Category: Community Groups

What 2023 Might Spring On Us

WENVOE FORUM

Considering tomorrow today

Wishing you the best of the Season’s Greetings

As the year turns and we wonder what 2023 might spring on us, we wish for you all a space and a place to celebrate the New Year with family and friends, ready to look forward. Here we are in 2023, but let’s consider 2035!

To meet the UK target of a carbon neutral electricity grid by 2035, the government expects there to be five times as much electricity generated through solar power, which might take up an additional 0.2% of agricultural land. Wenvoe will be playing its part with many residents already generating electricity from rooftop panels, so many others inquiring about installations that the supply chain is struggling and community buildings earmarked for development. We have some solar farms already in the area and more are in the planning process including within the geographic boundaries of Wenvoe. They change the landscape, the landscape is always changing however and many readers may remember the outcry about the “excess of bright yellow” when the growing of oil seed rape as a crop suddenly changed the colour of the countryside. Farmers and landowners have always had to diversify land use, the key to success lies in thinking of the future to maximise positive outcomes. Accepting that solar farms are here for a while at least, as part of our electricity supply, what else can they provide?

Awareness has grown of how intensive agriculture, industrial development and the ever increasing demand for housing from a growing population has resulted in the decline in wildlife both in terms of numbers of individuals and numbers of species. Small mammals such as the brown hare, birds like the iconic Barn Owl, reptiles and insect species are all in decline. Particular concern has arisen recently about the decline in numbers of pollinators that are so crucial, not least to growing our own food supply. Solar Farms have a lifetime of between 25 and 40 years, a long period of little disturbance giving the soil an opportunity to recover and offering established shelter for wildlife. Solar Farms are often clustered together around good access to the National Grid and with positive local action it might even be possible to link these habitats by constructing corridors between sites.

Solar Energy UK, a trade association for all parts of the solar energy industry has published new Natural Capital guidance for its members on best practice aiming to:- “… promote the design, construction and operation of high-quality solar farm projects which support ecology and deliver additional benefits..”

The guidance considers the life cycle of a solar farm from Site appraisal and design through to Decommissioning and gives practical examples of the ecological benefits that can be achieved. With sensitive consideration of the site and the surrounding area it is possible to:-

  • Improve the soil health of previously intensively farmed land which encourages insects and the birds and animals that feed on them and avoids/reduces the need for toxic chemicals such as pesticides
  • Create new areas of meadow wild flowers providing food and habitat for a wide range of fast disappearing species, small mammals, insects, bees, butterflies, birds
  • Strategically increase the numbers and species of pollinators
  • Maintain and develop appropriate hedgerows to provide habitat
  • Increase further botanical diversity with scope to introduce long lost species
  • Create footpaths that sensitively allow community access to the enhanced ecology providing educational opportunities and supporting good health well being

A change in the landscape is inevitable, let’s engage with the developers of Solar Farms and work with them to secure a better future for our local ecology.

NB Statistics quoted are drawn from www.theconversation.com and the Solar Energy UK Guidance is available at www.solarenergyuk.org/ resources

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New Forum members are always welcome to join e-mail us e-mail gwenfo.forum@gmail.com.

Contact to us on :-Facebook: Gwen Fo@https://www.facebook.com/

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and Wenvoe Forum @ https://www.facebook.com/groups/635369267864402 or twitter

@ForumGwenfo. See our Blog site https://wenvoeforum.wordpress.com/

 

 

November 2022 Book Choice

“The Thirteenth Tale” by Diane Setterfield

What a lively discussion about this tale!

Synopsis

Everybody has a story.

Angelfield House stands abandoned and forgotten. It was once home to the March family. Now Margaret Lea is investigating Angelfield’s past and its mysterious connection to the writer Vida Winter. Vida’s history is a tale of ghosts, governesses and gothic strangeness.

Fascinating, manipulative Isabelle; brutal, dangerous Charlie and the wild untamed twins, Emmeline and Adeline.

What has Angelfield been hiding? What is the secret that strikes at the heart of Margaret’s own troubled life? And can both women ever confront the ghosts that haunt them?

Our Review

Well! Here are some of the comments in our discussion, we agreed that we would remember it was Halloween and that it was a FAIRY STORY.

Disturbing story beautifully told. Bizarre and unbelievable. Feat of construction of a huge cast of characters. Well crafted and descriptive. Didn’t enjoy. Love her writing. Descriptive and drew you in. Compelling with a fascinating twist. And so the debate went on ……

This is an example of the beauty of the language for me:

“Bones?” said Miss Winter. She was paper-white and there was an ocean in her eyes, vast enough to drown all my fury.

“Oh”, she said.

Oh. What richness of vibration a single syllable can contain. Fear. Despair, Sorrow and resignation. Relief of a dark, unconsoling kind. And grief, deep and ancient”.

Our score was a resounding 8. I think that can stand as a recommendation so how about giving The Thirteenth Tale a go and let The Page Turners know what you think.

