Blogs

The following article was posted on "True Miracles With Genealogy" by Anne Bradshaw in Decemeber of 2011. I am writing a book about my time spent in a children's home in Pennsylvania before my adoption in 1958. My book is due out next year.

http://truemiracleswithgenealogy.com/roots-resolved/

Janet L. Mancini

Just a couple of links to Welsh teacake recipes I found following on from the earlier conversation in chat. Including one that is billed as a low sodium recipe especially for Janet Mancini who was kind enough to share some of her mothers recipes with us earlier. Diolch Janet:--

Welsh Cakes

Welsh Tea Cakes

Welsh Cakes Low Sodium Recipe

Chocolate Gobs

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup spry or oleo

2 eggs

3/4 cup boiling water

1 cup buttermilk

4 cups flour

3 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup cocoa

Drop by spoonfuls on ungreased cookie sheet

Bake at 450 degrees for five minutes

Filling for Gobs

1 cup milk and 5 tablespoons flour

cook until thick and dry. let cool

cream together

1 cup powdered sugar

1 cup spry or oleo

1/2 cup oleo then add flour mixture and beat until smooth and fluffy.

fill cookies and roll in powdered sugar.

1/2 cup spry or oleo

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs (cream these 3 ingredients together)

2 ounces red food color

2 tablespoons cocoa (mix into paste)

1 cup buttermilk

2 cups cake flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon baking powder (sift dry ingredients together)

1 tablespoon vinegar

1 teaspoon baking soda (mix and fold into mixture)

Bake in 2 layers 8 or 9 inch pans

30 to 35 minutes in 350 degree oven

use favorite frosting

I get up and work out in the morning and watch "The Daily Show" with John Stewart (best political news show in the US ;p) and this morning Quincy Jones' daughter, Rashida Jones, was on talking about her new movie, "Celeste and Jesse Forever," and when she first sat down, this was her exchange with John Stewart:

STEWART: "You have, it's such a beautiful and unusual name Jones tell me about that?"

JONES: "Weirdly, it's Welsh."

STEWART: "Is it really?"

JONES: "It is."

STEWART: "Interesting!"

JONES: "For a long time, I thought, because my father is an African-American, that it was, maybe, a slave name, that happens, sometimes. But it's Welsh! We're Welsh!"

STEWART: "I spotted the Welsh in you from "

JONES: (laughing)

STEWART: "Look how excited you are to be Welsh!"

JONES: "I know!"

and I found from watching this that, besides being an actor and writer, she's also created a comic book - she's now my favorite celeb!

Finished at last! See www.maesg.org.uk for details... the sun was shining during our set-up; let's hope it shines on our 8 day venture

The summer holidays have begun and Pont Books are delighted to introduce The Gardening Pirates to children across the country.

On board the bad ship Ych-a-fi , times are hard and cruel Captain Cranc forces the crew to eat horrible ships biscuits while he is fed on octopus pies and squid omelettes.

One day, the pirates land on an island and follow Captain Cranc in search of treasure. But when they find the treasure chest, there is no gold the chest is filled with seeds, bags of compost and gardening tools

Without anybody noticing, cabin girl, Gwen smuggles the treasure back to the ship and secretly plants the vegetable seeds in the crows nest so that the pirates can have delicious and healthy meals. How will Captain Cranc react when he finds out? And what about the mysterious seed sowed in Gwens hat?

Chris Glynns wonderful illustrations add visual humour to the text and bring the story to life. It is a story to gladden the hearts of all seafarers and gardeners as good triumphs over bad when eventually Gwen becomes captain and Captain Cranc becomes the cabin boy.

This delightful picture book is the brainchild of author Ruth Morgan who worked with her partner, Chris Glynn, to develop the story. Ruth is an experienced author of books for children of all ages, from picture books for toddlers to teenage novels. She currently teaches in Penarth where she also lives . . . and gardens although, unlike Gwen, Ruths kitchen garden is firmly based on dry land. Chris is BA programme director at Cardiff School of Art and Design, UWIC, and is well-known as an illustrator, artist and animator.

The Gardening Pirates is available from all good bookshops and online retailers

Blodwen's Sale Now On!

School's out and Summer has arrived in Cardigan Bay.

Blodwen - Bringing thecraftsman's way of life to your way of living

An idiot on the Romney campaign t old a reporter for the London Telegraph that Romney would restore the unique relationship between the US and the UK and that the Obama White House failed to understand the "Anglo-Saxon heritage" the US and the UK share.

Let's excuse the obvious gaffe that Obama DOES have plenty of British Isles heritage and Irish specifically. How could anyone have missed Obama's rock star visit to Ireland ?! Many African-Americans DO have British ancestry also. Web and radio news are rightfully full of the anti-African American sentiments of this statementbut they're missing the equally prejudiced anti-Brit ignorance it betrays.

Nothing wrong with Germany, I have known and dearly loved many wonderful Germans but the Angles and Saxons were German and aren't the Brits Brits, not Germans?

DNA research has shown that British people are British, that British DNA has been in Britain since about the end of the last ice age or over 10,000 years, which predates the coming of the Anglo Saxon tribes (who contributed a bit of DNA to Britain) and the rise of the Celts in Europe (who also contributed a bit of DNA to Britain) by thousands of years. The differences between English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh peoples are historic, cultural and political, not genetic and they are not German or strictly speaking, European, they are British. (If you're Irish and you don't like being lumped in as "British", sorry, I just mean in the genetic context as in descended from peoples who migrated to the British Isles after the last Ice Age and I do know that Ireland is a separate country and not part of Britain or the UK) (would the right word for this be "Briton"?)

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/pf/1590652.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryan_Sykes#Blood_of_the_Isles

The pseudo-scientific idea that the English were "Anglo-Saxon" and that Scottish, Welsh and Irish people were "Celts" became very popular in the Victorian era and was used to justify discrimination against "Celts," including a once-popular belief that "Anglo-Saxons" were descended from Cro-Magnons and "Celts" from Neanderthals. We now know that we all have some Neanderthal DNA.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/05/100506-science-neanderthals-humans-mated-interbred-dna-gene/

Many great things have come from the Britain and Ireland. What's wrong with Brits being Brits and what's wrong with Welsh, English, Scottish and Irish heritage? I'm personally pretty proud of all of mine, as I would be of German heritage if I had it, which so far I've found that I don't.

What do you think?

Can anyone figure this acrostic out?

"Last year I had hoped that the medallion hunt would go right down to the wire,
Underestimating a youngster's natural and serendipitous instincts to search and inquire.
Thus as before, weigh each word, line by line, as you scamper over the hills and vales;
Since as you will discover, there is no acrostic this year, n'less ye' be from Wales!

Keep out of fenced in construction areas or those recently sown to become a grassy mat.
No trespassing on or in public buildings, but then most of you already "node" that.
Show respect and appreciation for YOUR public property as you go searching about -
Carry a bag to pick up any litter and trash that you may encounter upon your route."

See the thread here:- https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=433275916717664&id=259493370762587&notif_t=wall

What is an acrostic? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acrostic