When we launched in March 2006 it was a helpful way to post links and share things of interest quickly and simply.

How times have changed.

Social media sites like Twitter and Facebook have been making it even easier to share links, stories, photos, films and to chat.

We'll continue sharing things of interest that relate to north east Wales - but these days you can find them over here:

- http://twitter.com/bbcwrexham
- www.facebook.com/bbcnortheastwales

It will be the tenor's debut at the Llangollen world music summer festival.

He will be performing with special guests including singer Faryl Smith and the National Symphony Orchestra.

He said: "I am absolutely thrilled to be following in the footsteps of so many international stars at what is known as the most famous eisteddfod in the world.

"This festival really 'keeps a welcome in the hillside' and I cannot wait to step foot on the pavilion stage and perform."

This year's festival, Llangollen 2011, runs from 5-10 July.

Other headline performers have yet to be announced.

In 2011 competitors from across the globe will take to the stage alongside household names in music.

Accompanying musicians include the National Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of Welsh National Opera, Mid-Wales Opera Company.

The news comes as the county mounts a number of exhibitions of art using recycled materials.

An exhibition of baskets made from recycled materials by Lois Walpole is currently on at Denbigh and Ruthin Libraries.

Meanwhile, artist Maxine Hendy uses a variety of materials including newspaper, cardboard, sand, grit, slate, found glass and CD fragments in her exhbition at Rhuddlan Library.

A lampshade from Morocco made from recycled materials

An amateur astronomer who became a pioneer of astrophotography, Isaac Roberts, came from Groes, near Denbigh.

Born in 1829, he spent his early years near Denbigh before moving with his family to Liverpool, but despite never returning to the area he didn't forget his Welsh roots.

It was taken in 1888 at a time when few people even owned cameras.

The photograph is significant because it revealed detail of the spiral structure of the nebula never seen before.

Roberts died in 1904, leaving behind a wife, Dorethea Klumpke, herself a keen amateur astronomer, and leaving money to the universities of Bangor, Cardiff and Liverpool in his will.

Glyndwr University is holding a Stargazing Live event on 12 January so amateur astronomers who may be keen to follow in the footsteps of Roberts can find out more about the night sky.

Another photo shows what looks like the inside of the tower and gives some idea of its scale and the conditions faced by workers in an era when health and safety in the workplace was probably less of a priority than it is today!

And it has been shared by The National Archives which has been publishing some of its images on the photo sharing website, Flickr.

But other photos in their Flickr photostream include this one (below) showing miners who managed to tunnel 108 yards (98m) beneath Bersham in four and a half days.

It all started on Friday when Twitter-user Denbighshire council [@DenbighshireCC] sent their first flurry of tweets announcing school closures. [what's a tweet?]

This is in addition to their live noticeboard.

On Sunday, their website was updated announcing Monday's closure of Saltney Wood Memorial Primary School [due to a burst pipe, according to the Leader].

And, in turn, this updated their Twitter account [@FlintshireCC], giving plenty of notice to any families using the social media site.

More and more schools seem to be using Twitter as a way of keeping parents and students in touch.

And, in addition, others like Mold's Alun School [@alunschool] also provide a text service giving updates via subscribers' mobile phones. [Info available via their November newsletter].

Are you using these services?

Ysceifiog will be featured in the newest addition to the series and will be launched at the village hall today.

The other booklets already published feature Caerwys, Gwernaffield and Pantymwyn, Hope and Caergwrle and Nannerch.

The booklet featuring Caergwrle looks back to the time when the village was a tourist attraction with its own spa.

At one point the spa was generating 14,000 bottles of "saline fizzy water" a day and attracting visitors from Liverpool and Manchester.

Other visitors also travelled to villages such as Nannerch by train before the station closed in 1962 and holidaymakers such as Pat Gore share memories of their time there, in far from luxurious accommodation:

"The cottage just had two large rooms, one downstairs and one upstairs. Cooking and heating were done with a range and there was no electricity, running water or sewage system."

The booklets also celebrate village life in the more recent past.

Community events in Gwernaffield and Pantymwyn feature in black and white and colour photos with a visit by England football hero Kevin Keegan to open a 1975 fete one of the highlights!

He had relatives in the area and settled down for a while on the outskirts of Mold and became a familiar face in town while playing for Liverpool.

Postman on his rounds in Ysceifiog in the 60s, courtesy Hazel Formby

One of the photos contributed by Ms Formby [top] shows a postman on his rounds in the 1960s.

"He used to come round in a little Morris van," she said. "I knew things were going to alter - the type of van and uniform - so I took the photo."

Ms Formby also contributed information on Ffynnon Fair, the village's only source of water until the early 1930s, and on the Bard of Ysceifiog, also known as Will Ysceifiog, who died in 1855.

The booklets have been produced by Flintshire County Council with assistance from rural regeneration agency Cadwyn Clwyd.

Laptops with wifi access will be available during the drop-in session today at St Mary's Church where Suw is offering help and advice.

Already, there are lots of local businesses using social media tools like Twitter and Facebook to promote their businesses - but there's an art to it, according to Keith Dudhnath who runs a Llangollen B&B.

