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In North Wales, we have experienced high pressure weather conditions over the last couple of days which has brought sunshine and great visibility. This has allowed the full majesty of the Northern Snowdonia scenery to be appreciated.
Similar images to be found at http://www.thesnowdonian.com
On 19th February 1881, Wales played their first ever rugby international, against England at Blackheath’s, Richardson ’s Field.
The game is noted for it's chaotic organisation and it didn't help that the RFU insisted that the match was played on the same day that Swansea were playing Llanelli in a semi-final cup-tie thus depriving Wales of several players. The players had never played together before and one player, Major Richard Summers from Haverfordwest was selected on the performances for his school.
As no formal invitations to play were sent out, two of those expected to play didn't turn up and two bystanders, with tenuous Welsh links were roped in to play, so the final team that took to the pitch consisted of 8 Welshmen, 4 Englishmen, 2 Irishmen and an Australian.
Major Summers described the playing kit as being light walking boots, high-necked jerseys and buttoned blue knickers. The changing rooms were in a pub and the teams had to walk half a mile to game, before which, rumour has it that the Welsh team had been drinking heavily.
Needless to say, the Welsh team lost heavily, 82-0 under modern scoring values. It could have been worse as England had a try disallowed when England captain Lennard Stokes put Hunt in for a score by throwing a colossal pass, the umpires deciding that a long pass was not fair play.
The Welsh connection to Kellogg's Corn Flakes;
Kellogg's was founded as the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company on February 19th 1906, by Will Keith Kellogg.
On one of her overseas trips in 1922, Nansi Richards, the internationally acclaimed Welsh harpist, visited the home of Will Kellogg, who was looking for a marketing idea for his cornflakes. It is said that Nansi suggested a pun on the name Kellogg and the Welsh word "ceiliog", meaning "cockerel". Will Kellogg liked the idea and Cornelius Rooster was born and has appeared on packs of Kellogg's Corn Flakes ever since.
Born this day 1942, in Cardiff
Sir Howard Stringer, Chairman of the Board and former CEO of Sony Corporation.
After graduating from Oxford University, he moved to the United States, where after six weeks he was draughted into the United States Army and served in the Vietnam War. Afterwards he joined CBS and rose from a job answering backstage phones for The Ed Sullivan Show to become president, during which time he won nine Emmys. In 1997, he joined Sony and in 2005, was appointed as chairman and CEO.
Born this day 1906, in Barry
Grace Williams, who is regarded as one of Wales' most important composers.
Williams was a pupil at the Royal College of Music and at Wellesz in Vienna. She wrote mostly orchestral and choral music and early in her career was influenced by Vaughan Williams and Elgar. She is best known for her orchestral Fantasy on Welsh Nursery Tunes (1940) and Sea Sketches (1944) and became the first British woman to score a feature film, with Blue Scar. In 1966, she turned down an offer of the OBE for her services to music.
On 19th February 1766, Thomas Kymer was granted an Act of Parliament allowing him to construct the Kidwelly and Llanelli Canal.
The Kidwelly and Llanelli Canal with an adjoining tramroad was, built to carry anthracite coal from Little Gwendraeth River, near Kidwely to the coast for onward transportation. It originally linked pits at Pwll y Llygod, near Trimsaran, to a dock near Kidwelly, but as the entrance to the dock was subject to silting, an extension of the canal to Llanelli was authorised in 1812.
Clement Edward Davies - leader of the Liberal Party from 1945 to 1956.
On 19th February 2011, the first public passenger train operated between Caernarfon and Porthmadog Harbour over the restored Welsh Highland Railway.
The Welsh Highland Railway or Rheilffordd Eryri is a 25-mile long restored narrow gauge heritage railway which passes through Beddgelert and the Aberglaslyn Pass.
The original Welsh Highland Railway was formed in 1922 as a replacement for the horse pulled Croesor Tramway which had run from Porthmadog since 1863 up into the Croesor Valley and the slate quarries in the area. It closed in 1933 as its carriages were outdated and uncomfortable and the service had a reputation for being unreliable.
