Read about Welsh elements in the Royal Wedding and the Prince's love of Anglesey:

The Royal Couple

"The groom, Prince William of Wales. and his bride-to-be Catherine Middleton live on the Island of Anglesey, Wales. William has a job with the Royal Air Force (RAF). Known as Flight Lt. Wales, William is a helicopter pilot of RAF Valley in Anglesey where he helps out with mountain resuce, the coastguard and air amublancer serices.

"I am very much looking forward to spending the first part of married life on Anglesey, It's been a fantastic time, I have very much enjoyed it and so has Catherine; she has loved being here. We've had an extremely warm welcome, couldn't have asked for better... So I couldn't say anything more positive about Anglesey.."

Read more here ( pdf ):- Welsh Royal Wedding

There's only one week left in our 'help design the spoon' contest! So jump up off your backside, grab a pencil, unleash your creative 'inner-self' and sort out an entry or two - one of the easiest art projects you'll ever do. Seriously, the circles we need filling are only 2 inches in diameter each!! If you've been thinking about....its time to stop procrastinating and start scribbling! You could win a book AND the admiration of all and sundry!!!! C,mon...you can do it!!!!

If you have already entered...well done!! If you haven't...keep this one important thought in mind.....once we pick the winners, you'll never be able to say, "pfffft, I could have done waaaay better"....because frankly, you didn't!!!! So get in there, scratch out some lines and be part the fun!!!!

To motivate you, here's my contribution...none of which will appear on the final product even though I'm pretty pleased with the stylized Eagle and will definitely use it somewhere. The Beaver is pretty cool but any half-way competent NW Coast artist would likely only give me a C for effort and probably wouldn't be that impressed by my handling of line and form....and the stylized leek???? Well, it didn't exactly turn out like I hoped. SO, there you go, I've hung myself out there for all to see and now its your turn to enter some really motivated ideas and consign these to the bin.

From Dave's "editor": We'll choose the winning designs next weekend so this is your last chance to submit some Welsh designs, Celtic symbols or Celtic designs and to be part of creating this incredible piece of original Welsh-Canadian art. Winning designs will be part of Dave's creation and will be displayed at the West Coast Eisteddfod Welsh-American Arts festival in Los Angeles. Submit yours and be part of Welsh Arts and Welsh Culture at this year's West Coast Eisteddfod!

My kids and I found a BBC British history for kids page: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/forkids/

which is actually pretty cool and materials are also available in Welsh. There are lots of activities on the page to print and do and links to history pages aimed at adults as well. We found this watching a youtube video for a kids show from the BBC "Hands on History."

Reprinted with permission from David Western's blog , all material 2011, David Western --

Today, handcarved lovespoons are heirloom quality gifts which are given at engagements, weddings, anniversaries and a host of other occasions where a gift of deep sentiment is required. Although the symbolism may have changed throughout the years, the relevance of alovingly carved spoon given with sentimental or romantic intent is as strong as ever. As a symbol of Wales and the warmth and passion of the Welsh people, it would be pretty hard to find a more iconic tradition than the lovespoon.

So THAT is why we carve one each year.

Happy St Patrick's Day from AmeriCymru! Someday I'm going to get around to doing a new one, maybe.

From Visit Wales and Peter Thabit Jones:

Come and See Dylan's New York

Get the true facts about the legendary Welsh poet Dylan Thomas andhis colourful life in New York City.

His most famous work, Under Milk Wood, was completed and originally performed inthe City, where he also originated recordingthe spoken word, cutting the first spokenLP in history here.

T he Dylan Thomas Walking Tour, guided by Ianto Robert, will take youto the Village places where thelegendary Welsh poet stayed, ate,drank, worked and performed, and towhere he finally died, while givingyou a feel for The Village in the 1950s.

• When: Sunday mornings weekly from March 2011
• Time: 11:00 AM, Check current schedule
• Duration: Approximately 2 hours
• Cost: $25.00 per ticket
• Weather: Tour takes place rain or shine

Tickets should be purchased in advance at

www.NewYorkFunTours.com

Or phone (USA) 0012122093370

Please refer to activity # 1213

This is the Official Dylan Thomas Walking Tour of NewYork. Originally written by Peter Thabit Jones through acollaboration of the Welsh Assembly Government in NewYork and the family of Dylan Thomas.

In Memoriam

Of Dylans daughter Aeronwy whoconfirmed the research and walked outthe tour.

