As a child I always envied the fat plain kid who blindly believed their parents' affirmations that he/she was a beautiful child..
I think that these sort of little people often grow up to be confident, well rounded but still plain individuals, who know what it is to love and to be loved.
I was reminded of those school kids the moment I noticed that our new village signs have been erected. and although they are not perhaps the ones that I would have picked, I must admit that I love the very "chutzpah" of what they have to say
Trelawnyd is situated within some lovely countryside, but the village itself, could never really be described as a "chocolate box " style village. True we have a picturesque Church and some lovely flower beds but the village remains what it has always been, and that is a small predominantly working class village which is not populated by what I would term as the plastic "Homes and Gardens- designer country dweller brigade"
Our new signs, celebrate the affection which is felt for the village.
For Trelawnyd is that plain fat kid with chubby cheeks and a bad haircut from my childhood
....warts and all
and do you know what?
it IS beautiful
AND Trelawnyd is a high-scorer in Scrabble too. What more could you wish for?
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to see it :-)
ReplyDeleteI think the people probably help to make it that way too!
ReplyDeleteI took a walk around Trelawnyd via Google Earth. Did you know that some of your chickens are in the churchyard? hee hee I can also see you in the allotment. It's a beautiful place.
ReplyDeleteisobelle
Deletelook into the field and you can see me with my head in a chicken coop and you can see maddie ( scottish terrier) sat patiently by the church wall
I walked along for quite awhile before finding the cemetery and church. I saw you hovering over a coop and Maddie sitting as described.
DeleteThe folks I saw weren't very friendly. N'ere a one waved when I passed. Course, neither did I. I think I heard one of them call me a bloody foreigner. I'll probably be the talk of the town. :)
Google Earth is amazing.
Mike
Deletegoogle earth IS a wonderful idea.... I have just re visited my day on the sunny field
if you look in the churchyard as you journey down the lane , there is a great shot of a junior black rooster legging it through the gravestones
On my initial stroll I saw a white chicken amongst the stones. However, it looked as though it were a statue. Then I saw the black and knew you had to be in your area.
DeleteI love a small town. Reminded me a little of my hometown in TN. If you could call it one.
Mike, do you Americans call villages "small towns" rather than villages.?
DeleteMike, do you Americans call villages "small towns" rather than villages.?
DeleteYes, I consider anything smaller than a city, a 'town.' However, going to town might be used for a city, too. We do have a village here but, it's a neighborhood. But, don't let me confuse you. ;)
DeleteI went back to look for Maddie and there she is! A lovely snapshot in time.
DeleteThere's lovely, what a nice sign for your village.
ReplyDeleteOurs should read ... "outstanding village - full of bastard teenage thieves" !!!
And there was me thinking that ALL of North Wales was an area of outstanding natural beauty!
ReplyDelete"Homes and Gardens- designer country dweller brigade"
ReplyDeleteWell, Llanasa is only a couple of miles away, after all.
"Tee hee"
Nx
It's the people like you John, that make it what it is!
ReplyDeleteWell.....it's on my list of places to see some day!!! So I will report back then!!
ReplyDeleteI bet all the occupants of the village wouldn't change a bit of it, as in their eyes it is the best and that's a good thing, as Martha Stewart would say.
ReplyDeleteGill in Canada
The sign, which was secretly funded by bloggers from around the world, recognises not the physical appearance of the village itself but the prettiness of its inhabitants from the mature sexbomb and former Page Three girl - Dame Gladys to the much sought after male model known as The Red Faced Welsh Farmer and even those two weirdos who live in the little corner cottage behind the church! Yes, Trelawnyd is positively dripping with human beauty.
ReplyDelete"For Trelawnyd is that plain fat kid with chubby cheeks and a bad haircut from my childhood."
ReplyDeleteMy how you write. You really should be writing a book you know.
There is something beautiful in every one and every thing if we but search it out. There is great beauty in your post today.
ReplyDeleteI tried to say in in Welsh and now have spit all over the screen.
ReplyDeleteJane x
I grew up in that'plain fat kid with chubby cheeks' working class neighbourhood in Halifax. I still consider it my 'home' because of the warmth and 'community atmosphere it had and still does, to some extent. Much like your Trelawnyd, John. Stand proud!
ReplyDeleteOf course, it's beautiful, I couldn't 'see' it any other way.
ReplyDeleteah, the love of ones home :)
ReplyDeleteYou're so right about those confident people, completely happy in their own skin, of which I'm not one but wish I was.
ReplyDeleteOur town is rather more stuck up. Very small and pretty but rather full of itself too. I'm glad we live a few miles outside now!
I want to say hello from Ely in Cambridgeshire. I have been reading your blog and enjoy it muchly. You are my fantasy next door neighbour. xxxx Beverley
ReplyDeleteWelcome Bev.....I may not look much but I must admit, i am a nice neighbour x
DeleteMy hometown got overrun by snobs after i moved from there, and while some efforts were made to remove them, they outnumbered the natives as it were. Still, i find it a beautiful place, and when i took Himself there the first time, he remarked that driving down Main Street was like a live-action Norman Rockwell scene.
ReplyDeleteI think the Trelawnwyd sign is simply stating the obvious.
I live in an AONB... but I think it has something to do with me living there... surely?
ReplyDeleteHow nice. It would be fun to know how the sign came be be. Did the village council ask for it? Is it part of a national program?
ReplyDeleteMy township (next size down from a village) petitioned for such a sign. We had to pay for it (cast bronze!) and formed a committee to raise the money. That part was a much fun as being awarded our historic plaque.
The community council organised it. But I must have missed the meeting when we all voted on the design
ReplyDelete...made me long to have been that "plain fat kid with chubby cheeks"
ReplyDeleteI think that it is a good idea to put up such a sign. I believe it to be a subconscious thing in humans to live up to a 'title' once given. If a person is told that they will never amount to anything, they often believe it and, therefore, really never do amount to anything.
ReplyDeleteIt also works the other way round. If you call a village beautiful, its inhabitants might feel the subconscious need to 'pretty it up' and then to keep it that way. Ahhhhh, psychology!
A lovely post. And sometimes an affirmation or two is all it takes for people/villages to start believing in themselves. Which is usually good.
ReplyDeleteWe were looking at an estate agent's website and came across what looked to be a picture book cottage on Trelawnyd High Street that we liked the look of. (We are seriously considering a move to Wales.) You've put me right off it now!
ReplyDeletesp
DeleteI would LOVE you as a neighbour
The cottage you describe is more or lass next to auntie Glads!
it has not got a farden though!
Then we shall reconsider - I love scones! Having said that, I doubt if Mrs P would be without her garden, even if it is just a small one.
DeleteThere's only a line between being snobby about your place and loving it warts and all. But the line is drawn with a really, really chubby parcel-addressing felt marker pen.
ReplyDeleteI don't doubt it at all! I've grown to think of you as the neighbor down the road...I don't even think about the vast ocean that separates us.
ReplyDeleteUnconditional love is an amazing thing.
ReplyDelete