"Wales is the fuel poverty capital of Britain" says the UK Press association, with a third of its homes fuel poor; isn't this sadly ironic for a country that fuelled the British Empire? We were raped and pillaged and now we have nothing left, but hold on; oil was the new coal, soon water will be the new oil and we have it in abundance. We can learn from the lessons of the past to become the Bahrein of Europe, but first we must own our natural resources. This puppet Welsh government run by English Parties has already put that out of the question by stating that nothing must be done that touches on England's interests, which it would if England were made to pay Cymru/Wales a fair price for its commodities. It would put a stop to the argument that it's too late econonomically to rejoin the international community in our own right.

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When I was a young child living in the Carmarthenshire countryside, we had a holly branch hanging from the ceiling, decorated with a few baubles from F.W. Woolworths as our'Coeden Nadolig'. (Although this is an old Welsh custom,I didn'tmuch care forit at the time.)

As I grew olderapine took the place of the holly tree but, in myteens, I thought fir treesvery 'infra dig' . In their steadI sprayed skeletal branches white, decorating them with a robin and woolly pom-poms.I was miffed when a neighbour saw my effortsand said, dubiously: 'Well, it saves money,I suppose'.

It was art, for goodness sake. Did she have no idea of the mirth, the magic, the merriment of the season? I wasn't listeningto 'Bah Humbug!'

The Puritansdisapproved of Christmas, but Charles 11 was not dubbed the 'Merry Monarch' for nothing. Lucy Walter's 'Black Eyed Boy' returned to the throne during the'Glorious Restoration' and we arenow allowed to bake a few mince pies and eat a capon or two, or a sausage and a few portions of pudding.

I wondered today how many hours I have spent working out Christmas ideas. More that that, why is it so important to me that our house should look like Lapland for a week or two of the year?

One year, I stackedshimmering Silver Birch logs at the side of the fire and interspersed them with fir cones.

'Woman and Home' magazineshowed how to make a Mexican village (cardboard boxes, covered with white shelf paper, and placed on even larger boxes and stuck down firmly). I made one for Emma and Kate. 'Why Mexican?'Peter asked quite reasonably. 'Christmas all over the world,' was my answer.

I've hadtables laid with white damask cloths, gold lame runners, cut glass, crystal, bowls of fruit with pineapples -(exotic in Fishguard in 1960 and providing anappropriate oriental touch, I thought).

Having been a teacher, I've had more than my fair share of Christmas decorations, plays, Carol Concerts, pantomimesand, as my mother said today: 'You've had a lot of staff Christmas dinners and Christmas dinners in schooland at home'.So yes, I've had more than my share of stuffing, but over the last few years, we've simplified.

No more boiling puddings wrapped in muslin a la 'The Christmas Carol' for me. And I'm not chopping fruit and nuts and beating brown sugar and butter because this year, it's all coming ready prepared. Yes, the chicken in a foil container, the stuffing in a foil container, thepeeled sprouts, thepudding, the brandy cream and the mince pies.

We'll cut a small tree from the garden and hang the lights up soon. You see, I like the preparations for Christmasmore than the day itself, so I'll be enjoying every moment of this very special seasonduring the coming weeks.

West Coast Eisteddfod wrap-up report, at last!

I'm months behind when I intended to do this, the week after the West Coast Eisteddfod in Los Angeles, but I've been wrapped up in the wrap up and couldn't finish it! If I've gotten anything wrong, misspelled or incorrectly given someone's personal or business name or forgotten to include anyone, please let me know at gaabib@gmail.com and I'll fix it.

I think this was the best event we've done so far. It came off absolutely fantastically and Ceri and I owe a HUGE thanks to our partner in this year's event, Lorin Morgan Richards , as the guy on the ground and coordinator and creator of the Welsh Mythology and Legend Art Show , a fantastic addition to the event in itself. Lorin has even done a book of the works that artists contributed to the show and, if you weren't able to attend, you can get it here , with an original work by Jen Delyth on the cover.