On 19th February 2013, the sky above the Brecon Beacons National Park became the first area in Wales and only the fifth in the World to be granted the status of international dark sky reserve by the International Dark-Sky Association.
In a Word
Our lives begin and end with a word.
I do, I will, I promise, I give. Amen.
The Greeks would know whatI mean:
Beginning and end. Alpha and Omega.
Crystal and clear. Nothing absurd.
Life is a quest for words plucked from time.
I love, you love, he, she, it loves.
Only words will spell you what I mean,
Something simple, Amo, Amas, Amat.
A mixture from another tongue
Andlife goes on because of that.
Born on this day 1936 in Rhuddlan.
Philip Jones Griffiths - a photojournalist. known for his coverage of the Vietnam war, which helped turn public opinion against it and is now regarded as a classic series of photojournalism.
Born on this day 1901 in Bedwellty, Monmouthshire
William James Owen - a miner and politician, whose parliamentary career was ended with his trial under the Official Secrets Act for giving state secrets to Czechoslovakia.
Born this day 1967, in Cardiff
Colin Jackson, CBE is a Welsh former athlete who won an Olympic silver medal at the 1988 games in Seoul for the 110 m hurdles and became world champion three times, His world record of 12.91 seconds stood for over a decade. He now works as a sports commentator and television presenter and came second in the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing in 2005. He is the brother of actress Suzanne Packer who stars in the BBC hospital drama Casualty.
Born this day 1899, in Pembroke
Mervyn Johns, an actor who appeared regularly in the films of the Ealing Studios. He also made many television appearances, such as in The Avengers, Danger Man and Dixon of Dock Green.
Born this day 1900, in Neath.
Cecil "CR" Griffiths, who won an Olympic Gold medal at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics, running the opening leg for the victorious British 4×400 metre relay team.
Griffiths was not able to compete in the 1924 Games in Paris, as he had been reported for accepting a fee for running in an exhibition race, meaning that he was no longer an amateur.
James Morgan (1776– 18 February 1856) was an architect and engineer, notably associated with the construction of the Regent's Canal in London.
Morgan is thought to have been born in Carmarthen, where he became employed by architect John Nash as an engineer in the building of Regent's Park and Regent's Canal across Central London. Morgan subsequently designed and supervised the building of bridges, tunnels and docks with perhaps his most notable achievements being the Maida Hill and Islington tunnels.
Eli J. Finkel is not a name I am familiar with. An American psychology professor he's an expert on successful marriages and has written a book about it.
The path to true happiness liesin going overold arguments, apparently. (Yes, I think I've got that right.)Analysing the disagreements will reveal the cause of them. Sounds good, yah! Not your averagefun- guy,perhaps, buthe has statistics behind him.
I know someonesimilar to him, though.Any family disagreement is recordedin her diary so, if the matter is brought up again, she 'knows exactly' who said what.(I don't know what herhobbies are).
Peter and I never analysed our arguments - I doubt we could haverememebered them, anyway, and I have always held to the dictum"Bury the Bones".Although we do not think alike in any way, we rarely disagree. It might bebecause we know each other's views on things.
Despite the fact everything was stacked against us: I was very young, (sixteen), my parents were divorced, Peter was an only child and he was nine years older than me, we have survived. Studies carried out on these factorspointto a white knuckle ride that can only end in disaster.
We are two very different people. (If Peter banged his head on something, my first reaction would be to laugh, because that's how I am. If I banged my head, he'd worry that my brain had stuck to my skull or something equally awful.We cannot change our personalities. He's an introvert but I am Pisces andcan be quiet or gregarious.
So what steered us away from divorce, apart from the obvious things like love and attraction?
I remember one incident, which he has forgotten, butwhich was pivotal for me. We had been married two years and were invited to adinner/ dance.I wanted to go, he did not (he hates that type of thing). I can't rememberwhat I said but I was annoyed.
Later that evening I feltworried about what I'd said and asked him if he was going to divorce me because of it.
He wasastonished and saidhe would never divorce me, no matter whatI said or did. 'And don't mentiondivorce again', he added, 'we've only had a disagreement.'
Although we'd promised for 'ever and ever' when we married I did know, young as I was, that things went wrong for people far more mature than myself.
