Blogs
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.
...
...
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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A Famous Welshman: Sir Thomas Picton, hero or villain?
Purely by chance, just as I was putting the finishing touches to my new novel, I came across the furore in the media about the status and reputation of Sir Thomas Picton, who figures very prominently in the story. He was one of Wellingtons closest lieutenants in the Battle of Waterloo, and the most senior officer to be killed in the battle. Wellington obviously disliked him intensely, and was not very supportive of the idea that he should be treated as a national hero and buried in St Pauls Cathedral -- but he was without doubt a very effective tactician and leader of men, and Wellington obviously valued him as a soldier who could be trusted to deliver on the battlefield. He was uncultured, foul-mouthed, and short tempered, and was clearly very different in temperament from many of the other army officers of the time, who more often than not came from the ranks of the gentry.
Sir Thomas made his reputation in the West Indies, where he was eventually appointed Governor of Trinidad -- which had been annexed by the British from Spain. As Governor, he ruled with a rod of iron on the principle of Let them hate me, as long as they fear me. He was sadistic and brutal, and used torture and summary executions without trial as a matter of course, to maintain peace on the slave plantations and in the mixed population of free people of mixed races, in which the white settlers were very much in the minority. He claimed that everything he did was in the national interest and was designed for the upkeep of law and order, but a buildup of resentment against his brutal and sadistic regime came to a head when he authorized the torture of a mulatto girl called Louisa Calderon, who was either 13 or 11 years old at the time. She was tortured by a method called picketing -- so as to obtain a confession from her. She was tortured on two successive days, and then imprisoned in irons for a further 8 months. Picton was recalled to Britain and prosecuted, and in a famous court case in 1806 he had to face the wrath of William Garrow, the most famous barrister of the day (as seen on BBC TV!) charged with the torture of a free child. He was found guilty, but powerful allies (including many plantation owners) rallied to his cause and obtained a retrial, at which he was acquitted on the technicality that although the British were in charge on the island, Spanish law still applied! That was of course ludicrous, and Pictons reputation was destroyed.........
Later on he sought to redeem himself through service to his country, and by invitation from Wellington, he resumed his military career, being closely involved in the campaign against Napoleon in Spain and Portugal.
In Trinidad, and in many other places as well, Picton is seen as a brutal thug who should never have held high office and been given a place in St Pauls Cathedral, let alone honoured in place names in Wales and on the island which he terrorised. Streets and even a large secondary school in Haverfordwest are named after him, and of course there is the impressive Picton Monument in Carmarthen -- and one might ask with some justification whether his achievements on the battlefield were sufficient for him to be accorded this level of respect. There is a portrait of him in the Carmarthen court room, and some people who have a real respect for our principles of justice want it removed, in the light of the fact that in his lifetime he applied summary justice, terrorised a whole community, and showed a cavalier disregard for the law. The campaigners have a point.
A message from the dotCYM Campaign.
"Dear supporter,
It's with a heavy heart that I contact you today to inform you that dotCYM Ltd. will most probably be unable to apply for a top-level domain (TLD), .cymru, for Wales.
Instead of working with dotCYM to create a strong application for a top-level domain for Wales, the Government has invited Oxford-based Nominet, the company running .uk domains, to come to Wales to compete against dotCYM for governmental support, thus allowing it to kill the local competition and protect its monopoly of the UK market. Since Friday (9th December) there's a public invitation for any company to compete for the ownership and control of the Welsh name online ( http://sell2wales.co.uk/notices/display.html?NoticeId=28474 ).
As a social enterprise dotCYM was set up specifically to work closely with the Government to deliver a successful TLD that was accountable to the Welsh people. It does not have the financial or human resources to compete against a large, wealthy corporation that seeks to protect its monopoly of the market - especially when it has strong civil service and government support.
Any large company in the world can now compete for Welsh Government support to own and run the Welsh name online. As far as we're aware Wales is the only community to do this. The London, Scottish, Breton, Basque and Galician governments are all understandably protective of their top-level domains so they all work closely with local companies to run them and only outsource the technical services. dotCYM has worked with the Government for four years in the same way but the situation changed when Edwina Hart became the minister responsible for a Welsh top-level domain.
The probability is that Nominet will win and it will apply for a .wales. It may be persuaded to apply for .cymru as well but, since it's not accountable to anyone, no one will be able to ensure that they market it or manage it well. Nominet will own the TLD and Wales will never be able to recover ownership or control.
Please read a more detailed summary of recent events below with more information on how you can help. Without help from its supporters and politicians dotCYM can't stop the Government and Nominet from acting against the wishes of the majority of the Welsh community worldwide.
Contact maredudd@dotcym.org for more information on how you can help.
Follow us on Twitter ( @dotcymru ).
Contact your politicians and the press and make your views heard.
Forward this email on to anyone who would be interested and supportive.
