On his visit with us, Phil Rowlands brought us a great little statue of a coal miner and a little girl. It's called "The Welcome," it's carved out of Welsh coal and has a plaque on it which says it's part of the "Coal Heritage Collection." You can find these on Welsh gift sites but I wasn't able to find out who makes them. It's a great little statute and it's cool to hold it here in Oregon and know it's made of real Welsh coal.

I loaded up an image of the whole piece and three close-ups. Click on the pix to see full size. Because it's all black and shiny, it was a fun challenge to light and shoot to get any detail!

I have to massively thank Chris Keil, who brought us a whole fifth of delicious Penderyn Welsh whisky, and, amazingly, there was still some left when the guys all flew out of town. If you haven't ever had this, it's really good and smooth. And Mike Jenkins, who gave my daughter, Aria, an avid reader, a signed copy of his new book, Question Island , from Alun Books in Port Talbot, which she was very happy to get and took in to school to show off the next day.