Sorry, couldn’t possibly comment as I don’t know any swear words myself.
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…yn wir, ti’n berl Jason! Diolch yn fawr iawn—I will keep stirring the pot 
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Dw i’n deall!
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Pwy sy’n cofio dathlu dengmlwyddiant SSiW?
We flew over from Vancouver specially to attend, ond oedd hi’n bwrw glaw—no, it bucketed down—guess where? This is a rosey, mentally-edited view, superimposing happy memories on tywydd ofnadwy. The joys of ‘watercolours’ (pun intended) 
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The Cistercian Way is a modern invention. My husband’s friend is a clergyman, in England, and had a Sabbatical a few years ago and had the intention of walking it but didn’t get so very far before injuring his knee and being sent home by a nun at Holy Cross Abbey, near to the ruins of Whitland Abbey, both Cistercian foundations. So for the following few years he walked the route, a week a year, with my husband. They’re now walking a week a year the Camino Frances, which is generally warmer and a bit drier.
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Good for them 
For my 65th birthday, I walked the final 140 km or so of the Camino with a friend in 4 days and 40 degrees. We were ‘up and at it’ (is that a peculiarly Anglo-Welsh expression, like fair play?) by 4:00 am to beat the worst of the midday heat, but it was worth every step of the way—blisters and all.
‘Buen Camino’!
I’ve walked 100km to Santiago, from Lugo one time and the Camino Inglese the second time. And then I thought, ‘Wait a minute. We’ve got a perfectly good cathedral and a perfectly good saint of our own, in St David and Ty Ddewi’. It also happens to be almost exactly 100km from my front door, so that’s what I’ve done more recently. The first and last times I used public transport, or my husband collected me at the end of the day. What sort of pilgrim is it that gets to sleep in her own bed?! The two middle times I stayed in church halls on the way. One time he met me at the end of the trip and we stayed in a hostel a few miles out of St Davids before visiting Skomer Island the next day and seeing the puffins.
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I don’t think ‘up and at it’ is a particularly Welsh phrase.
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I couldn’t agree with you more Margaret—there are perfectly good saints scattered all over the world, and Wales seems to have had more than its fair share, as I discovered during several UWTSD courses in Celtic Studies.
The reason I did part of the Camino, and some other famous pilgrimages was to test out my theories about the benefits of journeying on foot, spiritual experiences and other unique pilgrimage phenomena, in preparation for writing a doctoral thesis on ‘Local Pilgrimage’—discovering and celebrating the holy ground we walk on every day.
Since then, I have organized several in and around Vancouver, integrating the natural wonders we are blessed with here, plus all kinds of sacred places—sacred to First Nations and people of various faiths, or no faith—the latter being the vast majority here who say they are ‘spiritual but not religious’. What people usually discover is that we share so much in common, no matter how we label ourselves, or are labelled. Job done!
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There’s another modern route claiming a Welsh (or was he Breton?) saint not so far from me. St Illtyd’s Walk. Llantwit Major, Llanilltud Fawr is named after him. Local links are less sure, but there is a Saint Illtyd’s church in Pembrey. It links Margam Abbey with Pembrey country park, but not along the coast. Instead it’s mostly three or four miles inland and involves quite a lot of up and down! Again, about 100km. My plan, if I can get my act together this year, is to walk a short pilgrimage from Llandaff cathedral to Penrhys. A modern interpretation of a historic route of around 20 miles.
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What a marvellous plan. Please keep a journal and take plenty of photos.
I know Llandaff Cathedral well, having grown up in Cardiff, and visited Margam Abbey when staying with my brother in St. Nicholas. I was the first woman to celebrate the Eucharist at the little church there—probably one of the first in Wales, because women had been ordained as priests in Canada years before they were in the UK. I just happened to there when that was finally approved by the Synod in Wales.
