Archive for 2013
Rhedwr Sul
Bob bore Sul, rhwng saith ac wyth o’r gloch, bydda i’n codi o’r gwely, gwisgo (siorts, crys-T, hen sgidiau), gadael y tŷ, a rhedeg. Yn 1964 dechreuais i redeg yn wythnosol, cyn gadael yr ysgol gynradd yn ein pentref ni, Hoylandswaine, yn yr hen ‘West Riding’. Erbyn hyn, hanner canrif yn ddiweddarach, mae’n rhy hwyr […]
UNESCO Memory of the World: what is its value?
Statutory protection for historic documentary collections in the UK is weak, with the exception of some highly specific categories of archives under the Public Record Acts. Similarly, non-statutory schemes that aim to identify such collections and grant institutional approval to them are rare, in comparison with programmes by national or international bodies to protect by […]
The Obituarist
For a living Jones wrote people up when they died. This was not strictly true. Some people he picked up before they corpsed, and did a dry run on them. Facts, dates and, if he felt interested enough, a sharp phrase or quotation he half-remembered from a colour supplement twenty years ago. This helped, because […]
Swansea Met fine art degree show 2013
When they get towards the end of their courses most undergraduates prove themselves in the private silence of the exam hall. Art students are different. Their end-of-year work is brutally laid bare, on gallery display for all to see – examiners, peers and public. If you belong to the latter group, how should you approach […]
John Edward Lee, pioneer archaeologist of Caerleon
There are plenty of plaques to be seen on the streets of Caerleon – commemorating the novelist Arthur Machen, John Jenkins, opponent of the Chartists, and Basque children given refuge during the Spanish Civil War – but none, as far as I could see on a recent visit, to one of the town’s greatest sons, […]
MOOCs and other animals in Wales: what do you think?
Interested in MOOCs and other forms of online learning as they affect Wales? If so, read on … In February 2013, Leighton Andrews AM, the Welsh Government Minister for Education and Skills , announced the establishment of the Online Digital Learning Resources Working Group. The Working Group is chaired by the former National Librarian of […]
Pembrokeshire coast walk: day 5
One rocky hill dominates the city of St David’s: Carn Llidi. Though it isn’t particularly high (less than 600 feet) its craggy summit is rarely out of the viewfinder of cameras pointed at the cathedral or other buildings, and it’s visible for miles around in the flatlands of the peninsula. This afternoon – the morning […]
Wales Coast Path: day 44: Aber Mawr from Goodwick
Today we resume at Goodwick in the company of MH, who joins us from Ceredigion. MH is an athlete, but is generous in holding back his natural instinct to sprint to our destination. He’s also an ornithologist – he comes with the binoculars C. and I both forgot at the start – and helps us […]
Wales Coast Path: day 41: Solva from Whitesands
Out of sequence, C. and I decide to tackle Whitesands to Solva, about 12 miles of winding coastline with St David’s as its focus. H. joins us, with today’s guest-walkers, M. and L. from Leicester, old friends of Pembrokeshire. The view west is dominated by Ramsey Island, a dark and mainly empty land, where sheep […]
Wales Coast Path, day 45: Goodwick from Parrog
C. and I leave Parrog and climb, thankfully to a lower cliff height than yesterday. To our left, the dark outline of Carn Ingli, to our left a succession of jagged sea rocks, one in the curious shape of a question mark. Coves appear, some inaccessible, others crossed on small wooden bridges: Aberrhigian and Aberfforest. […]
