Craig Mod at The Do Lectures

Okay, this is part of my list of 1,000 things to DO before I die.  Well, I wasn't there last week, but it is now coming up on the web.  So here is one of the lectures from The Do Lectures in West Wales.  Worth listening to, especially for all my friends who blog, write, think, and act out important issues in life.

Blackout by Tracy Ann Williams

Arriving by air from Wales I received my copy of Blackout on a Thursday, and was headed down to Washington DC for a 3 day retreat.  I started the book on Friday night, but due to the pace of the conference I did not return to it until Monday, which was a day off for me.  By Tuesday I finished reading the Blackout.

Blackout is a self-published book by Tracy Ann Williams, the self described Welsh Mountain Girl - exhibitionist - writer looking for a publisher to take notice.  Sounds like me:  well, not the Mountain Girl - exhibitionist part, but the rest of it.  She calls herself the "Naked Blonde Writer," which I am sure gets significant attention on Twitter, and probably more than a few undesirable requests.

Since nothing Welsh on Twitter gets by me for too long, I happened upon Tracy some months back shortly before my trip to Wales.  I tried to connect with her in Wales to pick up a book while I traversed the nation from South to North and back again, but I am sure that strange Americans asking Naked Blonde Writers for a personal delivery of their books are frequent and sketchy propositions.  So it was a couple months later I received it via the volcano-dust delayed air routes.

Back to the book:

Blackout is a raw, dark, and desperate picture of Rhondda Valley life among druggies, and factory workers.  It is  filled with F-bombs, anger, wild dreams, and hopelessly trapped people caught on the painful knife edge of poverty and addiction.  It is not something which would typically make my list of of books, but then the picture with a stack of some of the other things I am reading right now might suggest that.

The mountain wandering protagonist, a 29 year old blonde meets the dreamer boy, wannabe rockstar from the moneyed English family and they stomp off angrily toward his dreams of success in a secluded house in the Brecon Beacons of South Wales.  (I am sure I have driven by that house, even though this is a fictional tale.)

English privilege is juxtaposed against the struggling Welsh working class.  A deadly paced party life stands against a healthy on the outside only well-to-do lifestyle.  The hopelessness of the daily drudgery of the working class, and Valley addicts is contrasted with the laissez-faire attitude of the rich who do not have to work or scrape along for survival.

I have a pre-release copy, which still had corrections to make before final printing, so the beginning of the book was chopped up a bit with sections printed twice, misspellings, and incorrect chapter divisions.  Despite that it read smoothly enough, generally transitioned well.  The second half of the book moves at a frenetic pace like an action novel.  It lifts you toward hope, and drops you toward despair, and captures a wild bi-polar movement in between the two extremes.

Don't read this if you are thinking of moving to the Rhondda, because it won't encourage you.  Don't read it if you are troubled by nightmares after dark readings.  Do read it if you like dark literature, don't mind F-bombs, and certainly read it if you like to support new writers, or artists coming out of Wales.  It is a good read.

Tracy is a talented, Welsh mountain hermit actress who spent some years in Hollywood and now likes stay on top of the mountain only to pop out every now and then and show off.

You can get your copy of Blackout from Amazon.  If you get it, blog about it, and pass the word on. You can find out more about Tracy on her website.

So Cymru am byth! and buy a book to support struggling artists and for the sake of easing your aching hiraeth.

Duck Daddy and His Five Girls - Days 24-26

Three whole days without writing about the girls. I've been busy, but then they are a part of the busy-ness.

Here are the highlights of these last three days in Duckyworld, and the Adventures of Duck Daddy:

It continues to be cold for this time of year in New England. In the mid 50s in mid June is really chilly. So, the ducks are not getting out as much as we would like, but they are getting big - and not just big, they are also getting quite fast.

About four days we began to notice something which we found quite humorous. Now we were told that these were going to be white Indian Runner ducks. In these last four days we have noticed that their chest feathers are coming in with a brownish tint, and getting darker each day. Never having raised ducks before I figure there are three options to this observation: 1) white feathers don't start out white, 2) our ducks are filthy and need to take a bath more often, or 3) these ain't white ducks. Noting that #1 seems silly, and that they look the same after swimming I am betting on #2. What do you think?

We have a temporary outdoor pen set up, so that we can take them outside, and work in the yard without them swarming around my feet the whole time. So far, when they are outside they follow me so closely I can't get anything done without fear of stepping on a duck.

This pen is in this location just for now, and will be replaced by a taller, more secure location next to our shed. We are thinking that cutting a duck entrance into the shed, and creating a duck house on the inside of the shed is our best deal - especially to deal with the brutal New England winters.