Loads of people kept telling me it was the best event like this they'd ever been to, comparing it to a good party and there was just a lot of good and happy feeling and it was really nothing but fun. We had a wonderful display of these great panels on Welsh immigration to the US, generously loaned to us by the people at visitwales.com on behalf of the Welsh Assembly and a ton of people went through that, me included.

Ceri and I drove down from Portland, which was a 16-hour+ drive I used to do, way too fast, each way a couple of times a year, flat out without stopping except for fuel and, ahem, freshening up. I couldn't do that this time, getting older and too damned tired, so we stopped at a different cheap hotel each way, which are better not mentioned. This was Ceri's first trip down I-5 and it wasn't what he expected "California" to be, which I found kind of funny. Everyone hears all about Hollywood and maybe San Francisco but they don't know about the hundreds of miles of agricultural land in the middle. We had hours and hours and hours of driving through dusty acres of olives, grapes, citrus and other stuff, the breadbasket of the west coast.

The event was held at Barnsdall Art Park in Hollywood, the site of an incredible Frank Lloyd Wright home, the Hollyhock House (below), which Wright designed for theater patroness Aline Barnsdall, who donated the house and eleven acres of its grounds on Olive Hill to the city of Los Angeles for use as a public art park, which it remains today:

The wonderful people from Barnsdall offered children's activities during the festival, including helping people name their houses in Welsh. Barnsdall is really a treasure and the people of LA are very lucky to have it. I hope we'll get to do some more events there in the future, it's a great place.

For the first time, this year our Maes B (the second field, the place at the eisteddfod where other entertainment is happening) was outside and it really had a fun, carnival kind of feel. We had fantastic food supplied by Alex Catering , who came up with a great menu of dishes to serve, which included a very generous but light fish and chips (chips dusted with curry powder, mmm!), Glamorgan sausage, a delicious meat sausage and a leek and cheese pie and more. Their staff were great, very friendly, fast and creative and they were even wonderful enough to show up and do an absolutely awesome breakfast for the vendors and crew sooo early in the morning! I would recommend them for anything and I can't say enough good things about them and our pub, Oberon's Tavern .

It's not much of a West Coast Eisteddfod without plenty of delicious beer and the venue, unfortunately, didn't come with that, so we had a travelling pub. Oberon's Tavern travels around appearing at pirate festivals, fairy and Ren Faires and they set up their bar, tables, etc outside the Barnsdall Theater building. They all appeared in costume and provided constant, fun entertainment along with plenty of beer and wine and even some varieties of mead and a bartender/waitress dressed as a red dragon. The stand-up Comedy portion of the Eisteddfod ended up being in the pub and it was a lot of fun! It was also something else to watch them set up, throwing up walls and the bar and a fence and tables lightning fast and BOOM! Instant pub, manned by a bunch of really fun and lovely people.

Welsh cakes (or bakestones) were supplied by the West Coast makers of those, The Welsh Baker , locally in California. They sold absolutely out by the end and there weren't even samples left! They were delicious.

Friday

The event was started with a performance by the Cr Cymraeg De Califfornia , followed by opening ceremonies lead by members of the California Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids - Peter Freeman and our very own Garan Gwyn and Brian y Tarw Lloyd, inspired by and taken from the language used in the opening of the National Eisteddfod in Wales:

Friday night was the opening night concert with performances by Paul Child , Monica Richards and Michael Aston . I'm a Monica Richards fan, so I loved getting to see her and I thought her show was fantastic, experimental and original, with a great multimedia element behind the band on the stage. Paul Child was our headliner of the evening and he gave a wonderful, very powerful performance. His voice is extremely strong, even more in person than a recording, and hits every note precisely, without hesitation or tremor, and he's a great, fun guy to boot! He'd brought some CD's to sell, including one to raise money for the families of the miners deceased at Gleision Colliery. If anyone would like to contribute to that appeal, it's here . Michael Aston came on last, with just a guitarist, and gave a gorgeous, intimate, acoustic performance that went over very well with the audience and a lot of people who hadn't ever heard him before told me afterward how much they liked it.

