@seren If you are reading this, may I add my thanks and appreciation to Tatjana’s? We miss you! I do hope you are well and enjoying life.
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I’m usually a very private person and not very good at public announcements but I felt this one had to be done 
We’ve just fulfilled a huge dream of ours and bought a caravan on the Llyn Peninsula , an area full of special memories from over 26 years. This was only made possible because of my share of the sale of my parents’ house following the death of my mother at the end of last year. We’ve had an extremely difficult couple of years with family health problems and then Mum passing away. Llyn has always been a place we have found peace so it is just what we need now. I don’t like the 2nd home idea (not that we could afford this anyway) but a caravan feels acceptable and we try to support local businesses for things in the caravan and our food. The local milk is fantastic.
Prior to the caravan arriving we stayed in cottages close by. The owner invited me to attend her church with her on the Sunday and I was given an amazingly warm greeting by all including Catrin’s mother (a lovely lady like her daughter) who I discovered also attended this church! I enjoyed a lovely Harvest Festival there last weekend which was just the right level for me - I could follow the service quite well as it was geared towards the small group of children there! This Sunday was a bit trickier to follow as it was more traditional but I was helped by Catrin’s mother who invited me to sit with her so she could guide me through the service!! I then realised it was Catrin’s father who was taking the service! It was Catrin’s father who introduced me to SSIW when I made my first tentative step at speaking the language to him a few years ago at the Lloyd George Museum where he was working.
So I want to say a huge thank you to Mum for helping to make the dream come true, an enormous diolch o galon to Aran, Catrin, the SSIW team and forum members for my Welsh that has opened up so many amazing experiences for me and introduced me to many wonderful people and a massive thank you to the extraordinary people of the Llyn Peninsula (with an extra special mention to Catrin’s parents!) who have been so welcoming and helpful in my learning of this beautiful language.
I will go and hide in my hole now
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How very wonderful - huge congratulations, and croeso, croeso… 
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Diolch yn fawr iawn Aran 
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A, a … you won’t … no, I mean, please don’t. Your story is just so great and you presented it so well. Warmth comes out of it … So, thank you for sharing this with us.
And now, when you feel like writing something, asking something or whatever … please don’t hide into your hole but rather come out. There’s sun shining out there, you know … and we’d like to share it with you.
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Thank you for your kind words Tatjana 
I do come out of my hole quite often really, I’m just generally not a big user of forums and social media. But I know from past experience that people on this forum are very friendly and helpful.
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Let’s do some more chronology of my Welsh path, shall we? Here we go …
The storyteller, the “wild racer” through the SSiW course with her two horses - Levels and Courses one of them green the other red both eager to win the race. The woman who doesn’t (didn’t) hear well but still accepted the challenge of learning welsh through SSiW audio course. The woman who inspired me in more then just one way, to make me go further and who showed whatever disability is not the opstacle to acheave (almost) everything you can imagine in your life. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I’m taking my hat off and saying huge diolch this week to @MarilynHames. Number fifteen is special for who knows what reason to me so the fifteenth thank you goes to this special woman.
You all probably think I’m doing my graphics and such stuff just for my own fun but what inspires me to do such things in connection with this community and learning Welsh is people like Marilyn. She didn’t just inspired me to go on with my own, more slow walk then race, learning Welsh through her story. It kept her moving on and it kept me moving on aswell.
Marilyn I have to admit I didn’t read absolutely everything you’ve posted on here (this is still the task to be completed) but what I’ve read (and it was a lot of everything) was like little kind and nice fairy-tale to me. I bet you inspired many others on here to go with their own learning on too and we all like(d) to read your posts. I almost imagined those horses of yours running across the SSiW land leavnig fire trail behind them and it was magic to read how you’re progressing in the process.
I wonder what are your horses doing now. Do they rest and will run another race again or they’re in constant movement in the wish of acheaving more? How are you doing and how’s your Welsh. Whenever I’m stumbling upon my own walls on my learning path I’m often thinking of you and how you raced your own way through so I just have to thank you for every single post you’ve posted here, every single inspirational thought and every help you’ve delivered through this.
