Category: Community Groups

Cwm Gynfig and St Athan

Cwm Gynfig near Margam Park

January produced some icy weather, causing anxiety about the forecast of snow flurries or freezing rain after 4pm. We parked on a road south of the route to avoid driving on icy/narrow country lanes. Although cold (layers were the order of the day) it was a beautiful sunny day, and we were soon striding out. Until we met streams of water running across the road, hiding black ice in places, when shorter tentative steps were taken.

We laughed at a sign on a gate ‘No Trespassing If you weren’t invited you aren’t welcome’. A field of goats were hidden by a hedge, but they ran around as we passed.

As we approached a farm, a woman came towards us asking ‘Where are you going?’. ‘How friendly’ I thought. But she changed her whole demeanour, became very angry and told us in no uncertain terms that there was no footpath through her land and if we went across the fields, we would find sheep, cows and bulls. Several people had maps in their hand and tried to explain quietly ‘look the footpath is on the map’. She would not listen to reason and berating us told us to go back down the hill and take another track; of course, the track was not a footpath. Our skilled navigators soon had us back on route and the rest of the walk passed without incident.

As the morning progressed ice on the paths melted but the frost remained with surrounding fields and tree stumps often retaining a sparkling white veneer. We had excellent paths throughout and walked a variety of areas – woodland, open spaces, and farmland. We spotted some fungi, foxglove seed heads, a buzzard and a heron.

As we gained height, we observed the devastation caused by recent storms. Trees tumbling over one another like matchsticks. Emerging from the forest it was very cold, and we walked faster.

 

An area where stones littered the ground, and heather grew proved excellent for lunch. Then we returned through the valley surrounded by rusty-brown, bracken covered hillsides – so much better to look at than walk through.

We enjoyed warming tea at Pyle Garden centre.

Walk 8m 1000ft. Map OS151/166

St Athan

Parking in Aberthaw we discovered that one of us (who will remain nameless but has experienced many years walking the footpaths of South Wales), realised he had brought two left footed boots and would have to walk in the shoes he was wearing!

It was a grey day with glimmers of sunshine. We started by walking back up the road to the coastal road, we stepped out quite smartly, hesitating only to look over the parapet at the structures within Aberthaw

We walked north across land associated with a castle and investigated the remains of a dovecote. Several trees had large black bracket fungus on their trunks. As we approached St Athan a large caravan/chalet park could be seen in the sunshine.

Turning south we could see the airport; several planes were parked up. Then our most experienced walker said, ‘I’ve never walked this path.’ It was a very short section, but the walk planner was very pleased to find something new!

On reaching the coast we scrambled over the stones and through the 2nd world war sea defences to gaze out to sea while we ate our lunch. The tide was out but five surfers entertained us by riding the slightest of waves.

This part of the coastal path was wet underfoot until we reached the firmer path in Aberthaw. A structure out at sea is the sea water intake used for cooling in the power station .There is a tunnel connecting the caisson to the land so personnel could walk out to it if required.

As a coal fired power station Aberthaw could supply enough power for 1.5 million households. It is now silent and there was evidence of buildings and contents being dismantled. When it was active, coal trains would come in and out of the site on a continuous railroad without stopping; the carriages released their load from the bottom onto a conveyor belt which carried the coal to a store. There is now a hill of coal ash at the edge of the site where several species have set up home.

Reaching the end of the high wall around the power station, we walked through the nature reserve back to the cars. Drinks in the Blue Anchor rounded the day off nicely. Walk 7.8m 280ft. Map OS151

Traditional ‘Lucky Dip’ At Christmas

‘Lucky Dips’ At Christmas

It has become somewhat of a tradition for a ‘lucky dip’ at Christmas for the Page Turners group. Everybody wraps a book and it is pot luck what you pull out of the hat. At our January meeting, members share their surprise gift.

This year was no exception with some members delighted with their find and others less so as gifts ranged from known and loved authors to short stories (as ever varied), to one person who was lucky enough to receive 2 books and one of them even had 2 books within 1!!!