This was also the opening of the Welsh Mythology and Legend Art Show , which was exhibited in the main floor lobby gallery of the Gallery Theater. Lorin created, organized and hung this exhibition, assigning a verse each from a poem he wrote to over thirty contributing artists he recruited, who produced works to be exhibited at the WCE and included in a book , which is now for sale. Jen Delyth created the cover and exhibited her piece, in addition to original works she had at her booth.

Jen Delyth's cover painting	Other artists' work on display

Saturday

Saturday was the day of the actual eisteddfod and the first day of the Welsh Market. AmeriCymru had a table there and I confess that that's where I spent most of my time, as Ceri was MC'ing, sandwiched between Welsh-American author Jude Johnson and Celtic Jackalope , who did the official event t-shirt . I have to add that I silkscreen t-shirts and their shirts were pretty impressive to me - they're screen printed, not transfers or machine printed (which is about the same lower quality as a transfer, they peel off after a bit) but there's an amazing amount of fine detail in the Celtic Jackalope shirts and they look perfect enough to have been done by a machine. There were a lot of wonderful people there, selling wonderful things I wanted and I tried very hard to get their cards so I could list them below and if I missed anyone, tell me so I can put you on there! Everything was great and I wanted it all but if anyone wants to get me something for Christmas, there were lace parasols and a glass eye with brass wings.... See links below for the awesome vendors that were there!

There were free performances and lectures out on the grounds throughout the day, just some of them included traditional music by Wake the Bard harpist and soprano Nerys Jones, a lecture and demonstration of the crwth by Dr. Marshall Bevil, magician Joseph Schneider, Welsh author John Gower lectured on 'Discovering Welsh History', and Sam Wenger on Legends of King Arthur and Madog and a Welsh language lesson by the Learn Welsh Podcast .

The Competitions

The Eisteddfod took place in the Gallery Theater, below the art exhibit, on Saturday. This was the second year that we've had live competitions and the first year we've had vocal and stand-up comedy. All the competitors were fantastic, I didn't see anything that I didn't like.

The Vocal competition winner was Timo Standing Buffalo . Also competing were George Angelo, Jr., Mia - Chocolate Princess and Tom Lloyd. Unfortunately, I missed this competition, but heard a little from the top of the stairs so someone else will have to blog about this.. :/

The Storytelling competition winner was Chris Chandler , who also won the Poetry competition. Also competing were John McGee, Laura Wolfe-Bosworth, Michael D McCarty, Anthony Burcher and Elliot Hughes. I also missed this one but other people told me everyone was great so, again, someone else will have to blog about this competition.

Nerys Jones performed in between competitions in the theater and Sex Bomb came on stage before the stand-up comedy competition and gave a great set, with lots of appreciation and participation from the audience.

The Stand Up Comedy competition winner was Peter Freeman. Also competing were Jeanette Rizzi and Carlos Escobar . The stand-up competition ended up happening in the pub, which seemed more appropriate, and turned into a bit of a party, great fun! All three competitors were really funny, I'd especially like to see Jeanette Rizzi perform again, I like a good female comic, and Carlos Escobar was extremely funny.

Sunday

More outdoor events happened on Sunday, more wonderful vendors and the film festival.

Dr. Aparna Sharma, Phd, UCLA World Arts and Cultures, opened the film festival with an excellent and extremely interesting lecture on Welsh film and each film in the festival, which included "Y Chwarelwr"(English title "The Quarryman") , "Eldra" and "Y Mabinogi" (English title "Otherworld") . I might be wrong about this but I think this was the first LA showing of these films, I know this was the first showing of "Y Mabinogi" in California.

Thank you, thank you!

It was great to get to meet other AmeriCymru members and members of the American-Welsh community I'd never got to meet before and it was really, really fantastic, beyond words, to see the performances and activities at the event and all the art people created and performed. I felt so lucky to get to be part of this and to see this. I can't express how grateful I am to everyone who performed, who donated and sponsored the event, who came to vend and to visit and attend every part of the event and to bring some accessible public Welshness to LA. Feedback was wonderful, everyone I saw was smiling almost the whole time and it was amazingly fun! I hope we'll get to come back to do this in LA again soon!