In the last few days duck paraphernalia has begun to arrive. We now have two Max the Duck stuffed animals. My mom sent the second one, and knowing that Bev shopped at Kohl's where they are selling for $5, she sent a note saying that she hoped we hadn't started a flock of Max the Ducks. With Max, and the book he comes from, Duck at the Door, came a note for Holly the greyhound saying that this was the only duck she could play with. Holly doesn't really play with stuffed animals, but sometimes she will sleep with them. Maybe it will help her make duck buddies instead.

I wrote to the Indian Runner Duck Association in Wales about a week ago and let them know that I was writing this blog. So, they checked up on me, and they responded with a few comments which were quite helpful. Of note was the fact that they do not recommend feeding ducks lettuce, because lettuce has been found to be high in nitrates, and this in turn is unhealthy for the ducks - well for people too - it might make your babies turn blue! Really, it's true, and in the UK they monitor the amount of nitrates in lettuce.

Side note on the Indian Runner Duck Association: The only negative thing I have to comment on them is that they don't siarad Cymreag (speak Welsh) - oh well, can't have everything going for you. ;-)

Okay, so I thought that I would look this up: Nitrates and Duck Health to see what we we might be inadvertently doing to these poor little ducky waifs. Here is some information I discovered. Quotes from government websites, and links below followed by other random info:

* Nitrate is a natural component of vegetables although the levels present are affected by growing conditions, fertiliser use and plant species / variety.
* The UK has carried out annual monitoring for nitrate in lettuce and spinach since 1996. Every Member State is required to monitor and report levels of nitrate in lettuce and spinach as part of a European Commission Regulation.
* The European Commission Regulation sets maximum levels for nitrate in lettuce and spinach, however UK growers are currently exempted from meeting these limits for a transitional period.
* The levels of nitrate detected in lettuce and spinach do not pose a risk to consumer's health; all dietary exposure estimates were below the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) set by the European Commission's Scientific Committee for Food (SCF).
from www.food.gov.uk.

Organic Lettuce Packs 25 Times Less Nitrate than Conventional Lettuce

Nitrate levels in organic lettuce are a fraction of levels found in conventional hothouse lettuces. Experts, however, say authorities are reluctant to showcase the benefits of organic farming.
from Persian Road. I am not sure of the validity of this statement, but it is a commonly found statement on many sites across the internet.

At Agroecology.org you can download a 64 page abstract with a 1999 study of nitrate levels in spinach, romaine, and iceberg lettuce grown in California. Organics generally did better, but some organic farming can also raise nitrate levels. Spinach generally should be avoided it appears because the nitrate levels were higher, and exceeded the UK levels of acceptability. Iceberg and romaine were acceptable regardless of the growing methods, although using guano as fertilizer was a set up for higher nitrate levels.

Now, here's the good news for our little Indian Runners. They are being fed mostly romaine, iceberg, and a spring mix without spinach. They are also being fed organics most of the time. I appears that they are not white ducks turning fawn colored because they are being feed too high a nitrate level. Whew - I was worried there for a moment that I was turning them into mutants.

Actually it turns out that they are merely going through an ugly stage with feathers coming out, and fuzz disappearing.


Well, here are my thoughts about nitrate levels:

Duck poo has piles of nitrates.
Poo is used to grow lettuce.
Ducks love lettuce.
Ducks must have a poo/nitrate addiction.
I need to take my ducks to NA meetings.

Actually, I will just stick with the organic lettuce for now, and hope it is good enough. I will also use cuttings from our yard (we don't use any nasty chemicals in our yard) like dandelions, and young grasses - I've been doing this all along as well.

I will close with my favorite internet question from someone raising ducks:

"Ok, so I’m new to the whole duck thing, forgive me if I’m a little behind. I just hatched 8 ducklings, and today they are 9, 8, and 7 days old. I've come to realize they are massive pooping machines! I read they poop a lot, but I had no clue this much. They eat and drink constantly...and did I mention grow constantly too?

Anyway, I was cleaning out their cage yesterday and realized I just can’t keep it poopless! I had JUST cleaned it out and within 5 minutes there were dozens of landmines! Finally I counted the poop, and lost count at 26. Do they poop every minute, and a half or something? There is only 8 of them, so that’s 3.3 poops each? Are my ducks normal, or do they have ducky irritable bowel syndrome? Luckily it doesnt stink...yet!" from Backyard Chickens forum.

Now doesn't that make you want some duckies of your own?!