A brief synopsis:

  • Maggie O’Farrell’s, “This Must Be The Place” was agreed to be read by the group for a future meeting as all had previously thoroughly enjoyed her writing.
  • “The Essex Serpent” by Sarah Perrin had been read by the group many years ago and was enjoyed by a new member.
  • “Cold Comfort Farm”, short stories by Stella Gibbons, whilst easy reading was recommended as a group read.
  • “The Sky Beneath Us” by Fiona Valpy, again described as a simple read but not recommended for the group.
  • “Ghost” by Robert Harris, whilst described as excellent by the reader, was felt not to be up to his usual very high standard of research and analysis.
  • “Burmese Days” by George Orwell didn’t go down a storm as the characters were described as unlikeable and uninteresting, the setting equally so.
  • “The War of Don Emmanuel’s Nether Parts” by Louis de Berniere was confusing initially and at times hilarious to read.
  • “The Woman on the Ledge” by Ruth Manseni, a thriller, was a great page turner;
  • “Mrs Harris Goes to Paris” AND “Mrs Harris Goes to New York” was great and the New York book built on her Paris adventures.
  • “Mystery Guest” by Nita Prose was described as written by an amateur Agatha Christie and not recommended for book club.

Once again we were fortunate enough to sample Babs’s Christmas cake which was up to her usual very high standards!!

“White Teeth” by Zadie Smith

“White Teeth” by Zadie Smith

White Teeth is the author’s debut novel which was published in 2000 to rave reviews. Smith was only 21 years old when she started writing the book and 24 when it was published. The whole group felt that this book did show that she was a talented author but that it did contain some immature writing throughout.

The book is about the lives of two main characters, Archie and Samad, who met in the second World War. It follows them living in multi-cultural London and chronicles their lives crossing and weaving together over many years as they try to reconcile where they fit into modern Britain. It brings in their wives, children and other people that they meet along their journey and focuses on them getting through their lives as best they can. The group felt that the plot meandered along without focus and although it intertwined, it didn’t connect easily. Many of the characters were not developed and were boring. The group didn’t engage with the story and said that their attention wandered while trying to read the chapters. There were a few glimpses of humour, a lot of swearing and some unbelievable situations. For all the group, the book lacked warmth and emotion, and nobody felt that it’s a book that they would recommend to others. The average score was 4 out of 10.

 

Many thanks to Lynne for hosting and providing festive refreshments

Wyndcliff to Tintern

Wyndcliff to Tintern

Wyndcliff to Tintern

The Lower Wye valley, Blackcliff and Wyndcliff, form a Site of Special Scientific interest containing rare plants and an ancient semi-natural woodland (dating back to at least 1600). Unusually small leaved lime trees grow over yews and rare plants include Twayblade orchid, toothwort, Tintern spurge and herb paris. Rare species include greater and lesser horseshoe bats, common dormice and high brown and silver-washed fritillary butterflies. Deer are a pest, as they have no predators.

A notice stated ‘Rich in natural beauty and natural resources the Wye valley has attracted both artists and industrialists. Abundant charcoal, limestone, timber, iron and water meant the lower Wye valley once teemed with forges, quarries, kilns and mills. As the birthplace of British tourism, a tour of the Wye valley also drew painters and poets from Turner to Wordsworth.’

We made our way to Upper Wyndcliff, part of the Wye Valley Woodlands. This was designated an area of outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in 1971 and straddles the border between Wales and England for a stretch of fifty-eight miles. A notice declares ‘Every season offers something special: bluebells in spring, lush summer leaves, fantastic autumn colour, and the beauty of winter tree silhouettes. Discover stately oak and beech trees as well as ash and cherry. We maintain the historic viewpoints by cutting back the trees. These offer spectacular views across the Wye gorge and river, across to the Bristol Channel and the old Severn bridge. You can enjoy these views all year round but especially in winter, when the leaves have fallen.’

And did we strike gold on our autumn walk. The ground and the trees were carpeted in golden beech and sweet chestnut leaves; it was a dull day, but the woodland glowed.

We passed a sign advertising ‘The Eagles Nest Trail’ a difficult walk of 1 hour and 1.25miles long. Now the walk started in earnest taking us up 365 steps to the top of the gorge. There is something about climbing steps which appears easier than walking up a slope, especially in this case as the steps vary in size from shallow steps to those which are a struggle for people with shorter legs. One section of the climb has a slanting metal bridge with a deep drop below it, scary if you suffer with vertigo and difficult for the person who had to carry their dog! As we climbed, we saw fungi, moss covering surfaces and amazing intricate tree roots clinging to steep faces.

