If Music Be The Food Of Love....

Photo © Rob Jones

It was a Prince of Wales who, when it was noted that he seemed very much in love with his intended said, "Yes, whatever 'in love' means."

I do think he was rather unfairly judged by history for the off the cuff comment, which probably is true.

I was reminded of it earlier today while foraging in the local supermarket, and stumbled across a little table of goodies marking … oddly … both St Dwynwen’s Day - which is 25th of January, and Valentine’s Day, on 14th of February. Not certain if the little table of ‘romantic’ items will be left there for the next three weeks. I hope not because it was in the way.

The koala stumped me for a bit. Is it perhaps a symbol of love in Australia? This I don’t know.

Now … I’ve touched on the feast of St. Dwynwen before. It’s not a happy story. We won’t go over it.

But there’s a similarly miserable love story at the heart of a very beautiful piece of music called Watching the White Wheat which I was always glad to play on the radio.

In a nutshell…. Farm labourer Wil Hopcyn fell in love with posh gal Ann Thomas. Ann’s mum found out and forced Ann to marry local hoorah Henry, Anthony Maddocks. Wil was left distraught and departed from the village. A little later, he had a dream that Ann’s husband had died. So he came back to the village only to discover (twist) it was Ann who was dying, of a broken heart. Which she did, in his arms. Anthony got over it pretty quickly and soon married again (hiss). Wil never did get married. He and Ann are both buried in the same churchyard in Glamorgan.

They were clearly in love … whatever ‘in love’ means.

Foodwise: You might like to begin with a starter of seafood from the Menai, slow cooked lamb shank, and Welsh Cakes in custard for a dessert.

R