Thanks for your continued support over the years
Maredudd ap Gwyndaf
Director, dotCYM
*******************
dotCYM has been ready for years to apply for a TLD. The company was structured to ensure that it was accountable to the Welsh community. The technical side was ready to sell domains worldwide. dotCYM has even secured a $185,000 loan to pay for the application in case the Welsh Government reneged on its promise of a loan.
dotCYM were, however, unable to convince the civil servants that Wales should have its own TLD, run from Wales, by the Welsh and accountable to the Welsh people. "What's wrong with .uk?", "why don't we just get Nominet to do it for free? ". The civil servants showed no ambition or imagination. No understanding of top-level domains and no urge to work towards bringing innovation, expertise, jobs and money to Wales.
Unfortunately, before the submission date was announce by ICANN, the governing body of names on the Internet, (12th January 2012 - 12th April 2012) there was a change of government. dotCYM warned Plaid Cymru and Ieuan Wyn Jones, who was the minister responsible for a TLD for Wales, that unless they took urgent steps to guarantee that the Welsh TLD would be run from Wales there was a high risk that the new Labour minister would approach Nominet to apply for a .wales.
Nothing was done. Edwina Hart became the Minister responsible and she has refused to talk to or meet dotCYM and the civil servants approached Nominet to bring them into the game.
Carwyn Jones and Edwina Hart have stated that the Welsh Government has no interest in doing anything except for giving one applicant the "letter of no objection" that is needed as part of the application. It is unheard of for a Government to show so little interest in its own top-level domain. The London, Scottish, Basque, Galician and Breton Governments are working very close with their local applications for their names online.
Nominet has commissioned London Economics, LE Cymru and YouGov to create a document that shows that the name of the TLD should be .wales instead of .cymru, although the majority of the people of Wales want a .cymru. Instead of doing its own research the Government seems to be clinging on to every word of this research document. Yes, since the civil servants don't understand TLDs the Government is taking advice from the document commissioned by the corporation trying to protect its monopoly of the market! dotCYM has never been consulted and there is no one else to questions Nominet's misleading polls and research.
Last Friday the Government invited potential applicants to compete for the letter of no objection that's required from the Government as a part of the application to ICANN ( http://sell2wales.co.uk/notices/display.html?NoticeId=28474 ).. With a deadline of 6th of January, just three weeks away and over the Christmas holidays, this makes it almost impossible for dotCYM to find the 300,000 investment it needs and so the civil servants and the Government have successfully paved the way for Nominet, an Oxford-based company, to take ownership and control of .wales (and they may go for .cymru as well if forced to). Once Nominet owns Wales' name and brand online, the Welsh will never regain control of it. Nominet are not accountable to the Welsh people in any way. They can create a Welsh front with an Advisory Committee and even open an office in Wales with a token Welsh-speaker to give phone support, but that doesn't change the fact that the policy will be decided by people foreign to the Welsh community.
Of course, as well as losing ownership and control of our TLD, this will result in the loss of the jobs, special expertise and money that would have come into Wales.
Nominet has tried to persuade the London and Scottish governments that it should own and run their TLDs. Both rejected the idea and are working with local companies to deliver a successful TLD. Nominet may eventually run the technical side of .london but it would not own and control it. The Bretons, Basques and Galicians are doing the same - a local company, accountable to the people it represents, cooperating closely with the Government. But this is not the case in Wales where there was no support or interest in a local initiative.
It's very unlikely that dotCYM will be able to put a bid up against Nominet on the 6th of January. Even with the big potential return of investment we've found that companies can't make decisions quickly enough to turn this around before the deadline. If someone has access to money that they are able to invest, please contact us.
All hope is not lost. A top level-domain is not a devolved issue; the last word resides in London. The real letter of no objection must come from Ed Vaizey, the Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries. dotCYM hopes that the Conservative and Liberal Democrat politicians can show the leadership needed here to try to save this grave injustice and ensure the Welsh keep control of their name online.
You, as dotCYM's supporters, have as much power as dotCYM now to try to make the Government realise the error of its ways and keep control in Wales and ensure that there's an application for a .cymru as well as a .wales. dotCYM had the resources to apply for and run a TLD but not to compete against Nominet. Your help is now vital.
You can contact your local AM and MP. More Labour politicians need to become aware of the situation and Conservative and Lib Dem politicians can put pressure on the UK Government. The Department of Culture, Media and Sport in London has experts in Internet governance that understand the importance of community TLD applications such as ours to increase diversity and competition on the Internet. Since this is not a devolved issue it's important that they realise that it's their responsibility to ensure that Wales gets the TLD it wants and needs and not one that has its policy decided in Oxford.
For more details on the situation or information on how you can help please contact me ( maredudd@dotcym.org ) and follow us on Twitter ( @dotcymru )
Please forward this email on to anyone who would be interested or supportive"
