Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

Thursday night, Louie, Titsch and I went out for drinks and food at St. Orres, an upscale restaurant near Gualala. Louie had heard that they had a new bar menu (dinners are in the $40 range), so off we went. We had a great time. Wild boar tacos $2.50 each. Big seafood quesadilla $10.00. Good! We each got a drink, then a bottle of red wine (there goes our low-cost night out).

   It’s a great building. Redwood, lots of light, some unique doors sheathed in copper. Attention to detail. They rent little cabins in the garden for around $150.

Titsch is a Welshman, last name Jones. My mom’s maiden name was Virginia Jones, so we’re distant cousins. (I once heard that there were 350,000 Jones’s in Wales, as well as a separate Jones phone book.)

   For the toast to our first drink, Titsch said, “yaccudda” — pronounced “yakki da.” (On Google it comes out as “yachydda.”)

We started talking about the Welsh language and Titsch said the longest place name in Europe was a Welsh town, which he recited, much to our delight: “Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch:”

He said the name meant something like “St. Mary’s church at the foot of the hill beside a willow tree next to whirling brook and a red cave.”

Wikipedia details here.

About Lloyd Kahn

Lloyd Kahn started building his own home in the early '60s and went on to publish books showing homeowners how they could build their own homes with their own hands. He got his start in publishing by working as the shelter editor of the Whole Earth Catalog with Stewart Brand in the late '60s. He has since authored six highly-graphic books on homemade building, all of which are interrelated. The books, "The Shelter Library Of Building Books," include Shelter, Shelter II (1978), Home Work (2004), Builders of the Pacific Coast (2008), Tiny Homes (2012), and Tiny Homes on the Move (2014). Lloyd operates from Northern California studio built of recycled lumber, set in the midst of a vegetable garden, and hooked into the world via five Mac computers. You can check out videos (one with over 450,000 views) on Lloyd by doing a search on YouTube:

8 Responses to Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

  1. Ha Lloyd – that night sounds like good crack – or in other words, excellent fun! The Welsh are a tonic when it comes to poetry, song, and long words. All the time I've been following your blog I suspected you had a deep stripe of CELT in you – so Jones it is – very good! Virginia Jones – even better! Keep her lit.

  2. well Lloyd, it is nice to hear of folks getting together and the goings on … in fact, i might say your post was "smile inducing"…

  3. Hi Lloyd

    It's good to be recognised as a separate country, most of your fellow countrymen have not heared of Wales(Cymru. They always speak of the UK as England, not recognising that the United Kingdom is made up of three separate countries, England, Scotland, Wales and Northen Ireland.

    I have to comment i check your blog on a daily basis and am looking forward to your next book.

    As a previous comment states you have a stripe of Celt in you, we Welsh are the original Britions (Brythionic/Prydain) we were forced to the far West of the British Isles, an example of this being the County of Cornwall was once knowen as West Wales, the similarity of place names will confirm this.

    Anyway keep up the blog, it's brilliant.

    David

    Carpenter, Chartered Builder, Chartered Environmentalist

    Rhondda,Glamorgan, South Wales

    Cymru am Byth (Wales forever)

  4. He he, I have been there. My parent s live in Snowdon National Park. Wales is , in my opinion, the coolest place ever!! It has a dragon on its flag… you can beat that xx

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