Brrr!

Wyt, Ionawr, yn oer, a'th farrug yn wyn
A pha beth a wnaethost i ddŵr y llyn?

(January, you are cold and your frost is white
And what have you done to the water of the lake?)

Those are the words of an old poem. This year, January wasn't so cold; at times it was very mild but it was very wet too. But someone must have remembered the words of the poem and told Morus y Gwynt (Morus the Wind, as the wind is sometimes called in Welsh).

And, indeed, by the end of January Morus had started to blow very cold air from Siberia across Europe to reach little old Wales! And this week has been very cold and freezing - the coldest week of this winter. (But not, thank goodness, as cold as last winter!)

And here we are in February - or "Y Mis Bach" (the Little Month) as we call it in Welsh. To the ancient Celts, this was the beginning of spring when the light of the sun started to become strong again and the long dark days of winter began to disappear.

The goddess Brigid was important to the Celts; they celebrated her day - Imbolc - at this time of year. Brigid also became one of the saints of the Christian Church and the Church celebrates her festival on February 1st. She's an important person in the Celtic and Christian history of Ireland.

But we also remember Saint Brigid here in Wales, where we call her Brid or Ffraid (Bride). There are places called Saint-y-brid in Glamorgan (St Bride's Major) and Gwent (St Bride's Netherwent) and there 13 places across Wales called Llansantffraid (The Church of St Bride).

So, a warm welcome to February and Brid/Ffraid; we hope that the mild spring season will soon be with us!