Sylvia Harvey

 

Solar Photovoltaic Panels

 

WENVOE FORUM

Considering tomorrow today

Solar Photovoltaic Panels

We wish you a Happy Christmas and may the New Year bring you good fortune. Let us all hope that 2023 is the turning point for addressing climate change; let us all take action and create change. This month Forum member Ken looks at Solar Panel installation.

 

Solar Photovoltaic Panels

If you ever considered Solar Panels to be an unreliable investment with a long payback, think again! The current price of energy means that you will have to pay a lot and you can choose whether you want to keep paying for all your electricity or use at least some of that money as an investment with a typical simple payback of around six years and free power thereafter. This paper identifies potential pitfalls so that you can take care.

The rise in prices for energy have resulted in havoc for the solar energy market with large numbers of suppliers being inundated with enquiries and orders. Some have simply stopped considering new enquiries because they already have enough work until spring. Many entrepreneurs have recognised the opportunities of this market and started or bought small businesses to quote for supply and fitting of solar panels and related equipment but I wonder how many of these will fail, as do most new small businesses, within the first few years. Customers risk price increases before installations are completed and the lack of assurance that the supplier will exist to provide any follow up.

For most new customers, the potential purchase of solar panels is comparable in size to that of their car but there the similarity of transactions ends. For cars, the market is awash with product information and comparisons and innumerable registered dealers backed by the car manufacturers. For Solar Panels every request for information seems to result in a sales person making their assessment of what you need and giving a quote which may include product brochures but little opportunity to compare and assess anything more than total cost and a payback calculation that is totally dependent on the assumptions made by the sales person.

The general assumption that your current annual consumption is a good basis to identify the number of solar panels is not good enough unless you really use the same amount of electricity every day. Check your electricity bills and note the amount used (in KWH) each month. Identify reasons for peaks and troughs and whether they should be included in forecasts of the future.

Typical usage will be highest in the winter and unfortunately that coincides with the period in which the solar panels produce the lowest amount of power. It is not worth quintupling the number of panels in order to cover January, but simply doubling the number needed to cover June will cover March to September and make a good contribution in the other months.

 

Free solar power is not the only benefit of installing solar panels and a battery. The battery can be charged with relatively very low cost electricity overnight and that has clear benefits in the darker 4 months. So choose your electricity provider on the basis of both day time and night time tariffs and what you can get for exporting your excess power.

Before you contract and pay a deposit, investigate whether the company is one you want to rely upon and whether any deposit would truly be covered by any guarantee scheme. It took me a long time to recover my deposit from a company that was not a member of the scheme stated in their contract.

The author has no financial interest in any related business and readers are welcome to address any questions on this subject directly to Ken @gwenfo.forum@gmail.com putting Ken Solar Panels in the title box.

 

To join our Facebook group, please ‘friend up’ with the Gwen Fo account @ 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 gwenfo.forum@gmail.com if you wish to join.

 

 Neath Canals 

 Neath Canals 

This is an easy walk in the Vale of Neath, following the Neath Canal and back along the Tennant Canal.

The river Neath is known to have been navigable to Neath town bridge for sea going ships since Roman times. The Neath canal was preceded by several smaller canals connecting industrial sites to the river. In 1790 it was decided that a canal from Pontneddfechan to Neath would be of public benefit. Construction started in 1791, one of the building contractors was imprisoned over financial irregularities in 1794, and it was completed in 1795. For the first 60 years of its existence the canal prospered and in 1845 a £100 share was worth £350. As much as 200,000 tons of coal was carried annually, as well as iron, ironstone, fire/clay bricks, silica, lime, gunpowder and building stone. The opening of the Neath and Swansea junction canal (Tennant canal) in 1824 led to traffic being diverted, as Swansea had better shipping facilities. When the Vale of Neath railway opened in 1851, canal trade dwindled and in the 20th century the canal closed. It was maintained for the supply of water to industry, but navigational structures (locks) were abandoned and became derelict.

Restoration began in 1974 with the formation of The Neath and Tennant Canals Trust. Both canals are owned by private companies who have lost their income from selling water so there is little money for maintenance, and they are wary of others working on the canals because of insurance liabilities. The Trust is limited to work approved by the canal owners which is often just litter picking. They want to see a master plan created which would preserve the canals and promote them for well-being and tourism.

It was a wet day and we set off in full waterproof gear. As we began our walk along the Neath canal, we puzzled over what looked like a dog’s kennel on the opposite bank of the canal – a cheap duck’s house? Then we walked past a huge gas depot – every type of canister and gas you could imagine.

South of Tonna is the Neath canal Depot where there was a smithy, workshop, wood seasoning shed and sawpit as well as the lock keeper’s cottage and stables. In its heyday it would have been extremely busy with lock gates being built and repaired, boats maintained and horses which towed the barges being cared for. Some of the buildings are still standing. The man living in the cottage obviously has a sense of humour as there were several figures on the land past the house including skeletons and large cats sprawling on tree stumps. Ducks and geese swam peacefully on the canal.

