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Chris Keil's Liminal 
Both Ceri and I read this, I liked it a lot and it was a calm and enjoyable read, by which I mean no car chases, explosions, threats to all humanity -- just good characters and the relationships between them and good narrative and dialouge. We sold it at NAFOW, Wordstock and our event this year and it sold really well.
I highly recommend this book for those times you want to sit down by yourself with the phone unplugged and a cold beer or glass of wine and enjoy something to read in peace.
Reprinted with permission from David Western's blog , all material 2011, David Western --
Well after the downer tone of my recent blog, I am happy to say that all is well again in the lovespoon world and that good things have happened in threes....which makes a very welcome change from the usual 'bad things in threes' that seem so much more common.First, I am delighted to say that the unpaid lovespoon situation has been happily resolved! The cheque has arrived, my 100% record is back on track and my faith in humanity has been restored! So although the situation definitely had some down moments, in the end it has all worked out.
Next, I am thrilled that my "Legend of Taliesin" lovespoon is now on display at the National History Museum of Wales at St Fagans near Cardiff. For me it is an absolute thrill to have a piece of my art on display in the very institution which inspired my passion many, many, many years ago! St Fagans, as it is more commonly known, is a true gem in the Welsh crown and is a world class museum of history and culture. Their collection of historical lovespoons is unrivalled and I feel very honoured to have my work be a small part of it. I also want to congratulate fellow carvers Mike Davies and Sion Llewellyn whose spoons are also on display!
Finally, my book publisher, ;Fox Chapel Publishing , have generously offered three copies of my book to the eventual winners of our upcoming Left Coast Eisteddfod "Help design the lovespoon" competition!! This year we will be soliciting help to design the lovespoon which we use as a draw prize incentive to help raise funds in support of our event!
This year we want YOU, yes, YOU, to help us design the 2011 West Coast Eisteddfod lovespoon. As you can see on this year's spoon sketch, below, three circular spaces have been left blank and it is our hope that they will be filled in by supporters of our Eisteddfod.
We welcome Americymru members, Welsh society members, school kids, enthusiastic artists and poets, lovespoon carver wannabies, people who have no connection to Wales at all but wouldn't mind having their idea included on our lovespoon... in short, anyone who wants to have a bash at it!! Enter one, two, three or more ideas, we're open to anything and everything! Not an artist? No big deal. Write a very brief poem (but keep in mind, these circles are only 2 inches in diameter, so I can't fit a sonnet in there!!) make a collage, write a description of your idea, like I said, we're game for anything!!
Really keen artists among you may have noticed that the circles are placed at the dragon's heart, wings and feet, so there's some more idea fodder!! We'll be releasing full contest details very soon, but in the meantime, let your design imaginations run wild!
Now's the time of year for the new year's resolutions. I don't usually really bother but this year I'm doing it and I thought there might be strength in numbers, or at least embarrassment if I'm too wimpy to make them happen. so here are (some of) mine and I invite anyone to add theirs!
1. Get in good physical shape! I used to run and do yoga and blah, blah, blah but since the computer became my life, I spend most of my time standing or sitting at it (I have a standing workspace) so it's back to the gym and probably the bike for me, and for Ceri and the kids because misery loves company... oops! I mean, because I love them....
2. Get organized! I'm a stereotypical messy artist, our house is full of things that I won't throw away because I might be able to make sculpture of out them or projects I'm in the middle of. This year I vow to turn that around, to get on a schedule, to prioritize the things I need to do so I can wear all my hats and get more things done.
3. Be a better parent. If I put in a schedule as part of getting organized, that can include family time and time to help my kids with their homework instead of just working all the time and parenting by yelling at them to pick up their stuff.
Okay, there's three from me! Anyone else?
DISCLAIMER: I am not a native or even competant Welsh speaker so caveat emptor on these translations. The purpose of these puzzles is to give the user some exercise in looking up and researching Welsh words and hopefully hearing audio files of how they should be pronounced. This week's translations come from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David site at geiriadur.net, from Google translate and the hardcover edition of Y Geiriadur Mawr: The Complete English Welsh - Welsh English Dictio.... If two sources agreed on the Welsh translation of an English word, that's the word I used. If they all disagreed, I went with geiriadur.net. If they all gave multiple answers, I chose the one that seemed most likely to me and had an audio file.
Ok, here are the answers to last weeks' puzzle. Swansea Jack was kind enough to tell me that "cinio" wouldn't be supper in Wales, that it's dinner and supper would be a fourth meal after dinner. Where I live, they're a word for the same thing, the third and last meal of the day - ah, cultural vagaries! If anyone notices anything else, I heartily apologize and please let me know!
This week's puzzle is on food and dining.
DISCLAIMER: I am not a native or even competant Welsh speaker so caveat emptor on these translations. The purpose of these puzzles is to give the user some exercise in looking up and researching Welsh words and hopefully hearing audio files of how they should be pronounced. This week's translations come from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David site at geiriadur.net , from Google translate and the hardcover edition of Y Geiriadur Mawr: The Complete English Welsh - Welsh English Dictionary . If two sources agreed on the Welsh translation of an English word, that's the word I used. If they all disagreed, I went with geiriadur.net. If they all gave multiple answers, I chose the one that seemed most likely to me and had an audio file.
Download the pdf, below, to do the puzzle and see the image below to see this week's puzzle.
Ok, here are the answers to last weeks' puzzle. I did add one word which wasn't on the geriadur.net and I apologize, I really wanted to use it - microwave or "popty ping" - and forgot to say that wasn't where it came from. I very heartily apologize and will continue to strive to improve myself.
This week, I rendered "table" as "bord" as that was what was on the geridaur.net but on some other sites I also found "table" as "tabl" and "bwrdd". Also, I had "painting" as "paentiad" and I'm not sure that was right, I also found "peintio" for that.
Where I could find them, here are links to audio files to hear some of the words, or other versions of them, being spoken. I'm sticking to www.geriadur.net as much as possible but there are also some google translator audibles below:
houseCrossword.pdf
Below is a link to download and print a pdf - I haven't got technical enough yet to make one we can do online, but that's coming!
animalCrossword.pdf '