Trees stood majestic a around us, dominating beeches gradually giving way to sweet chestnuts and then suddenly there were yews – more than any of us had ever seen growing in one place. We began to descend and moved into open fields where we could look back across the gorge to the autumnal colour of the woodland on the other side. On a side path we found the Tintern Limekiln, with two arched openings, it was used from 1700s onwards, for making lime by heating limestone to 1,000 degrees C. The lime was used in building for mortar, plaster and limewash and industry.

Descending a short stretch of road past houses, we found ourselves looking at the skeleton of Tintern Abbey so beautiful in its architecture. It was close to lunchtime, but we knew we had another climb so ploughed onwards and upwards, along a paved pilgrimage route, to St Mary’s church. The crumbling church is surrounded by fencing and warnings to keep away. It has been associated with Tintern Abbey since the 12thC, and the monks probably came here on retreat. Wine cooler, obelisk and pyramid graves are in the graveyard. Many commemorate the ironmasters who ran the wireworks along the Angidy, reflecting their wealth and power. A bright yellow glow came from a small gingko tree in the graveyard.

Church Grove Cottages had a lovely surprise, etched astrological clocks of various kinds were hanging on the walls, beautiful and fascinating. At the top of the walk, we stopped in the woods for an extremely late lunch. Someone joked that we had taken a wrong turn, and I was so hungry I said ’I have no sense of humour at this point’.

We passed a lake with glamping pods, named after woodland animals (fox, hare etc.), as we descended. Colourful trees reflected in the mirror of the water. We walked across farmland with sheep and cattle and the view opened again so we could see the Severn estuary.

We continued through Upper Wyndcliff once more to return to the cars at Lower Wyndcliff.

A superb day in beautiful woodland, rounded off with refreshment in the local inn in St Arvan.

 

Walk 7m 1700ft. Map OL14

 

Brecon

Brecon

We started at the Canal Basin, home to Brecon theatre and car park, although you must pay there is a café and good toilets. The theatre was built near the site of the town’s racecourse in 1996. Theatre in Brecon goes back to 1699, after the restoration of Charles II Brecon was one of the first places to have a theatre. The Canal Basin was once a busy industrial area with wharfs, a saw pit and a brewery but it is now a place to escape the busyness of life and enjoy peace and wildlife. There were several barges moored.

 

We left the Basin via a tunnel to follow the canal, the route was east, returning via the river Usk. The canal began as the Brecon and Abergavenny canal in 1800 and in 1812 joined the Monmouthshire canal providing access to Newport and the sea. The men who constructed the canal were called Navigators, now known as ‘Navvies’,

There are 27 historical plaques around the town and one house on the canal bank at Eliot St has added their own ‘NILOC ESMAJ 1703-1784 Time Traveller Lived here 2041-2046’! Dozens of ducks gathered around a young family who were feeding them.

At Watton Wharf, one of seven on Brecon canal, coal, lime and limestone would have been loaded on trams bound for Hay-on-Wye and beyond. Deliveries of wood, farm produce and beer would also have arrived here. As quantities carried increased, compared to horse and cart, some items became cheaper. In the early 19th century, the tramway from here to Hay-on Wye connected with the Kington tramway, Hereford; their combined length was 36 miles making it the longest rail network in the world at that time. Although steam locomotives had been invented this tramway was operated by horse drawn trams. The tramway has now disappeared but an arch across the canal indicates the site of the tramroad. The last commercial traffic was carried on the canal about 1915 and the final toll collected on the canal was at Llangynidr in1933.

On the Hay tramway there is a delightful wooden sculpture of a man with a trammer or draft horse. It has a list of fines for various misdemeanours, such as moving faster than walking pace, which range from 10 -20 shillings (50p-£1). The 20 shillings fine would be worth about £500 nowadays and any informant got half the fine!

Continuing along the canal we came to a row of limekilns. The day was now sunny and reflections of the greenery along the banks of the canal were clear

We walked through several tunnels and began to get glimpses of the river Usk. An information board had fascinating pictures of people, some with amazing headwear, working on the barges and tramway. The canals are now used for leisure and pleasure we came across a restored lock in good condition. Did you know that Victorians enjoyed pleasure boat trips on the canal and coracle fisherman used it.

