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The 'buche de Noel', or yule log, originated on the Continent, but the custom of burning it in the depths of winter spread to Wales during the nineteenth century. Said to have originatedin pagan times, it was considered lucky to keep a piece from one year to the next, tohold on to good luck. Sometimes the log would burn from Christmas Eve into Christmas night, depending on the size and hardness of the wood.
Emma has a wood burning stove and it can easily burn 10 of logs a day. I'd be happy to come across a log that burnt for more than a few hours in that roaring inferno. (I declare aninterest in the stove, because I often light it up for my own enjoyment when my daughter and family are due back from a shopping trip. As they also have central heating, it is not strictly necessary for heat but it appeals to something primaeval in me).
Emma has stacks of logs in the garden but frogs have made their home under some of them. Fortunately, thepine, sycamore and ash trees that were cut down last January in my gardenare now seasoned enough to burn and, I swear it's true, they are better than any that can be bought from the 'log man'.
I sat down last night to watch television and there was a programme about things to make for Christmas.Candles twinkled everywhere and a log fire sparked in the grate.Among the things made were teddy bears (reckon on a full day to complete a tiny one,) chutney, Christmas cardsand a Christmas log.
The log mixture containedchocolate and was smothered in cream and dusted in icing sugar (confectioners sugar in America, I believe). It was all hard work and I speak from the heart.
One Christmas, I made Russian fish pie for Christmas Eve supper. (Cod and parsley in a creamy sauce, with chopped boiled eggs, topped with puff pastry). Emma and Kate (teenagers at the time) said they were going out to celebrate. Peter was not hungry so I ate the pie myself.
For Christmas Day I had mixed cranberries and grated apple into a bought mincemeat mixture (best quality) and placed daubs of the mix into filo pastry nests, no lids, so that they were not too heavy. Yes, you guessed who ate them, me.
When the girls were younger I bought them enamelling kits and candle making kits one year. I spent Christmas afternoon in the kitchen alone,enamelling and candle-making.
At last, I have learnt to give everyonemoney. I'm not mercenary but it's what everyone likes. It meansspending money if you aresurfing inMoroccoand ski-ing in Val d'Iser (Harry and Oliver).Money hastens you on your way tothe Boxing Day Sales (Emma and Kate). Everyone gets what they want because they choose what they want. No longer do I buy something to see it reduced on the 26th.
Yes, moneytakes you to places that home-made teddies and love can't. (The Kings knew this: they gave gold).
As for food, no one's hungry in our house on Christmas Day so I buy everything ready prepared. ( I wasn't born with the word 'Martyr' stamped on my forehead as Betty Friedian might have said.)
I've slogged all year makingfresh food for each meal and if any one doesn't like it on Christmas Day, tough.
So, Merry Christmas and Nadolig Llawen, everyone. Leave the glue and glitter to someone else and I'll try not to scorch my new outfit by the log fire.
Here's one of my recent blog entries which might interest Americymru fans.
http://daibach-welldigger.blogspot.com/2011/12/significance-of-sidney-curnow-vospers.html
Thanks very much to Gaynor and Mona for their help.Very much appreciated.
Nadolig Llawen i pawb.Les Jenkins.
Doe's anyone know if it is possible to buy Saint Dwynwen's day cards.Is there such a thing?If there is where would I get it from.Google didn't produce anything.Nice slate heart available from the national slate museum but you have to go there.Thanks for any help.Les Jenkins.
Footless Crow aims to provide the best in British outdoor writing in a unique 'blogazine' format. Offering new articles and republishing classic articles from the past which have been cherry picked from UK ... Read More Here
Later this week,John Appleby's comprehensive profile of George Leigh Mallory's climbing career on Welsh rock. A golden period of exploration when he established his reputation as one of the UK's leading technical climbers. A period which saw him create some of the hardest routes of the era before his attention shifted to the greater ranges and he- in the public eye-was reborn as Galahad of Everest... Read More Here
| Description | English: Y Garn from Tryfan. Y Garn is in the centre with Llyn Bochlwyd and Llyn Idwal below, and Elidir Fawr to the right. |
|---|---|
| Date | |
| Source | Geograph |
| Author | George Tod |
| Permission ( Reusing this file ) | See below. |
Reprinted with permission from David Western's blog , all material 2011, David Western --
As another year draws to a close, I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone the very best of the season. Nadolig Llawen (Merry Christmas) to all those who celebrate Christmas and best wishes to all those who don't.
