic term "The Roft" which older villagers' remembered  as the nickname for some open waste ground just off the hight street, where the pensioner bungalows are now situated  .
I could not find out if "roft" was indeed a real Welsh word...but Kit could and I was impressed that after discussion with her Welsh academic minister she found out that "Rofft" was indeed a mutation from the Welsh word " crofft" which literally means a "small holding or small field next to a house"
(Interestingly similar to the Scottish word croft: "A croft is a fenced or enclosed area of land, usually small and arable with a crofter's dwelling thereon."

Local Miss Marple Kit and hubby Stan

As I walked back to the cottage laden down with information  I was stopped by Ralph the gentleman farmer's missus, who had read the blog and who kindly offered me some information on one of her relatives the powerhouse old  village character Miss BA Jones, schoolteacher,staunch Tory supporter and Flower Show veteran.
It was a fruitful walk