We reached a point where the canal passed over the river and nearby, we saw lots of barges tied up along the canal bank and a man paddling a canoe at speed. Trees had long exposed roots which looked as if they were ‘walking’ towards the water. In an open area we could see the hills outlined around us.

Now we climbed onto a bridge and walked through some fields. At Llanfrynach we briefly visited the church with its lovely wooden beams supporting an arched ceiling and metal signs with the words of the Lord’s prayer and Creed. We stopped for lunch at a small playground where we spread ourselves around (a swing proved comfortable but a bit creaky with my weight!).

After lunch we crossed a field to reach the river and found a variety of fungi – King Alfred’s cakes, parasol mushrooms and shaggy inkcaps

Brecon appeared above us and in no time at all we were back in town. We came to the Usk bridge with its seven span arch bridges, which was built in 1563 and has been enhanced to carry modern traffic. Christ College, a successful private school is nearby. A Dominican Friary was established here c1250 and a collegiate church in Abergwlli, Carmarthenshire was moved, under a charter of Henry VIII, to this site in 1541.

The theatre café supplied us with drinks as we eschewed the town’s pubs of which there were 47 in 1834.

Walk 8.5m 200ft. Map OL14

“Midnight Blue” by Simone van der Vlugt

OFF THE SHELF

“Midnight Blue” by Simone van der Vlugt

The group were all quick to agree that this was an excellent easy read for the month and gave it a score of 8 out of 10.

The book is set in the Netherlands in the 17th Century and although lacks historical references there is an excellent plot which twists and turns throughout the story. Catrin, the main character of the book, is a strong and ambitious woman who leaves her hometown, after the death of her husband. There is a dark shadow cast over her exodus which gradually unfolds throughout the story and her dark past is forever following her. She first finds employment as a housekeeper in Amsterdam, where the city is flourishing, and it is here that her talents and skills as an artist are discovered. Catrin tries to fulfil this ambition but is thwarted until she leaves for the smaller city of Delft. As a designer of ceramics, she tries to survive life as a widow and finally marriage. The book is written in the first person, and this helps to develop Catrin’s strong emotions and feelings that have been formed by her relationships and hardships in her life.

 

Isobel Davies

“Hello Beautiful” by Ann Napolitano

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano is an unlikely title, for a book about William, who has great difficulties relating to a real world.

After a childhood of neglectful love, his parents had lost a baby and were incapable of showing any feeling. William’s one interest in life is baseball and he achieves a scholarship to a college. He meets Julia and her loving family of sisters who almost adopt William. So, the story continues with Julia, a great world organiser falling for William and they get married, later in life, they divorce, and he marries her sister, who through her love of books, understands William and his isolating life.

The group gave the book a score of 8 out of 10

Anne Gill

Energy Security

WENVOE FORUM

Considering Tomorrow Today

Why not build into the Community plan , – Energy Security

One of the potentially biggest problems facing us, here in the UK in the next couple of decades is the failure of our power generation and distribution network. The world around us has changed and will continue to change. Our National Grid, which was so efficient when created was designed to carry electricity from large generators to much smaller consumers and cabling, switches, controls etc reflect this structure with safety switches that blow if certain components are over stretched. The future is more likely to see small distributed generators feeding into the central system so the grid is upside down, back to front certainly, in some way, the wrong way round. Now the temptation is to give up and leave such matters to the Government, it is the long term strategic player, or is it? Governments have very short term 4/5 years of secure power to act, whereas the community may be here for generations. Setting Energy Security as a long term aim of the Community Plan informs the direction of travel, opens the way for perhaps a shared bulk purchase of solar panels, it’s a starting point and one which might be achieved.

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To join our Facebook group, please ‘friend up’ with the Gwen Fo ac-count @ https://www.facebook.com/gwen.fo.1 and then jon the Wenvoe Forum @ https://www.facebook.com/groups/635369267864402

Some further information and updates, blog site https://wenvoeforum.wordpress.com/. Any Wenvoe community member is welcome to join the Forum meetings, via Zoom, which are normally held 19.00 on the second Thursday of each month. E-mail gwen-fo.forum@gmail.com if you wish to join

“Still Life” by Sarah Winman

“Still Life” by Sarah Winman

This novel engendered a lively discussion and was generally considered an enjoyable and involving read.