Please see the Vendor's list - continued

West Coast Eisteddfod 2011 Vendors, thank you!

Part One here

Vendors

Celtic Jackalope , makers of the 2011 West Coast Eisteddfod t-shirt, artist "[Maxine Miller's] work is rich with the exquisite detail and symbolism that bring these iconic images to life. Maxine's artwork is applied to sterling silver jewelry, statuary, printed apparel, art prints, wooden gift boxes... Michael MacFarlane has brought Maxine's art to the masses through the manufacturing and distribution of Maxine's Products. By starting with Celtic Fairs and Scottish Highland Games in North America, where he is a highly regarded member of the Scottish/Celtic community... All pieces are created with integrity, working with non-exploitive and fair trade principles. It is both their pride and pleasure to bring these works to you."

San Francisco Celtic artist Jen Delyth is known worldwide for the original and iconic mixture of old and new in her beautiful work. Delyth's paintings, illustrations and design marry new technique and composition concepts with deeply rooted cultural and mythological themes.

About her art, Jen has written, "I am intrigued by the marriage of old and new, ancient and future. This work is a personal journey into the language of Celtic myth and symbol, the beauty of nature, a simple interpretation of Celtic spirituality expressing the Mystery of the inter-connectedness and balance of all things."

Dreamsinger Harps Celtic Harps, Gothic Harps, Doorharps, Dulcimers, Psalteries, Flap-Dragons, Ping Pong CrossBows. Dreamsinger Harps has 25 years making and selling Harps at Renaissance faires, 35 years as a member of the SCA. Besides the SCA, Renn Faires and other events, you can find them in Lakewood, California and their harp kits and door harps on ebay at magicharps and buy their beautiful harps and other instruments and wonderful things on their site .

Three Geese In Flight Celtic Books has been in business selling antiquarian, used, and out-of-print Celtic and Arthurian studies books from our shop and mail order since 1976.

Besides the folklore, mythology and history of Celtic Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, and Brittany, Three Geese in Flight Books specializes in the history, literature, fiction, and scholarly study of the Arthurian legend. We also feature Norse, Anglo-Saxon, Medieval, and Megalithic books.

We are also proud to offer books on Iroquois, Woodland Indian, Mound builder History, Archeology, and Legend, American Revolution/French and Indian War, along with the history of Early Dutch New Netherlands Colonial New England, Pre-Columbian voyages, and Cultures, as well as the Folklore of the Americas.

BlackHeart Metals , for the finest in hand-crafted Silver Jewelry and Sculptures - silver jewelry, sculptures, rings, earrings, necklaces, bracelets, pendants and more

Mac Neith Celtic Shoes and Accessories , Handcrafted leather Celtic - Scottish - Irish Shoes, Celtic-Pictish Jewelry, Celtic Pouches & Celtic - Viking RUNES! MacNeith's Celtic Shoes & Accessories
are perfect to wear at any SCA events,
Scottish Games, Irish and Celtic Festivals,
Renaissance Fairs and for everyday wear!

Faire Ladies, Faire Lords was founded in 1996 and is proud to be a retailer of American made artisan quality Renaissance costumes and historical clothing. All clothing items are Made in the USA. The romance of the Renaissance era is here for ladies AND lords! Costume yourself in renaissance bodices and doublets, medieval gowns and tunics; we provide pirate garb, German costuming, English Renaissance costuming and lots of creative fantasy and masquerade attire.

R. Merlin, Ion Drive Publishing Arial and Electra, a Wyrding Lucination in 39 Parts : "Written over an extraordinary twenty-two years, Ariel & Electra draws on R.Merlin's experience as a laser artist, working Druid, and occult initiate with a passion for the Eleusinian Mysteries."

Jewelry from Aileen's Art - she had jewelry at the event, earrings and necklaces and bracelets - but also on her site are some gorgeous little wire and beaded trees and grapevines, really interesting.

Peter Padden, Pendraig Publishing , "Pendraig Publishing is devoted to bringing quality books to the Pagan community, covering subjects like Traditional Witchcraft, Wortcunning, The Art of the Cunning Folk, and Ancient Mystery Traditions."