Diolch yn fawr iawn and all the best. I can probably freely say that we all miss you and hope one day you come back with fresh and as positive stories as we were accustomed to read in the past. You are true inspiration to me and I can’t probably be mistaken to say to many of us all!
I was inspired to do these cover pages for Marilyn’s two stories, two wild races through the Courses and Levels simultaniously. 
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Diolch yn fawr iawn Tatjana,
You have always been such an inspiration and help to me, and the horse races were (still are) such fun!!!
Actually, I have been on the Forum with a pseudonym for the SSiW Eisteddfod, but of course I cannot admit to what I did. Also I spent quite a bit of time revising SSiW prior to a trip to Wales and enjoyed hiking in the Brecon Beacons so much that in two week’s time I am joining a similar group and heading to Patagonia–maybe to hear and use some Welsh, certainly to hike in their Springtime.
On the strength of what I learned and enjoyed here, I began a distance-learning MA in Celtic Studies in January 2016, had a great time, but for work-related reasons (volunteer work demands) I had to take a year off, so just resumed the course a week ago after------yes, again doing some major review with SSiW. I only have to listen to the introductory music and I am back amongst old friends again.
We also had the joy of a brief visit from another member of the SSiW clan who was visiting Vancouver recently and she certainly did SSiW proud by seeming fluent to the rest of us in the Welsh Society here.
So I continue to beaver away (nice Canadian expression that) and as part of my MA am studying Welsh. One day I dream of attending a Bootcamp, or meeting up with you at the Eisteddfod, but for now must be content to sit here in sunny Vancouver (miraculously) letting the miles melt away as I think of you.
You are definitely one of those ‘angels’ who make all the difference.
Bless you!!!
Marilyn
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Thank you.
… and, you’ve brought some tiny tears to my eyes.
You are a story-teller, as always. I Imagen you sitting at the camp fire surrounded by curious people waiting for your story-telling to begin.
Diolch yn fawr iawn …
Tatjana
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Diolch yn fawr iawn, @tatjana, @henddraig and everyone here who still remembers me. The times we spent chatting in different languages were wonderful and I miss them. I remember that @tatjana was the first person to welcome me here, and I also remember that when I had, at times, lost confidence, you were also one of those people who helped me and inspired me to go on. I am doing very well, teaching English and Italian in Belarus, and speaking or listening to Welsh every day now:) I also try to read as much as I can, and I finally got my hands on a T.Llew Jones book, which someone (@AnthonyCusack, I think) had recommended to me a while ago. It’s wonderful, thank you:)) I would love to take part in the weekly chats again, if possible - is @ramblingjohn still doing them?
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Sorry, I just ‘edited’ what was an incongruously located post but it seems that I can’t or don’t know how to delete the entire thing. Please ignore.
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YAY! I’m so happy to see you here and I’m so happy to hear that you’re doing fine. Welcome back!
We didn’t have any chats yet but might happen. Well, at least I didn’t read of any, however the Autumn is here and Winter will be here soon so might be a bit more time to do other things than going out into the nature and explore. I’m waiting for those chats too.
And thank you for these lovely words. I often remember you and I’m glad to see you. I’m extreamly glad if I could help or inspire you in any possible way. You did the same for me.
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S’mae @seren l am so glad to see your name! I keep thinking we’ve lost you! I do hope you are fit and well and still trying to find ways to get to Wales. I might even manage a trrip further than 2 miles if you manage to get all the way frrom Belarus despite foolish visa department robots!__
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I’m certainly looking forward to chatting with last winters gang (and maybe some new members as well), at the moment i am just to busy with work,
anyway, December if not before and i will open the old thread giving details and asking who wants to join in nearer the time.
Cheers J.P.