The many characters are diverse and their lives are documented over four decades. Much of the story alternates between England and Italy, where the descriptions of Florence are highly evocative: several Page Turners remembered happy visits, although one reader had an unwelcome reminder of a bottom-pinching experience while there!

Much of the book explores the nature of enduring loyalty and friendship and how these survive absence.

Claude, the talking parrot, was deemed ridiculous, but entertaining. For some, the lack of quotation marks was irritating, but others thought conversations flowed more effectively as a result. Some varied comments: well-written with flashes of brilliance; disjointed; too many descriptions of meals and coffee breaks.

Two Page Turners enjoyed listening to the novel on eAudiobooks via the BorrowBox service at the Hub. A great read with score of 7 out of 10.

 

Many thanks to Sandra for hosting and providing delectable cakes.

Our Future Health Project

WENVOE FORUM

Considering Tomorrow Today

“Our Future Health Project

Nearly 2,000.000 people have already joined, how about you? ”

Last month’s Forum article suggested that we as individuals can, given the right help and information, have a substantial impact on our own health. It also touched on bigger scale actions taken by Government at all levels and one such project is Our Future Health. This is the UK’s biggest health research programme ever. As the name implies it aims to collect information now which will improve health in the future. Through working with a mind blowing 5 million people, nearly 7.5% of the population, drawn from all sorts of background, the programme expects to discover and test more effective ways of detecting, preventing and treating disease. There has been much discussion over a number of years about the focus of the health service and the need to invest resources in such a way as to encourage a healthy, long lived population and not just treat the sick. Our Future Health is part of this change.

Diseases often start in the body long before symptoms are noticed, and by the time individuals present to the NHS, the disease has taken hold and has already done damage. Much of the workload for the NHS is treating people who are very sick and we should be very grateful that the free at the point of delivery NHS that we have is there for us in our time of need. How much better it would be if we didn’t reach that crisis point. Detecting disease at an earlier stage means that treatment can begin sooner and is often much less intrusive and more effective. To explore what to look out for at an earlier stage a collaboration between public, private and charity sectors is actively researching on what can only be described as a huge scale.

Our Future Health will encourage individuals to volunteer a little of their time and possibly a small sample of blood. It will be really important that those participants come from all over the UK and from all sorts of different backgrounds so that they represent different ethnic backgrounds, different economic situations, different geographical areas, those who do and don’t have existing health issues etc etc.

The first step is for individuals to set up an account and they will then be able to complete a health and lifestyle questionnaire. Information is provided about how the project looks after data and at all stages consent is required. At any point an individual can withdraw and the data is held in a way that means the individual cannot be identified. The project will bring all of a participant’s health records together and the individual will be invited to attend a clinic where they will donate a small blood sample and complete some questionnaires and tests. Participants receive £10 in recognition of their help. Some of the blood is tested immediately but some will be retained for testing in the future which will be very useful and may shorten the development time of new diagnostic tests, treatments or vaccines. This huge bank of information will be available to researchers in the UK and beyond.

Nearly 2 million people have already joined and much more information is available at website ourfuturehealth.org.uk. This is something you can do to help improve the future for the whole population.

Our Future Health is a charity and company ltd by guarantee and it is supported by UK Research and Innovation, life sciences companies and disease-related charities.

 

Community Planning – Don’t forget that on 23rd November you can come to the Community Centre to talk about the future of Wenvoe and how Local Government, Service providers and the community can set out together joint ambitions for the medium and long term. Setting a long term plan is not easy, sometimes a long term issue is easy to turn into a vision but sometimes it is easier to identify what you don’t want for the future of Wenvoe. Either way, call in on 23rd for a chat.

To join our Facebook group, please ‘friend up’ with the Gwen Fo ac-count @ https://www.facebook.com/gwen.fo.1 and then jon the Wenvoe Forum @ https://www.facebook.com/groups/635369267864402

Some further information and updates, blog site https://wenvoeforum.wordpress.com/. Any Wenvoe community member is welcome to join the Forum meetings, via Zoom, which are normally held 19.00 on the second Thursday of each month. E-mail gwen-fo.forum@gmail.com if you wish to join

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