I have never know a SSiW without Leia. We played Scrabl Cymraeg on the Hwb TV set while volunteering at the Bro Morganwg eisteddfod. I have enjoyed her flying pictures/stories on Facebook and stories of her axylotal (not sure if that is spelled right). What a unique individual. An inspiration. Thanks Leia for just being you.
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Life is just better with SSIW
Ain’t that the truth!
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Lovely to catch up with our current Seren yr Wythnos in Aberystwyth yesterday. I had a feeling there would be at least a couple of SSiWers at the event I went to, but I didn’t know @leiafee was coming so it was great to see her again.
And “very tidy (in the Welsh sense of the word) tent companion” could also be added to her list of talents. I couldn’t have chosen better when I shared a tent with Leia at the Meifod Eisteddfod. I was a complete novice (I had to drive home for more blankets and warmer pyjamas after freezing the first night), but Leia had all the essentials - gas bottle cooker, various saucepans, and a stock of easy-to-cook-in-one-pan food. I was somewhat in awe, but she was a great teacher and I learnt enough to tackle it again this year on my own! Diolch yn fawr for showing me how an experienced person goes camping, Leia! 
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Do you remember Bootcamp, Leia?
3 people who’d done the first 10 lessons or so of SSiW. One of them had been learning from books for 10 years or so, and never really spoken to anyone, or listened to much Welsh before, And so couldn;t understand a word, and had an at times impenetrable accent. One was painfully shy, and wouldn’t speak unless she was absolutely sure she was perfect (which, as anyone who has even been on bootcamp will know, is just about never!). And you, who kept me sane and gave me a target to work with while we helped the other two.
But that was early days, and now you’re just one of my Welsh speaking friends that I bump into at most Eisteddfodau and all sorts of other Welsh language events. A good seren!
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I didn’t know where to put myself in that tent! It was so awesomely huge and I’m so used to fitting my kit into a) a twoman dome tent and b) into something I can transport on my back… Although I did have one pan-fail with the porch groundsheet!
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I’ve only just dropped into this thread and it’s great to see the recognition being given to these folk who have done so much to make SSIW the unique and welcoming place that it is. I have enjoyed your company so much in the past. So to Leia this week and to all those mentioned in earlier weeks, diolch o galon.
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Seren yr Wythnos #15
Sionned
To the best of my knowledge, Sionned (yes, she knows we don’t spell it with two Ns, but she’s sticking with it like that!) has never used her real name on the forum, so it’s not my place to change that - hence the Spenny-esque lack of a surname…
Sionned first visited the forum way back when in the mists of time - the dawn of SSiW! - and she enormously kindly offered to take on the fairly complicated and headache-inducing work of keeping the map - sorry, I mean The Map - up to date - which she has done brilliantly ever since, building it into one of the most interesting and impressive parts of the site.
She also became a calm and trusted moderator for the community, and joined us at one of the earliest (could it even have been the first?) birthday parties in Aberystwyth - at that stage, it was still hugely surprising and exciting for us to have someone come All The Way From America for an SSiW event…
It was lovely to welcome her and her husband Jim to our new home near Carmel just recently - I think they were the first people to manage to find us without a sat-nav, which was rather impressive…
Diolch o galon, Sionned - thank you for your brilliant work with The Map, thank you for your calm and clear-headed contributions as a moderator, and thank you for your endless kind support for SSiW… 
Iestyn ap Dafydd
Catrin Lliar Jones
Cat Dafydd
Dee McCarney
Spenny
Jeff Lewis
Ifan Baines
Kev Smith
James Mahoney
Louis van Ekert
Rob Bruce
Huw Jones
Diane Owen
Leia Fee
Sionned
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Great work on the map! I’ve had a look and it’s staggering! Diolch am eich help chi gyda’r gymuned hon 
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A big thumbs up from me and a thank you for her invaluable work with SSiW’s Mappa Mundi.