Duck Daddy and His Five Girls - Day 16

A few of those reading the ongoing chronicles of Duck Daddy and his girls have wished out loud to have your own Indian Runner Ducks, because they are so cute. So, here are just a couple of the resources we have used to help us on our journey through Duckville. Now, I am sure that we are doing all kinds of things wrong, so please do not blame the skilled Duckmeisters of these venerable Duck Academies.

If you want to get yourself some Indian Runners please visit Wales. Really, visit Wales. Besides being "fy hoff gwlad yn y byd," it is also the home of the Indian Runner Duck Association. The Indian Runner Duck Association is in Welshpool, north east Powys, Wales. So you do not really have to visit them in person (although any trip to Wales is really equal to about 13 pilgrimages to Rome, or 6 pilgrimages to the the Holy Land), but you can go to the Indian Runner Duck Association website.

The next resource is a book by Dave Holderread, Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks. This is such a fabulous book, that not only my wife and I use it as a resource, but even the girls love it. I took it out on the lawn today with me, and as soon as I put it down they swarmed the book for a good Storey-time. ta-dum. Sorry.

After perusing some duck websites last night I was drawn to a particular spot on two of our ducks. Just above the eye, they always look like they are wet, and the down is a little thin. Now I do know that they scratch their necks and faces with those cute little webbed feet like a dog scratches behind his ears, but I had not connected the thinning of the fuzz above the eye to the scratching until today. One little girl has a somewhat pronounced case, a second has this noticeably but not as much, and the others don't have the "scarring." as the website described it.

Here is the scarring above the eye on our little duckie with the more noticeable thin wearing of the baby fuzz, and another pic of their cute little webbed feet with those sharp claws on the ends of their toes. I'm surprised they haven't poked their little eyes out with those serious claws on the end of their cute little paddles. Click on the picture to see the full size version of those little demon feet.

Catching up with Iolo Morganwg

Yep, I've been caught reading and eating, reading and walking, and just plain reading too much this week. I feel better, and less guilty about not getting enough reading in. I had better not start reading about someone who prays untold hours each day - then I will develop another guilt complex.

Iolo Morganwg and Feeling Bad About Not Being Able to read Enough

I can not find a copy of the old drawing of the Iolo Marganwg, which I saw yesterday in a book by Ronald Hutton entitled "The Druids," so this is the best I could recapture for now.

Iolo is the founder of modern bardic philosophy and culture as we know it, especially in the nation of Wales. His name is actually Edward, and of course, as a Bard it goes without saying that he must have another name - a real name that is.

My point is this: Iolo was walking and reading at the same time. I remember I used to do that often. I have not done it in some time, but I have so much reading to catch up on, that I thought that I must return to reading and walking.

Of course, doing that kind of thing is what made my mother call me the absent-minded professor when I was a little kid. The absent-mindedness has never left me, so I might as well return to the professorial quirkiness of reading and walking, and other such oddities.

This actually was the kind of moment we evangelicals call a moment of "conviction." I think.

Wales - Grand Slam! Six Nations Rugby

I spent this afternoon with my Welsh friends at McGann's Pub in Boston. It was a day of Rugby games. I arrived while England was trouncing Ireland (to my surprise), and to the chagrin of the green jerseys in the standing room only pub.

The Wales/France game began at 1pm, and only a lone voice or two with French accents rose in the pub now filled with more red shirts than remaining Irish green. This was unique moment for the Boston Welsh Society, and in fact for a Welsh gathering in the US. There was actually a good group of Welsh together and yelling for their team.

As the game began, the Welsh expats, and myself stood and sang the Welsh national anthem together. Well, I gave it a try, but still haven't memorized the words. Sorry for the 2005 link, but the 2008 one isn't out yet.

"Wales! Wales! Wales...!" the pub rocked with the cheering, and the flags of the Ddraig Goch, and Aled Jones' red and yellow flag of Owain Glyndwr flew whenever Wales scored. After a mixed first half of trading penalty kicks, and France beginning to show some serious muscle on the run, Wales hard hitting defense, and ability to take advantage of mistakes paid off with a second half rout.

29-12 was the final score. Phil Budden, the British Consul General in Boston arrived toward the end of the game, and provided free Beer and Guinness for we celebrating Welsh fans. I can't describe how at home I feel with anything Welsh. Strange for a California boy (or is that "boyo?") like myself.

So, at the end I suggested a plan for putting St. David's day on the map next year in Boston. If you are Welsh, you will want to watch for this! The more people we can get to participate the more media attention we can get. We are going to pray like St. David on St. David's Day! Like those early Celtic monks, we are going to gather a group together to stand in the river up to our waists on St. David's Day next year! Wanna join the fun? It'll be followed by a seriously Welsh Saint practice of downing a pint following I'm sure! Watch for information to come sometime late this year.