I'm reading my grandfather's autobiography (unedited) and am very moved. He was a stone mason who built the house I grew up in and several others, on a small estate overlooking the mountains of Snowdonia, North Wales. He worked on countless sites and buildings, bridges, and towers; building stone walls, fixing up churches, you name it. One of his jobs was on parts of Caernarfon castle during the Investiture of Prince Charles. He was a talented slate carver, and on the walls of our family homes are poems, englynion, and even a bust of Dafydd Y Garreg Wen - all beautifully carved in slate by my taid. Reading this puts things in perspective - even if money and materials are scarce, with determination, knowledge, skill and hard work you can create wonders.

http://darkallie.wordpress.com/2010/08/25/the-fourth-kind/

Wales was one of the featured nations at this year's Smithsonian Folklife Festival held over two weeks on the National Mall in Washington D.C.I had the honor of working for the Wales Smithsonian Cymru program over the past three months and wanted to convey how much of a pleasure it has been to represent my country in this capacity and work for such a renowned institution.This was a unique opportunity to lift Wales' profile and share our wonderful culture with the people of America and the world. Wales put on a diverse program, from poetry, song and slate splitting to sustainable building, sports and animation. It proved a huge success and the level of interest was truly amazing.I also wanted to share a link to a BBC show shot at the Newseum where I had the honor of appearing on a panel with First Minister of Wales Rhodri Morgan and Gareth Howell, who works for the U.S. government in D.C.http://www.s4c.co.uk/clic/c_level2.shtml?programme_id=353172547here's a link to the Festival site:http://festival.si.edu/

A friend of mine from Cardiff, Derith Rhisiart, has produced a film with Welsh Director Karl Francis - HOPE Eternal an S4C Production. A Welsh African film in 7 languages. www.hopethefilm.com