I hate looking at a plain surface, bare of everything. I'm not a minimalist (natureabhors a vacuum, as you will be aware) and was never meant to be -(good Lord, you should see the things I stack away, the girls' dummies, Harry and Oliver's dummies, the Christmas, Easter, Birthdayand Mother's Day cards the girls crayoned, and even Harry and Oliver's too.

All these thingsare stored ina thick box folder, to ensure their safety. The first blue kid baby shoes, summer dresses, slippers, satchels, Harry and Oliver's 'Rompers' and didn't they romp, have a cupboard of their own. Can't think why I haven't won the Turner Prize for art, considering all the flotsam and jetsam of family life that I have netted.

But, today was a little different. Sleet, wind and rain meantwe did not leave the house. In some twisted form of logicand, asI am supposed to be cracking on with a novel, I decided to tidy the kitchen.

I can't think in the day and Ionce heard of someone who was so excited to get a book contract thather mind went blank and she suffered literary paralysis. To prevent thathappening I decidedon a spot of displacement activity.

So, it was yakka, yakka, yakka all day.Away with the Bambi salt and pepper set thatI thought was a typical example of Post Modernist Irony, awaywith theroyal blue velvet hanging with 'Mother' in silver sequins from Malta which a friend gave me. (OK, I am a mother, but why did she thinkI'd like that?)

I've heard about Archimedes' Principle of displacement but, let me tell you, practically it just doesn't work. No way. Take this as an example: (forget about water now, just follow me) Ihave six things in a cupboard. I throw away the piri piri peppers (don't want Peter having heartburn), an empty Vitamin C container (musthave thoughtit would come in handy for something, 'poverty mentality' Kate says and she couldbe right) and the almost empty tin of syrup with the lion lying down with the bees buzzing around. So, that should leave us with three items to put back on the washed shelf. Three items less to put back, that is, but 'dyna peth od', that's the funny thing, it is difficult to put a lesser number of things back in. Try it. Empty half the contents of a drawer into a bin and you think you'll have loads of room, but my way, you'll still have to stuff them back in.

Tell you what. My reasoning was perfectly correct. After a few hours 'cleaning' it was a relief to get back on the computer. What's the saying? 'The cobbler should stick to his last' and so say I.

So, it was back to the 'stream of consciousness' and the 'icky moo cow' coming down the road, or whatever. Nos Da pawb. I don't know why I'm feeling so tired tonight.

I just wanted to add my heartfelt sadness at the loss of one of [not only Wales']but Britains best ever footballers.Gary Speed R.I .P.He gave so much to Welsh and English football over the years[Still playing in Sheffield into his late 30s]but also still had so much to give as a manager of the Welsh national side.

It is so sad that an illness called depression can affect someone so badly that, because of the stigma related to the illness, that someone can't seem to ask for help.Gary Speed had so many friends it's just so difficult to comprehend that he couldn't ask for help.Gary was certainly not the only person to feel this way, it has killed many people before him.Bye, great man,please now be at peace.Les Jenkins

Just wanted to give everyone a heads-up that we need to perform some simple but necessary maintenance on AmeriCymru this coming Friday, December 2nd. Well need to take the site down from 10-midnight (PST). During these 2 hours, well simply show a message asking folks to check back later. Thanks in advance for your patience while we tune up the site!

Imay not have the time toblog quite as often now, asI am working on a novel.

Although I can just about walk and chew gum at the same time, I forget whereI am in a novel if I don't keep myself on track.

Thetitle for my new novel is: 'Red Emeralds'. Buried deeply in the recesses of my mind, I know why I've chosen this title andit's part ofa tangled thought process. It's to do with the Indian Army.I'll tell you moreanother time. Don't mean to be a tease, butno one writes in a vacuum.

This is whyit's pointless telling students to write what they know about. How cananyone write about what they don't know, whenit's hellish hardto write about the back of your hand, if you think about it, which you probably don't.

