Blogs
Two Welsh clergymen will receive one of Chile's highest honours for their part in returning a set of historic bells there.
The Bells of Santiago were transported across the Atlantic from All Saints Church in Mumbles last year.
The Chilean Ambassador to the UK, Tomas Muller Sproat, will attend a service at the church near Swansea later.
Read more and see more photos here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-12607117
New research has revealed Anglesey was still connected to the mainland less than 6,000 years ago.
Hunter-gatherer humans were giving way to settled farmers when the Menai Strait became a permanent fixture between 5,800 and 4,600 years ago.
Mike Roberts, a mature student from Amlwch, discovered this while completing a PhD at Bangor University's School of Ocean Sciences.
Read about his discoveries and this interesting history here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/northwestwales/hi/front_page/newsid_9410000/9410706.stm
A drilling rig located in the Menai Strait faciltated the research
As you may have noted from an earlier announcement we have transitioned to the weekly leaderboard for our monthly Top Blogger adjudication. Henceforth the winner will be decided on the basis of their ranking and points in the final weekly leaderboard of the month. Posts which were published in preceding months will be discounted. The reasons for this are twofold. Firstly the weekly leaderboards are much more responsive and competitive and secondly the monthly board has some strange quirks. In particular it insists on ranking a few ancient posts that have received no 'Likes' comments or recent traffic.
So without further ado here are this months winners:-
1. Mona Everett 43 points ( 23 ranking points plus 10 for quantity, Mona has been our most prolific blogger this month, plus 10 points for traffic, our stats indicate that Mona's posts have been very well received )
2. Peter Freeman 30 points ( 20 ranking points plus 10 for quality, the 'quality' points were awarded for Peter's 'Saint David , The Patron saint of Wales' post which combined personal reflection with historical fact in a highly engaging and informative manner )
3. Rhianne Griffiths 19 points ( 19 ranking points )
Fabulous digital prizes will be awarded to our three winners today and Mona will receive a copy of Niall Griffith's, 'The Dreams Of Max And Ronnie'. We will be announcing next months Top Blogger prize shortly. To view the current weekly leaderboard and peruse the rules of the competition go to this page
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This Months Prize
- 'The Dreams of Max And Ronnie' by Niall Griffiths
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Iraq-bound young squaddie Ronnie takes something dodgy and falls asleep for three nights in a filthy hovel where he has the strangest of dreams. He watches the tattoed tribes of modern Britain assemble to speak with a grinning man playing war games. Arthurian legend merges with its twenty-first century counterpart in a biting commentary on leadership, individualism and the divisions in British society. Meanwhile Cardiff gangsta Max is fed up with life in his favourite nightclub, Rome, and chases a vision of the perfect woman in far flung parts of his country.
http://www.serenbooks.com/book/the-dreams-of-max-and-ronnie/9781854115027?cid=176
Extracts from letters written
To localcouncils:
1. It's the dogs mess that I find hard to swallow.
2. I want some repairs done to my cooker as it has backfired and burnt my knob off.
3. I wish to complain that my father twisted his ankle very badly when he put his foot in the hole in his back passage.
4. Their 18 year old son is continually banging his balls against my fence.
5. I wish to report that tiles are missing from the outside toilet roof. I think it was bad wind the other day that blew them off.
6. My lavatory seat is cracked, where do I stand?
7. I am writing on behalf of my sink, which is coming away from the wall.
8. Will you please send someone to mend the garden path. My wife tripped and fell on it yesterday and now she is pregnant.
9. I request permission to remove my drawers in the kitchen.
10. 50% of the walls are damp, 50% have crumbling plaster, and 50% are just plain filthy.
11. I am still having problems with smoke in my new drawers.
12. The toilet is blocked and we cannot bath the children until it is cleared.
13. Will you please send a man to look at my water, it is a funny colour and not fit to drink.
14. Our lavatory seat is broken in half and now is in three pieces.
15. I want to complain about the farmer across the road. Every morning at 6am his cock wakes me up and it's now getting too much for me.
16. The man next door has a large erection in the back garden, which is unsightly and dangerous.
17. Our kitchen floor is damp. We have two children and would like a third, so please send someone round to do something about it.
18. I am a single woman living in a downstairs flat and would you please do something about the noise made by the man on top of me every night.
19. Please send a man with the right tool to finish the job and satisfy my wife.
20. I have had the clerk of works down on the floor six times but I still have no satisfaction.
21. This is to let you know that our lavatory seat is broke and we can't get BBC2.
22. My bush is really overgrown round the front and my back passage has fungus growing in it.
23. He's got this huge tool that vibrates the whole house and I just can't take it anymore.
Happy St David's Day to everyone over in America. It seems that people further away from home make more of an effort to celebrate than we do in the UK.
Enjoy.
Neil Frederick (Norfolk UK)
Firstly, .............. Congratulations to the Americymru team for all their hard toil in keeping this website alive and kicking, what a treasure you have created for Welsh people everywhere to share .... 3 cheers ... Oggi, oggi, oggi!
Ar Dydd Gwyl Dewi Sant I shout about patriotism
"Wales is clearly a distinct society within the United Kingdom" ~ Jeannine Farhi
On St David's Day 1990 my daughter had her picture taken in school to celebrate the event ... this is happening NOW in schools across Wales. Little ones are being photographed in Welsh National Costume and are being reminded of their Welsh heritage and I hope the whole of the school day is being devoted to this necessary activity.
My daughter happened to be born in St John's Hospital Chelmsford in Essex because at that time I was working as a Lecturer at Braintree College. By the time she was two-and-half years old we returned to Wales because I felt very strongly that she should have the opportunity to develop strong bonds with her Welsh family, and she should learn to speak Welsh.
It was an easy decision when she reached three years old, to send her to the local Welsh Nursery despite the fact she hadn't heard Welsh spoken (apart from brief visits back to Mamgu in Ystradgynlais, while on holiday) . When the opportunity arrived for her to attend full-time education at the age of three-and-a-half years old she automatically entered the Welsh School. It was amusing to hear her speak English with an Essex accent, imagine my joy and amusement then when she began to sing Welsh traditional children's songs like 'Ar Lan Y Mor' , ' Gee geffyl bach ', 'Me welais Jac a do', 'Un bys, dau fys, tri bys yn dawnsio' !
Young children are capable of incredible feats of learning if all the right factors are in place: most prominent of all is the loving encouragement of the family. At the end of the first term in the Welsh School at Rhydaman she had acquired not only the ability to speak Welsh fluently but to read, comprehend and write fluently too! Thanks to Mrs Adams athrawes dosbarth y babanod, wife of the local vet, who patiently took charge of Cerys' Welsh language education. She loved you SO much!
Mission successful!
I have many interesting Welsh flavoured videos to recommend to you today, to celebrate Dydd Gwyl Dewi Sant.
Happy St. David's Day to all you Brythonic Traditionalists of the Christian stripe.
And here's your bara brith recipe http://historicalfoods.com/5288/bara-brith-recipe/ .
Anyone have a good recipe for teisen bach?
Another Greeting to pass along, with the added benefit of a couple of Welsh Trivia Quizzes:
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