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The winner for this year's Left Coast Eisteddfod Lovespoon is Kathy Bushman of Milwaukie, Oregon!

Kathy is an AmeriCymru member and purchased her winning ticket at this year's Night of the Living Bards event in Portland, Oregon. "I've never won anything in my life and this is so beautiful, I can't believe it's mine! Thank you so much and thank you so much to the artists who made this!"

This is the second year for the Left Coast Eisteddfod and the Left Coast Eisteddfod Lovespoon, a custom started by artist David Western of British Columbia, who was joined this year by artist Laura Jenkins-Gorun , of Ohio. David has been a well-known lovespoon carver for many years, his work has been commissioned all over the world and appears in museum collections, including St. Fagans in Wales, he teaches carving and is the author of Fine Art of Carving Lovespoons .

We very gratefully thank David and Laura for their very great contribution to the Left Coast Eisteddfod, for their hard work and their incredible, incomparable art.

This Year's Spoon

The term Sin Eater does sound like the title of a dodgy horror film. In fact perhaps it is. I wouldnt know. But I came across it in a news item on the BBC last month (September 2010)
It is a fascinating idea and perhaps you will not be surprised to learn that this ancient tradition survived in the east of Wales and just over the border in Shropshire and Herefordshire longer than anywhere else. Indeed, it was still practiced into the early 20th century.
It is a bizarre adoption process I suppose. After a death someone would be paid to eat and drink over the body. As a result of the ritual the sin eater would take on the sins of the dead person and their soul would then be able to rest, free of sin. The church wasnt that keen on the idea but often the local vicar would turn a blind eye in order to keep his parishioners happy.
Often the ritual was performed by a beggar, although some villages had a resident sin-eater. They would turn up at the bedside, where a relative would place a crust of bread on the chest of the dying and pass a bowl of beer to him. I imagine that if you thought you were just a bit under the weather and the sin eater was lurking in the background, waiting for a snack, you would start to worry. Anyway, after praying or reciting the ritual, he would then drink and eat the bread, thus adopting the sins of the dying.
As I said, it was mentioned on the BBC in connection with the grave of Richard Munslow who died in Ratlinghope in 1906. The grave stone has recently been restored since he was a well known farmer in the area who had a second career as a sin eater, munching on scraps of bread whilst others squabbled about the inheritance. I would have thought that for those with rather more interesting lives, a three course meal would have been more appropriate than a dry crust in order to absolve them of sin, but perhaps I am being unkind. However, I have to say it is odd to think that this sort of thing was going on in the lifetime of my grandparents.
I end this piece with this passage by B.S. Puckle in a book called Funeral Customs (1926) which goes to show how odd people can be.

"Professor Evans of the Presbyterian College, Carmarthen, actually saw a sin-eater about the year 1825, who was then living near Llanwenog, Cardiganshire. Abhorred by the superstitious villagers as a thing unclean, the sin-eater cut himself off from all social intercourse with his fellow creatures by reason of the life he had chosen; he lived as a rule in a remote place by himself, and those who chanced to meet him avoided him as they would a leper. This unfortunate was held to be the associate of evil spirits, and given to witchcraft, incantations and unholy practices; only when a death took place did they seek him out, and when his purpose was accomplished they burned the wooden bowl and platter from which he had eaten the food handed across, or placed on the corpse for his consumption"

A bit mean when all is said and done. You provide a valuable service and this is how you are treated. No wonder that as a career option it never really caught on.

We have been making the most of the glorious late Autumn sunshine here on Gower.

As soon as the dog-ban is lifted on the wonderful beaches we take the three Yorkies down to the local beaches for a blast on the expanse of sand at low tide. Many are less than 10 minutes drive by car.

The fishermen were hoping to catch Bass on Caswell Bay .... yesterday we talked to fishermen on the pier alongside where the Cork Ferry docks in Swansea Docks, and they were catching Ray, Plaice and Eels!

I love this photo and I hope you like it too!

Rhianne

Welsh and Welsh American authors at Wordstock, Portland 2010.....from left to right Peter Griffiths , Lorin Morgan Richards , Niall Griffiths , Chris Keil

Niall Griffiths and Deb Jones Taff'ing up Wordstock, tidy!

Lorin Morgan-Richards shows off his " 13 Disturbing Postcards to Send to Your Grandparents "

We have received the following adjudication from our judge, Peter Thabit Jones:-

"The winner and the runner up in the AmeriCymru Left Coast Eisteddfod Poetry Competition (English language) are:

Iberia by Bruce Lader FIRST PRIZE

He Paints by Jolen Whitworth SECOND PRIZE

I would also like to say that the poems by Elnaz Rezaei Ghalechi and Darrell Lindsey should be noted as poems that were in my thoughts during the final adjudication stages. All the poems submitted by Bruce Lader and Jolen Whitworth are controlled, crafted, and successful poems. In the end, the two awarded the prizes kept calling me back.

It has been a real pleasure and a good experience judging all the entries for this years competition."

Many thanks Peter and Congratulations/Llongyfarchion to our winners, Bruce Lader and Jolen Whitworth. Read the winning entries here:-

Iberia by Bruce Lader