Peter'swords were like a renewal of our weddingvows after we'd 'road- tested' our marriage. Theygave methe security to express my opinions without fear.Ialso understood that ifwe disagreedwe were able to come toa compromiseabout it.Both sides give a little, yes?
On this day 1912 Edgar Evans perished on the return journey from the South Pole
Edgar Evans was born at Middleton on Gower on the 7th March 1876. He attended St. Helen's Boys School before joining the Royal Navy in 1891, at the age of fifteen. His first experience of polar exploration was between 1901-04 when he joined the National Antarctic Expedition whose brief was to seek out mineral wealth for the British Empire. The officer in command, Captain R.F.Scott was so impressed with Evans' ingenuity, strength and courage that he invited him to join the British Antarctic Expedition's attempt to reach the South Pole (1910-13).
The five-man team reached the Pole on 17th January, 1912 only to discover that Amundsen had beaten them to it. Demoralised and suffering from the effects of a poor diet and inadequate equipment, the team perished on the return journey, Edgar Evans was the first to die. His widow, Lois, had a plaque placed, in his memory, in the church at Rhossili and Evans is also remembered at the naval shore establishment on Whale Island, Portsmouth, where the Edgar Evans Building was the first to be named after a petty officer rather than an admiral.
Born this day 1944, in Penclawdd, Gower
Karl Jenkins, CBE, musician and composer.
Jenkins, who began his musical career with the National Youth Orchestra of Wales, went on to to study music at Cardiff University and the Royal Academy of Music. He was known in his early career as a jazz musician, playing saxaphone, keyboards and oboe.
His album "Adiemus: Songs of Sanctuary" was No.1 in the classical album charts and "The Armed Man" was listed as No. 1 in Classic FM's "Top 10 by living composers". Jenkins is a fellow and an associate of the Royal Academy of Music, joint president of the British Double Reed Society and Patron of the International Choral Music Society.
Jenkins has also created several pieces of music for advertising and is best known in that field for composing the music for Levi's Jeans and Renault's "Papa, Nicole, advertisements.
Born on this day 1919 in Wardley, Tyne and Wear.
Jonah Jones - respected artist who worked in many media including slate, stone and stained and leaded glass, he also produced bronze busts and painted watercolours.
Although born in North East England, Jones is widely associated with Wales, as his father was of Welsh descent and he spent over 50 years working and living in Wales. His work was also greatly influenced by Welsh themes, such as the Mabinogion and the landscape of North Wales.
Jones is perhaps best remembered as a lettering artist, with his intricately carved inscriptions in Westminster Abbey for David Lloyd George and Dylan Thomas, good examples.
On 17th February 1976 - Operation Julie was launched at a meeting in Brecon, involving a number of chief constables and senior drug squad officers. It eventually resulted in the break-up of one of the largest LSD manufacturing operations in the world.
The subsequent drugs raid in 1977 on an LSD factory in mid-Wales discovered six million tabs, which was the largest stash of illegal drugs ever found and resulted in dozens of people being arrested.
There's a new homework 'guru' attracting publicity in the papers at the moment, Noel Janis-Norton. Shehas rules that help pupilsknuckle down totheir homework. In three weeks she can re-set bad habits, apparently.
The expert wants an hour's homeworka night for junior children, which I think excessive. Half an hour is surelyplenty after a day in school. Older children do have to work harder butI don't agree with week-end homework for any one.The rules include parental guidance and involvemen.
(This remindsme ofwhen I was inthe third form. My mother'sfriend reeled off all her daughter's exam marks from memory and thenmy mother asked me how I'd done in Latin.I toldher I'd 'dropped' it at the end of the first year and opted forFrench becauseI found iteasier. Ah, well, no harm done.)
I used to teacha Creative Writing module attended by (grown-up) students.The first time we met I asked themabout their aims and what they hoped to achieve. Then I showed themsamples of famous writers' work and askedif Icould see some oftheir workthe followingweek. This request was met withhurt and surprised looks. I soon discovered they disliked actually writing and sowe had to do it in class. Idon't know what they had expected- (a night out with a cup of tea, the warden told me.)