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As an aside that any veg growing members might be interested in, there’s a tasty variety of bean (available in the UK — from Wales) that was taken by the Cherokee on their ‘Trail of Tears’ journey. It’s actually named ‘Cherokee Trail of Tears’. I’ve grown it.
And continuing our time yourney with my sixteenth thank you post we come from one interesting and quite misterious woman to another - @henddraig - the woman who always seamed so misterious to me. From the first question why I actually started to learn Welsh all the way to present days. Encouraging, quite similar to me when comming to honestly and openly saying what she thinks but always willing to help if she can.
Not that I would like to thank you only for all inspirational posts you’re writing on here, helping people out when needed if you can but I’d also like to thank you for each and every mention of “Useful things” thread so the people could get to the help with the how to on this forum more easily and I’d also like to thank you (among all others) for believing in me, my Welsh learning and techy knowledge which is comparring to other members of this forum really tiny though.
Among all, your curious nature is driving me on quite many times. As you’re eager for the knowledge of all kinds not just linguistic, you drag me with to wish the same. I love that part too. I’m honoured and happy I had a priviledge to speak to you on Skype and I hope that iwhen (hopefully) gorup chats organized by @ramblingjohn return you’ll be with us again siarad Cymraeg.
Diolch am y popeth. And thank you for inspiring me and helping me go on with my learning journey.
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Well, Diolch @tatjana fach, but it was always you inspiring me! Finding a lady with poor sight in far off Slovenia who was learning Welsh was quite something! If you could do it, surely I could, even if my main reason for trying out SSiW was a sort of hiraeth-cure!! You are that too, because you are insterested in so much and willing to exchange notes on such things as history and pre-history! Diolch yn fawr iawn am holl di help - especially the tech, which you are certainly better at than I am!!
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Well, we’re aproaching 20th thank you time journey but aren’t quite there yet. This week I write my seventeenth thank you post with all gratitude I feel toward you all.
After @margaretnock’s visit last year, I had quite exciting times with a lot of things Cymraeg related happening and I for this reason thank to each and everyone involved in those happenings. They boosted my confidence and learning quite a lot. One of such “boosting” moments was (although brief) meeting with Mr. Simon Brooks. I’ve written about this meeting in “I’ve met Mr. Simon Brooks!”, “My Challenges” and more recently a bit more bitter and whole story in this topic itself about 100 posts back. Even if the encounter (yah rather I should name it so than meeting in deed) was really short - only about 3 or 4 sentences spoken (entirely in Cymraeg of course) it was something what can make you feel you really achieved something, you really are learning and more importantly using the language you learn. So this for, thank you once again Mr. Brooks for being willing to stop briefly and have little conversation with me. It meant - and is still meaning - a lot and meeting with you was realy something to take with on the bootcamp later on in July.
I was hoping to hear back in April this year that you’ll be here in Ljubljana again however I didn’t even hear the event like previous year would take place this year at all.
Diolch yn fawr iawn.
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Well, among all interesting things which are happening these days I thought I’d continue my Diolch chronology with one new thank you to say.
This time I’d like to dedicate my eighteenth thank you to @hewrop - the man who (among some of the rest of you) strolled around with me at Eisteddfod last year, the one who made lovely report of our unofficial gathering there, mantioning me afterwards, the one who (also among all the rest) gave me endless support on this forum on my learning path, always having kind word for me (as for many others) and always willing to help.
Thank you Huw for your kind advises and encouragements through my learning path. You were the one of those people who inspired me every time I’ve read your posts and you still do. It was my priviledge in deed to meet you in person at the Eisteddfod last year and I am honoured to read in one of the threads that I’m warmly welcome to visit you if I ever come back to Wales.
Diolch am y popeth!
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Thank you, @Nicky for arranging the special SSiW meet-up in Llandysul yesterday! It was great to be back there for the first time since Bootcamp, and to meet so many enthusiastic and confident Welsh speakers.
And thanks in advance for promising to arrange more of these touring events. How about Machynlleth, for example?
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