I can't pretend it hasn't been a very tough year to be a lovespoon carver, with economies collapsing left and right, with massive foreclosures, 'rationalization' everywhere and everyone holding on to their pennies, it is as bad as I have ever seen it. Fortunately for me, there are still people out there who value a truly personal, entirely hand-made gift and know the real value of my lovespoons! To all those who commissioned one of my spoons, I send my sincerest thanks. To those who visited my blog and my site but couldn't order a spoon this year, I hope the next year is a better one and I get the chance to show you what I can do!!
To those of you who could care less about lovespoons, I send my deepest sympathies!
But thankfully, it hasn't all been doom and gloom! This year's West Coast Eisteddfod in Los Angeles was a great success and your generous donations to the 'Win the Lovespoon and Support the Eisteddfod' fund helped make the event the grand time it was! This year's design was embellished with artwork selected from Americymru member entries and really did make carving this year's spoon that extra bit special! Lucky prize winner Carey Dietrich went home with a beautiful artwork which I hope will bring her many, many years of pleasure! I think this is a great picture of her, and her most excellent tshirt sets the spoon off perfectly!!I hope that next year's Eisteddfod is even bigger and better than this year's and I look forward to carving the lovespoon for it!
Once again, I wish one and all the very best for the remainder of this year and for the year to come!
When King Arthur celebrated Christmas at Carlisle, he ordered that all the knights and the other high-ranking guests should feast for ten days, starting on the 25th of December. Granted, they did things differently in those days, plus there was no refrigeration, vacuum packs and E numbers, but they were able to keep the food and drink flowing.
Things are done differently in our house. Peter does not like to see the mid-day meat reappearingagain. This means, we buy just enoughfor one meal and have something different at the next.
Althoughwe are not veggies, Peter dislikes handling raw meat from a hygienic stance. (Don't know how he would have survived the cave era).
A certain store has developed a forty five minute turkey (No, it does not mean the urkeyslive for three quarters of an hour only before being 'ready for the table' - I apologise for the euphemism). It means a turkey can be cooked in under an hour, plus thirty minutes extra 'resting' time before carving.
Peter looked unimpressed when I gave him this news. (He's just heard that most cases of e-coli at Christmas are caused by undercooking the fowl. The Earl of Bath, the present Earl's father, once said he did not like overcooked chicken because it was dry, but it's possible to cook a bird long enough to be safely eaten without drying it out. I invert the bird, then turn it over for the last half hour to crisp the breast skin).
But, to return to the 'jiffy' turkey, which is safe to eat, despite the short cooking time.Someone who's cooked and eaten said bird hasgiven it the thumbs down.Too dry and all that.
Whenwe lived in Fishguard our Christmas lunch came from the Gwaun Valley. Free range, plump and delicious, we had a chickenfor eleven years. Now I have a south Pembrokeshirechicken and very good it is, too. A little too large for us, I carve some of it up on Christmas morning and give a 'taste' to the grandchildren when they come visiting.
Stuffing is cooked separately (Peter's preference) but I put a lemonand a bunch ofthyme in the cavity.
Watching Ed Milliband dance a ballet of indecision and uttering lightweight response to the Euro crisis and our economy has been excruciatingly painful. Similarly listening to Carwyn Jones political statements in the Welsh Assembly and the press were just like being stoned to death with popcorn. Welsh politicians have all been dancing together, jockeying for advantage and selling their souls to pass the Budget, but always with an eye on public opinion and a reluctance to put their head above the parapet.
Where are Welsh radicals of history like Anaeurin Bevan who single-mindedly fought to establish the National Health Service in July 1948, ensuring my birth seven weeks later was free to my parents at the point of delivery (literally)? Indeed one of his famous quotes could be his verdict on current politicians:
We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run down.
We sadly miss Welsh radicals like David Lloyd George , who for all his deep flaws, was the architect of educational reform and social benefits. He got to the heart of the matter when debating in Parliament on the new idea of unemployment benefit:
You cannot feed the hungry on statistics
Our lightweight, self-serving and ineffective politicians seem to have had every drop of radical blood removed and simple don't or won't recognise the need for radical solutions to the issues faced by today's society. Indeed, they would shy from the dictionary definition of radical:
...a person who advocates fundamental political, economic, and social reforms by direct and often uncompromising methods
My passion for justice has been fuelled by many people who were uncompromising in their quests for reform. People like the great Christian reformers such as William Wilberforce, John Groom, John Newton, Lord Shaftesbury and Elizabeth Fry. Campaigners for equality and social justice like Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King.
When I grew up, my teenage years were the 1960s and I drank in every drop of news and information about the Civil Rights Movement , the Anti-Vietnam War movement and shaped my musical taste with the protest songs of Pete Seeger , Woodie Guthrie, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Donovan and others. Thank goodness we still have Billy Bragg today carrying the torch - his unaccompanied singing of the Internationale always has me in tears.