The class wasin a Portacabin and one night there was a parents' evening in the school to which we were attached. I'd seen parents rushing into the school eagerly and recognised some from years ago, the very ones who had shown no interest as pupils but were brimming with hope and expectations for their children.
The paradox with some parents is, that while they did not enjoy school themselves, they look to their children to give them a sort of second chance, even becoming 'pushy' parents.
My two children had different attitudes to homework. My older daughterwas a worrier and I had to tell her to put her books away. We both enjoyed poetry, not always school work, andwe often read a poem together atnight. I particularly liked'In Xanadu did Kubla Khana pleasure dome decree'.
My younger daughter's approach was different. Homework was tackled lying on the carpet, books in front of her,watching television. There was no poetry. She held to the opinion that there was no need for a long word when a short one was adequate. (I think she had a notebook with that inscription on it and it suited her style admirably.)
Whenexam revision was necessary we used a baby intercom, from her bedroom to mine. I'd get a buzz on the intercom to alert me to start asking the questions. In this way Ilearnt quite a bit about Boudicca, the warrior queen.
How to do I pronounce, phonetically, the word Ychwanegol?
My website is North Wales Extra which, according to my website translation tool it's called North Wales Additional, which I don't mind as it means the same thing, but saying the word ' Ychwanegol' is a tough one.
But I would like to know how to pronounce my own website name! uch I get, I get uch, but wanegol loses me. Is it wane gol, wan-egg-ol, wan-ey-gol?
I can do all the ch's and ll's but phonetics is my issue. The full phrase is 'Gogledd Cymru Ychwanegol.' Can I be helped or am I past redemption? 
Diolch in advance.
Born this day 1922 in Cilfynydd.
Sir Geraint Evans - world famous operatic baritone.
Geraint Evans started work at the age of 14 as errand-boy for a ladies' outfitter in Pontypridd, whilst taking singing lessons in Cardiff. During the war he served as a radio mechanic and afterwards launched his singing career, by joining the Covent Garden Opera Company in 1948. In 1959 he began a 24-year association with the San Francisco Opera and then in 1961 an equally fruitful connection with the Chicago Lyric Opera, he was made a Knight Bachelor in 1969. His greatest strength was said to be his ability to bring to life, uninspiring charcters with comic genius.
On this day 1953, Usk castle was made a Grade I listed building
Usk castle is situated on a site that the Romans established a fortress before moving it to Caerleon. The castle was thought to have been laid out by the Norman Marcher Lord, Richard Fitz Gilbert de Clare in 1120 in an attempt to control the newly taken area. The Welsh, however, took the castle in 1138, 1174, 1184 and again in 1233 by an alliance of Richard Marshall and Llywelyn the Great.
The rebellion of Owain Glyndwr brought significant conflict to the area as the town of Usk was burnt in 1402 and 1405, but the castle held out. After the rebellion, the castle passed to the Duchy of Lancaster and no further redevelopment or refortification was undertaken.
Born this day 1950, in Nairobi
Peter Hain, former MP for Neath and Secretary of State for Wales since 1991, who served as a minister for Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Hain came to the UK from South Africa as a teenager, where he was a noted anti-apartheid campaigner in the 1970s.
Born on this day 1859 at Cefnddwysarn near Bala.
Thomas Edward Ellis , usually known as T. E. Ellis, who was a politician and the leader of Cymru Fydd, a movement aimed at gaining home rule for Wales.
T. E. Ellis attended Bala Grammar School, the University of Wales, Aberystwyth and New College, Oxford, graduating in history in 1884.
On leaving Oxford, Ellis briefly went into journalism, before becoming private secretary to Liberal MP John Brunner. This took him to London and drew him closer to a political life and in 1886 he became Liberal MP for the Merionethshire constituency.
Ellis quickly became prominent as a spokesman for Welsh concerns and became the leader of the Cymru Fydd movement, working with Lloyd George to try and establish Home Rule for Wales. In 1892 when Gladstone formed a new administration, Ellis became Chief Whip, which meant that he had to withdraw from Cymru Fydd, whose leadership was taken over by Lloyd George and John Herbert Lewis (MP for Flint Boroughs).