Download the original pdf here

Reprinted with permission from David Western's blog , all material 2011, David Western

Help design this year's spoon here!

I've started carving the 2011 West Coast Eisteddfod Spoon Mark III. The birch is gorgeous and cuts like butter, so I am confident that some of the crazy ideas I have for this spoon will work out. I like to shape the bowl first as it requires some heavy cutting, so if things go wrong at this stage and there is a breakage, its not such a big deal...not that there wouldn't be some fairly heavy duty swearing going on!!

I've been using my Preferred Edge bent knife which was custom made for me by Mike Komick just weeks before he suddenly passed away. It is a glorious little knife which I never tire of using, but it always reminds me how much I am going to miss Mike's remarkable skill with metal! As you can see, I glue the pattern directly to the piece I am working on. This keeps my cuts good and accurate and also keeps the wood nice and clean.

With the heart-shaped bowl roughed out, I am able to start on some of the nearby Celtic knotwork. I use a scroll saw to do the rough cuts and then utilize my very small (but wickedly sharp) straight knife to carve the details. With a wood as accommodating as birch, the knotwork generally comes out crisply right off the knife and very little 'clean up'work is necessary.

I've also started to frame in the first of the 3 circles which will be designed by one of the winners of our Design the Spoon Competition. I do hope that I can encourage you to have a crack at it! Even if you don't consider yourself an artist, submit an idea or two or three! Whether it is a drawing, a photo, written word or a vague idea...send it in and it might wind up on this year's spoon! The West Coast Eisteddfod is a celebration of the 'forgotten Celts' living here in North America and this little spoon is part of that. It says 'the Welsh are here' but you don't have to be Welsh to join in our fun! Anyone and everyone are welcome to contribute ideas and I look forward to seeing them!

If you are too shy or simply can't be arsed, why not consider donating a couple of bucks to the Eisteddfod instead. You could win the finished spoon for your generosity!!

I'm working on inventing some recipes that I hope will be edible blends of Welsh and other cuisines, so this year for St. David's Day I wanted to do a seafood cawl.

Outside the Pacific NW, salmon is considered our "national" cuisine and if you tell people on the east coast that you're a Portlander but you don't like it, they seem disappointed. I never did like it until I moved to the east coast for a while and couldn't get it and that lead me to appreciate what a really fantastic thing good, fresh, wild salmon is, so I wanted to create a "cawl" with salmon. Ceri demanded mussels (ala Mussels Meirionnydd), so that's what he got and it's not Pacific Rim without sourdough bread, in my opinion.

After I made this, I was fortunate enough to find Welsh Shellfish Cawl on the Visit Wales site, and that looks really fantastic so I want to try making that next. If you try this recipe, let me know what you think!

Ingredients

• 1 lb fresh salmon filet, wild coho or king if you can get it
• 1 lb mussels
• 1 C cooked crabmeat
• 2 quarts water or vegetable stock
• 2 C cabernet
• 1 large white onion, chopped
• 1 large sliced carrot
• 1 small rutabaga, sliced
• 6 medium potatoes, quartered
• 2 leeks, sliced
• 1 small head of cabbage, chopped
• 1 C oyster mushrooms
• 4 chopped cloves garlic
• 2 T chopped fresh parsley
• 1 t crushed rosemary
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 sprigs of thyme
• salt and pepper to taste

• Sourdough bread with parsley garlic butter

  • stick of butter or 8T butter, softened
  • 3 T fresh chopped parsley
  • three cloves garlic, cooked soft and crushed
  • 1 t parmesan cheese
  • baguette or boule of sourdough bread

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F.

Bring water or vegetable stock to a boil. Add onions, carrot, rutabaga and salt and pepper and reduce heat to simmer one hour.

In separate saucepan, saute chopped garlic and three whole cloves for bread with mushrooms until garlic has begun to brown. Reserve whole cloves for bread, add chopped garlic and mushrooms to pot. Add wine and potatoes and simmer another 15-20 minutes until tender. Add herbs, leeks, cabbage, crab meat and salmon until cabbage is tender. Add mussels and cover for about 15 minutes or until shells have fully opened.

While mussels are steaming, cream softened butter for bread with chopped parsley, parmesan and whole cloves garlic. Score bread through to bottom crust in 2' slices, taking care to leave bottom crust attached. Wrap bread in tinfoil, leaving top open, and place on cookie sheet. Spread butter liberally in between slices and bake in 350F oven about 15 minutes or until mussels are done.

Serve hot.