Keith emailed us to say:

"One potential pitfall is if you come on too strong with the selling - a mistake I see so many others making far too frequently. You have to respect the medium - it's social media, after all. We make sure that we're contributing to the whole and offering interest beyond only saying 'buy, buy, buy!' We remind people of what's going on in the local area, let them know about interesting events they might otherwise not know about, share our photos and experiences, and enjoy keeping in touch with former guests, being friendly with future guests and showcasing all that north Wales has to offer."

The free event has been organised by Cantata, a tourism initiative led by Denbighshire council to increase tourism-related businesses in the county.

As part of the event, a new website is launched tonight, Special Places in Denbighshire
which is an online book made up of locations nominated by locals.

Then and now views of Hope Street, Wrexham

A new BBC history project shows how our towns have changed over the years, with an exhibition in Wrexham and opportunities to take part.

The project, BBC Turn Back Time, uses photo sharing website Flickr to host old photos of high street shops with present-day photos of the same scenes.

People are being asked to dig out old albums to find photographs which depict the shopping areas of villages and towns. They can then take a picture of the same scene today - and compare.

There are already some fine examples. Photographer Jones the Camera shows how Wrexham town centre has changed in less than a decade.

And webmaster Peter, who runs Flint local history website, www.fflint.co.uk, has uploaded some films showing Flint in the 60s - before the tower blocks - via Youtube.

Co-Op Stores, Main Street, Buckley, Flintshire, c1910, courtesy Buckley Library

Plus, there are a range of activities involving local history societies and museums, libraries and archives taking place across the UK.

Cadw, the Welsh Assembly Government's historic environment service, and the National Library of Wales will be exhibiting at Wrexham Library.

A photo exhibition showing old Wrexham scenes starts on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Cadw staff will be asking people's views about their high street - good and bad - to help improve public understanding of what gives a particular high street its character [26-27 November, 11am-4pm].

Wrexham - looking up Hope Street, c1960s, before the town centre was pedestrianised

If you've got some old photos to share, add them to the Flickr group, BBC Turn Back Time, or use the form [below] to tell us more.

Looking towards Mold Fire Station with Aldi supermarket car park under flood water

It rained for what seemed like most of October, causing damage and misery for residents and businesses [as Wales Today TV reporter Matthew Richards found out in this online archive film].

Then came news of 'new' flood defences but that couldn't come soon enough as homes continued to flood.

By winter 2003, residents had their fingers crossed the work would be completed in case the heavy rain returned.

Some people were flooded four times in as many years.

People had to be shuttled to high ground via RNLI boats as the town centre was evacuated.

Although alleviation schemes were completed, further improvements were still being discussed in early 2010.

It was reported last month that 93 bakery staff await jobs news as the company was bought after being put into administration.

But it's not all bad news as a Wrexham answering service firm is to create 100 jobs as part of an expansion, says BBC News.

Tag: Jobs

The programme follows five people who take time out from their busy lives to try and discover why silence is so hard to attain in modern-day society.

As part of the series the five volunteers spent eight days at St Beuno's, during which no talking was allowed except for a one-hour counselling session each day.

St Beuno's attracts people from all over the world to its retreats

St Beuno's, near Tremeirchion in Denbighshire, was built in 1848 as a place of study for Jesuits.

The architect of the Grade II listed building was Joseph Aloysius Hansom who also gave his name to the Hansom cab.

St Beuno's most famous resident was the poet and Jesuit priest Gerard Manley Hopkins who studied theology there from 1874 to 1877.

During his time at St Beuno's Hopkins, who was originally from Stratford in Essex, wrote some of his best known works. He developed a strong affinity for Wales and learnt some Welsh.

Today, St Beuno's attracts people from all over the world with the aim of providing a quiet space for reflection and prayer.

As well as retreats, there are courses, seminars and workshops.

You can see how the five volunteers who spent eight days there fared on The Big Silence on BBC Two Wales, 27 October at 7pm.

Tests of the laser beam from Jubilee Tower have been conducted nightly this week

Sunday sees celebrations to mark the 200th anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone for Jubilee Tower on the top of Moel Famau.

The celebrations begin at 2pm with live music, street dancing and circus entertainment at the Bwlch Pen Barras car park.

Then, in an echo of the original event when 5,000 people walked to the summit of Moel Famau to see the foundation stone being laid, there will again be a procession to the site of the tower starting at 4.45pm.

At the top there will be a celebration with samba bands, laser show, search light and fireworks.

The sides of the tower will also be lit with video projection using images and text created by members of the public.

If you're attending the event please feel free to add any photos you take to our Flickr group of photos of the Clwydian Range.

The Jubilee Tower 200 website has further details of all events as well as a Share your memories section where people have been leaving their stories about visits to the tower.

Note: Thanks to artist Chris Oakley for sharing the photos in this weblog which were taken this week during his tests of the laser beam.

Yesterday, we heard 36 jobs could be going at a Mold cleaning company along with six more from the closure of Wrexham's passport office.

That came on top of news that a massive 180 jobs were going with the closure of a department at Shotton steelworks.

Plus, Flintshire council were looking at making savings with cuts in its leisure services, potentially affecting 21 jobs, - but councillors urged a rethink.

Last week, a bakery in Hawarden was taken over after going in adminstration, leaving 93 workers faxcing an uncertain future.

And talks began at the beginning of the month about the fate of 150 Tetra Pak workers due to changes at the factory on Wrexham industrial estate.

Tag: Jobs