Today, an asteroid wrongly named 2012, or maybe it is just late and should have been here last year, came an astonishingly close 17,200 miles from the earth. No- not 27,700kilometres (You may understand this decision if you have seen my previous missives...).
This evening, I am reliably informed, I should be able to look up into the night sky and somewhere near the plough see the passing of 2012. I thought that was a wish of my last New Years Eve, but I can understand that in these days of science fiction, there are many ways of seeing the passing of an era.
No, the night sky, which is actually quite clear this evening, should divulge some indication of the passing of an object universally measured as "the size of an Olympic swimming pool" to those with binoculars or small telescope. I do not intend to here dilate upon yet another system of measurement.
Well Susie has found our old binoculars in the mire and dust at the top of the basement stairs, and an hour washing and wiping have left them pristine and glistening. A nasty scare on the BBC News that the meteor had already passed Australia is put in its place as a mere rumour and the schedule is still that 2012 will pass over Llanelli between 9pm and 10pm this evening.
However, on the same day, no-one seems to have seen the link between this close passover and the real disaster in the Urals today, where a shooting star fell to earth, witnessed by so many vid cams and mobile phones, striking a frozen lake and injuring 950 people ( the current figure at 8.50pm )
Okay - the injuries are mainly cuts and bruises and the result of shattered glass, but video shows the shock wave knocking people over. The Street CCTV shows the glow as the "thing" passes - lighting up the sky. Mr Putin, the body builder leader of the metamorphosis of the USSR, promises help and Russian television is full of scared schoolchildren and Vox Pox.
However, I am totally surprised by the the lack of recognition from my Re-enactment, LARP and generally Geek friends.
I have seen this before - surely they have too?? Why am I alone in seeing what is really happening?? Is it really an age thing?
Turn back only a few decades.... well actually quite a few... 1976.
I so clearly recall the strange intervention onto the world of film when David Bowie became an enigmatic "Man who fell to Earth". Oh how we thrilled at the funny little globe thing that fitted into a small stand and played music which seemed to have no source!!!. Oh how we marvelled at the television images, not at a maximum 20 inches ( not centimetres!) but wall sized and almost, shock at the thought, in three dimensions.....
How we laughed at the ridiculous concept of private enterprise raising sufficient funds to put a commercial tourist rocket ship into space.... These things were pure science fiction and could never come to pass!
1976 (not 2012). But I also recall the start. A Meteor flying through night sky, lighting up the horizon.
All right - it was flying over the United States of America, but that was a geographical nicety, it was an American funded film, and was therefore filmed in that great country. It landed with a great explosion in a lake somewhere in the midst of remote states. Today, a flaming body passes over all those remote parts of the Urals ( they have a population but who would have thought ??) and then strikes a frozen lake in the middle of nowhere.
I am not saying that there is a connection. It is just an observation. But while we talk about 2012 passing so close that our Sat Nav satellites are further out in the night sky, my mind once again reviews the statements of the US Defense when they (laughingly) gave their reasons for not building a Death Star, and the claim that it was not Defense policy to blow up other planets. Was this their real reason??
9pm, and the sky over Llanelli has clouded over. I am not one to be paranoid, but it was crystal clear when I started writing this blog, and now, when I have the opportunity to examine more closely this body called 2012, the skies are misted and there is no way that I can examine the profile of the celestial body to see if it may be perfectly round, bristling with weapons, and hiding an asthmatic Goth leader.
No, I cannot investigate further here in Llanelli. But there are those out there who will strive for the truth. Those who may search the ice and waste of the Urals to see if we have and alien bristling with futuristic technology, or maybe an annoying golden robot and Dusty Bin on wheels.
I am not paranoid. Nor am I demented. But Mr Putin has said that he will sort everything out. The Pope has resigned. We are more worried in our press about the possibility that we are eating Horse Meat, than we are about the utterings of politicians which would better be described as bull***t. I have 200 channels on my satellite TV and nothing worth watching this evening, not even in the night sky....
They are among us!! And they do not want us to know ... tell your friends ...