Students were at the vanguard of reform in the 1960's and individuals like Daniel Cohn Bendit and Tariq Ali were young focal points for students and others including me. Today, the Occupy Movement has adopted the view, misguided in my opinion, that everyone is equal and no individual needs to be a leader or spokesman. They need to learn the lessons of history - battles are fought around a leader and a flag. Wider society can then evaluate the arguments in the way they are familiar with.
I've given up on today's politicians. There are young people out there burning with passion, energy and zeal that need to declare themselves, step up to the plate and be the leaders they are and then change Wales, the UK and the wider world for the greater good of the people.
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Buy 'Snow' HERE ( Kindle edition available )
Snow is that rare thing an important work of historical research that reads like a fast-paced spy thriller. Although it must be added that the events recounted therein would be deemed highly improbable if they were fiction. The central character Arthur Graham Owens is a study in vanity, folly , recklessness, courage and determination combined. This deeply flawed character commands respect, despite his many weaknesses, because his antics contributed more to the Allied war effort than he, or his MI5 'handlers' could ever have imagined.
Snow offered his services to German Intelligence in Hamburg in 1935. The strength of his allegiance to the Nazi cause must be doubted however when we take into account MI5 observations which record him shopping for photographic equipment and magazines packed with pictures of outdated military vehicles . Indeed it is doubtful that he ever supplied his Abwehr paymasters with anything of real significance.
During a bizarre episode in Wandsworth Prison in 1939 Snow attempted to contact the Abwehr in Hamburg with a radio set which had been supplied for the purpose. He had been detained by British Intelligence on the suspicion that he was a double agent and was attempting to prove his potential value to MI5. The transmitter promptly blew a fuse and after repairs had been carried out several more attempts were made before the response signal, 'OEA' was received. A few miles away at an RSS ( Radio Security Service ) listening station an amazing discovery was made. Instead of going directly to Hamburg the messages from Owens were intercepted by a spy trawler off the coast of Norway. From here they were re-transmitted after being encoded using the German Enigma machine. Consequently British Intelligence were able to listen in to both transmissions , one coded and one in plain text. Since Owens had been instructed to broadcast at 4 in the morning all that the RSS had to do to break the German cipher for the day was compare and analyse the two messages. Thus, unwittingly, the Welsh 'master spy' gave British Intelligence access to secret German military communications throughout Europe.
After serving as a double agent for two years Snow was debriefed following a top level meeting with the head of the Abwehr in Portugal. The account of these interrogations is as detailed as it is fascinating. According to Snow he was confronted with the fact that he had been operating as a double agent almost immediately upon arrival in Lisbon. And yet, the Germans chose to do nothing about this and sent him back to Britain with 10,000 GBP and a variety of concealed explosive devices to carry on his good work! One can hardly blame MI5 for being somewhat sceptical.The detailed exchanges between Snow and his interrogators are a study in mind-boggling duplicity. The records of these discussions have been meticulously reaearched by the books authors with reference to original source materials from the archives of the British Security Service ( MI5 ). Fortunately they are presented in a thoroughly engaging manner and the reader will have fun trying to work out what really happened in Lisbon. Whatever your conclusion you are sure to sympathise with the MI5 operative who concluded that "I am more than ever convinced that Snow's is a case not for the Security Service but for a brain specialist" and also with interrogator Tommy Robertson:-
"....Robertson was sure that he was lying. But Owen's story was so inconsistent that he could not determine the nature of the lie or its purpose."
Following the Lisbon incident Snow spent some time at HMP Dartmoor. MI5 did not feel they could trust him anymore and they wanted him out of the way. Even while in prison Owens was able to procure information from fellow prisoners which was of value to the war effort. Conversations with a fellow prisoner ( a Danish internee ) led to revelations concerning the German V2 program which were promptly passed on to MI5.
Following the war and his release from prison Owens retired to live quietly in Wexford, Ireland where he died in 1957. He had a reputation as a Welsh Nationalist and became a regular attendee at Sinn Fein meetings where he would clap speechesvery loudly , often delivered in Gaelic, even though he did not speak the language. He was also a regular fixture at the local pub from where he often had to be carried home.
As a work of historical research 'Snow' is a gold mine of information on British clandestine operations in WWII. As a biography it reveals a complex and conflicted character whose true motives may have been as much a mystery to himself as they are to the reader. I have no hesitation in recommending this book to anyone with a love of history or a fascination with the complex, inscrutable and frequently perverse characters who make it.
The short promotional video below perfectly demonstrates why this book cries out for a movie adaptation. Any budding script writers out there?
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