M and I had the pleasure of hosting her during the (possibly first) SSiW party and this year she and her charming husband visited again briefly before departing, map in hand, to the wilds of the Gwlad Teulu Jones.
She and her author husband are far more knowledgeable about the history of Wales than I am, which made our visit to Abaty Ystrad Fflur a learning experience for me rather than them. Her commitment to the Welsh Language is clearly demonstrated in the work she does for SSiW.
She is a woman of mystery (who may very possibly be on the run 
). On her last visit she offered me a choice of three names. I tried using her given name a few times but soon lapsed back into Sionned. The secret of her name is safe with me but I don’t know why I keep humming “My Raptured Gaze” whenever I think of her.
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Diolch yn fawr @Sionned You are so very helpful every time I have a query about anywhere in the USA, however obscure! You seem to have been everywhere and remembered everything! It surprises me not one bit that you are an authority on Strada Florida (Ystrad Fflur)! I suspect, if I asked about anywhere in any continent, you’d have a fair chance of knowing the answer! Every time I check the petition signature list, I do so with the comfort that between you and @Deborah-SSi i have wonderful back up!
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I’m more and more late to the party here because with each Seren yr Wythnos @aran puts bigger and bigger challenge in front of me what to say, and mostly what to do. You might be sick and tired of my “artistic works” but since I don’t see well it might be why I love to do such things like graphics, animations and stuff.
Well, @leiafee I don’t have much to say what others wouldn’t say already so this is my Diolch to you my own way (again)
(And yes, this occupied me for a week and kept me not to respond in time …
)
Thank you for your hard work on and off the forum and SSiW. You do great job for your language. Because of people like you, the language will live on. Thank you for comming to Eisteddfod gathering last year even if we hardly spoke any word with each other. I remember you being there but I’m not sure if we had a proper chat. I believe not, otherwise I’d remember. Also thank you for being my friend on FB so I can see your beautiful pictures from above and follow your work with Yes Cymru campaign. You’re a true seren!
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And to add my appreciation of @Sionned - she has also been a very supportive and constructive member of the SSiW Online Eisteddfod team since the early days.
Lovely to catch up with her during her recent visit to Cymru, and to meet her husband, Jim. They are both certainly very knowledgeable when it comes to Welsh history and culture, and have inspired me to learn a lot more.
Diolch am bopeth @Sionned
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Thank you @Deborah-SSi. I’ve noticed just later that you didn’t get your own “media diolch” but idea is already raising in my head …
@Sionned Diolch am y popeth and the most for being kind to me even when I wasn’t too kind to anyone. More follows in this week periode.
(Ideas, ideas … they’re shaping …)
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Awesome cool!
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I do! It seems like forever ago and yesterday at the same time!
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@Sionned 's elevation to a celestial body has prompted me to take another look at her incredible map. The resource is split into three areas - Wales, the rest of the UK and Ireland and the rest of the world (she has yet to add the inner planets.)
This and the ability to zoom into street level wherever you go has enabled me to do a world tour from my chair of places I have visited to check out how may Welsh speakers/learners there are there. I even found someone in Slovenia! Who’d have thought it? 
Diolch eto,Sionned.
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May, may … who would believe that! I’m sorry though you can’t “street view” my exact location but when you’re in my little country switching Google navigation on … ring a bell when you stop on our driveway. - hehe
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Oh, goodness!! Here I go out of town to a meeting for a few days and look what happens!?! I come back and find this!!
Thank you everyone, you are all very kind. I really do love the community at SSiW, and this just reinforces that.
And to answer a couple of question marks in Aran’s post - yes, it was the first birthday party - January 2012; and of course I could find you with a map - that’s what I do anyway, isn’t it?
Diolch yn fawr, pawb!
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Well done Sionned - thanks to your efforts, it is clear to the whole world that SSiW is the empire where the sun never sets…
…and poses the 'travelling Welsh learner’s problem": what is the shortest route for a Welsh speaker to visit all SSiW members on the map?
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