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What a great day that would have been. The friend in Birmingham preached in Margam Abbey, before the knee injury, en route. I joined him there and then took his backpack home while he walked to my home, a killer of a day if I look at Google maps. I was also at the service in Dundee when women were first ordained as deacons back in 1980 something, How the world has changed since then,
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Indeed, as you say, how the world has changed! Your mention of strenuous pilgrimages and Cistercians prompts me to mention that I’ll be enjoying a Carthusian version of the same when I make my way up to Mount Grace Abbey, Yorkshire, in a few weeks time, getting there, I have to admit, in a very comfortable coach with fully reclining seats, free wifi etc. The abbey’s first prior was Nicholas Love whose translation (into English, I’m afraid, not Welsh) of the Meditationes Vitae Christi (don’t pretend you haven’t read it!) was the most widely circulated manuscript text of the 15th century. It was unusually approved by Archbishop Arundel at a time when any activity to translate the bible into the vernacular and make it generally available for people to read was regarded as a sign of heresy that could get you locked up, or worse. And of course did, in many cases. Strange times. Strange beliefs. It’ll be a nice way of reacquainting myself with the subject of my research from many decades ago, when palaeography was my thing. And then onwards to Durham Cathedral. Really looking forward to that. Dw i’n edrych ymlaen at wneud y ‘berendidod’.
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Really like this!
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The Van Gogh self portrait currently on display for the first time in Wales, at the Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Caerdydd, prompts me to blow the dust off one of my early attempts at creating a digital sculpture on my iPad Pro using an Apple Pencil and the tools provided by the ‘Nomad Sculpt’ app. The process is very similar to creating a conventional bust with clay, beginning with blocking out the main shapes before adding texture and detail and, if required, painting the result. I’m afraid this thread doesn’t appear to allow mp4 format files, so these are just screenshots from a video clip that would otherwise enable you to view it continuously from all angles using the handy turntable recording function. The sunflowers are obviously mine, not his. I’ve added a sunhat as a prop and lit the scene strongly to suggest the atmosphere of sunlit Provence. Don’t think poor old Vincent would have appreciated Cardiff in the rain!
ipad = ipad (!)
digital = digidol
sunflowers = blodau’r haul
sun hat = het haul
self portrait = hunanbortread
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Here’s my latest creation, finally finished over the weekend. While I had done the maths and planned out the repeating patterns, I hadn’t given much thought to the overall construction. I had a few creative ideas for new ways to make sleeves, none of which worked! So there was a lot of ripping out and starting again, and no small amount of swearing (all in English, of course, because as mentioned up thread Welsh doesn’t contain such vulgar vocabulary )
Gwau - knitting
Gweill - needles
Gwlân - wool
Ar y gweill - in progress (lit. “on the needles”)
Stitch - pwyth
Knit 2 Purl 2 - dau bwyth o’r dde, dau bwyth o’r chwith
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Gwych!
What a beautiful design–I have never seen hearts worked like this before–brilliant. I dread to imagine how much counting you had to do to preserve all the pattern elements, create the letters and still manage to fit of the garment.
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How I envy you! I completed my apprenticeship under the ‘Bridgemaster’ for Durham Country there, and worked on the restoration of the stone-arch Elvert Bridge just below the Cathedral–the one featured in Turner’s painting that captures both.
Bringing several strands together, (with a warning that this is religious), you can follow the path below to a sermon I gave that describes a funny incident when I was an apprentice in Durham. In terms of textile art–the beautiful Celtic Stole is one of five I commissioned. If you have 15-20 minutes to spare, go make yourself a disgled and enjoy 
On ‘St John’s Shaughnessy’ website, go to ‘Welcome; Sermons and Services; Second Sunday of Advent’.
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[quote=“jason-art, post:213, topic:40098”]
palaeography was my thing
Tell us more please.
You must have developed a great deal of skill to have achieved such amazing effects. I love your original, almost quirky way of re-presenting VG’s original work, combining his self-portrait with one of his iconic images, as well as his trademark hat.
Thank you for sharing these and pointing us to the Apps for others to try their hand.
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