Misconceptions about writing abound:It'sa pass-time, something you do when you can't think ofany other way of fillinga couple of hours. The only thing that's stopping mostpeoplefrom being best-selling novelists is that they've got to work, ie: to earn money, as though writers don't have to, either.

Of course, if you are apublished novelist, you are considered to have made shedloads of cash. Never mind that only seven per cent of novelists make enough money to eat every day.

Thinking of the book title: 'The loneliness of the Long Distance Runner', I could substitute the word 'Writer'. Yes, it's lonely and you've got to believe you will make it to the end, with a few spurts left in you, otherwise no-one will spareyou a glance.

Onefriend saidI was fortunate in being able to write at any time. Technically, this is true,but I can think creatively only at night. (I must have been a cave dweller in some otherlife, sitting in darkenss most of the time.) 'Oh,but if you can write, you can write', she persisted.

A creative stimulus is having a reader who likes your work. (I wrote poetry for the MA course, because the poetry tutor happened to walk into a lessonand saw some poetry I'dwritten for another class and began reading it closely. I immediately decided not to write the proposed novel and swapped to poetry, not having written another poem before. (Weird, what?)

I listened to Alison Pearson, who has sold more than a million copies of 'How Does She Do It?'talking In Patrick's Restaurant, Mumbles.Alison said that when urged by friends to write a book, she hadto tell them she did not havea story to write about (until her runaway success, of course).

This is the problem. Success breeds success. You have a best-seller? What do you do? You write another, simple as that. (Alison did - as a teenager, sheloved David Cassidy, so hey presto! she put it all down on paper). This is how it works, though Eysenk said it works best like this: success, failure, success, but let's not go into that now.

I have a theory; the writer is like a musical conductor: your task is to keep the musicians together (the charactersin the story) and keep the beat going (the pace and the excitement). If you can, you might have a best-seller. Good luck!

The pages of Americymru became heated last week following an appeal on the site to sign a petition against the siting of an exhibition about the Princes of Gwynedd in a public toilet, which was felt to be disrespectful and demeaning to Welsh history. Some comments were passionate reflecting the deep offence that had been taken; others saw it as an opportunity to make toilet jokes, and others thought it was justified if it meant keeping a public convenience open in these days of cutbacks and closures of such facilities. Because I live only 20 minutes away I decided to visit the site, to take some pictures and let people make their own conclusion when given more information.

I was very impressed with the exhibition, which was located not in the toilet but in an old pump-house (Ty Pwmp) on the edge of the conservation area in Abergwyngregyn village. It was financed by Cadw, Snowdonia National Park, Countryside Commission for Wales, The Welsh Government and others and was formally opened by the local AM Alun Ffred Jones on 11 November. It was located alongside the stream that runs from Aber Falls a couple of miles distant in beautifully landscaped surroundings. The building itself is rather nondescript, but inside it is well-lit and there are beautifully produced and interpreted panels about the Princes of Gwynedd. In one corner of the room there is public toilet cubicle but it is clearly just an amenity in the facility. Any exhibition, museum or gallery contains a public toilet and I think it was mendacious of some of the critics to say this exhibition had been located in a toilet.

I studied Welsh history at Bangor University and I didn't see anything on the panels that conflicted with what I had been taught. I understand that some scholars take issues with some of the interpretation but this is an exhibition for the general public and does not go into great levels of scholarship. My wife came with me on our visit and she thoroughly enjoyed the exhibition. She would never claim to be knowledgeable about Welsh history but felt she had come away with new knowledge that the Princes had a palace just a short distance from our home.

One of the great things about living in Gwynedd has been how often one meets interpretive plaques and how much help they are to understanding the area in which we live. I have learned a lot about South Stack, the burial chamber at Bryn Celli Du, the Llys at Newborough, and about the Dinorwig quarry area from the excellent interpretation provided in Parc Padarn. I believe the interpretation in the Ty Pwmp in Abergwngregyn makes a huge contribution to the understanding of the Heritage of the Princes of Gwynedd.

Believing that a picture is worth 1000 words, I append below a series of pictures taken today at the exhibition and Id be very interested to hear what others think.