Soon we arrived at the 13th century, church of St Illtyd. The last time we walked here we saw a bride arriving at the church by barge. Sadly, this would be impossible now as the canal is overgrown and not navigable.

The present St Illtyd church is built on the site of a much older church and probably the location of a hermit’s refuge. The tower of the church is Norman but the actual church dates to the time of St Illtyd, centuries before the Norman conquest. St Illtyd’s was the parish church for nearby Neath until the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII. The present church was rebuilt in 1859. CADW restored it in 2005/6, the final part of the restoration being to paint the outside of the church white with a solution of lime and tallow just as they did in the Middle Ages.

At Tonna we saw the river Neath. The canal passed through several tunnels, and we walked along what felt like narrow paths at its side. One of the tunnels was quite long so very dark on this cloudy day. Another had an ornate metal bridge over it and fascinating reflections of the ceiling and sides in the water.

After this our path became narrower until we came to an area where there were several small bridges across the canal, a rusted-out barge, and some derelict locks. Here we crossed to the Tennant canal. We planned to lunch here, but the pool was overgrown and the ground wet. Someone explored and we went to a small beach on the river Neath with an excellent view of the Aberdulais aqueduct, viaduct and lockhouse. The river was full, and we watched the water swirling around the arches and the weir as we ate. In 2020 Storm Dennis damaged the aqueduct overwhelming the low arches but the Inlands Waterways Association with the help of the Neath and Tennant Canals Trust formulated a plan in 2021 to save the aqueduct.

The weather was a bit brighter now and the remainder of the walk was delightful with reflections of trees in the canal and leafy walkways.

Walk 6m 170ft. Map OS165

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

OFF THE SHELF

“The Heart is a Lonely Hunter” by Carson McCullers

Carson McCullers’ first novel is known as a modern-day classic. To an extent it mirrors her own background of growing up in a poor mill town in the Southern United States.

The story tells of the lives of some of the townspeople and how they all gravitate towards a deaf mute called John Singer. They each confide in him with their problems and aspirations. There is Biff Bannon the local café owner, a teenage girl Mick Kelly who dreams of making something of herself, Jake Blount a political activist and the town’s African-American doctor Benedict Copeland. This doctor, despite his efforts and position in the town, is unable to change the residents’ attitudes of racism.

John Singer is patient whilst they offload their problems; they are completely unaware that he has his own pain, mourning his friend Spiros Antonapoulos, who has been banished to an insane asylum. McCullers, writing beautifully, portrays a sad collection of hopeless characters; yet there is something haunting about this book which most of us found to be food for thought and a good read. We gave it a score of 7.5.

Tricia Coulthard

Before The Coffee Gets Cold

 

OFF THE SHELF

“Before the coffee gets cold” by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

I think we all found the idea of this book interesting. Who would not like to go back in time, even for a few minutes. The book provided lots of discussion. The writing at times was a little underwhelming and the stories felt superficial. This could have been because some of the excitement/tension/emotion was lost in translation. Still frustrated that we didn’t find out what happened to the ‘ghost’. However, we all enjoyed the book and gave it an overall score of 8.

Tina Alwyn

 

Dragon’s Back 

 Dragon’s Back 

In spring, we talked about which walks we would like to do this year and this one was tops for me, but the summer was so hot that we saved it for the autumn. The Dragon’s Back is named after the shape of the hills which rise and fall like the spines on a Dragon’s Back and from a distance it looks like a sleeping dragon.

There is another ‘Dragon’s Back’ which runs from north to south Wales following the mountainous spine of the country. And people have been racing the route since 1992, taking about 5-6 days to cover 236 miles and ascents which would add up to twice the height of Everest!

Our walk was in the Black Mountains and more modest but still a demanding walk. We arrived at the car park on the A479, next to a pub to take the last parking spaces (there is an honesty box for payment). Unusually we were tackling the route anticlockwise to enjoy ‘an exhilarating finale on a switchback route along the crest of a long narrow ridge on Y Grib’.

We took a track towards Cwmfforest farm where we started a gentle climb which soon got steeper. Most of us took regular short breaks ‘to look at the fantastic views’ which were unfolding around us. As we climbed, we could see beyond the ridge to the west to Pen y Fan in the distance. Reaching a cairn, we followed a section of the Cambrian Way and coming round a mountain spotted Sugar Loaf and England to the southeast.

Surrounded by the awe-inspiring Black Mountains and Brecon Beacons, we were crossing moorland and bog, but paths improved by the national park and the dry summer – meant that what was normally bog was now just damp. We came to a steep section which has been reinforced with huge stones making this section easier to climb and preserving the countryside around us.

The high point of the walk is Waun Fach, (small moor) the highest point in the Black Mountains at 810m, it is the second highest mountain in southern Britain (Pen y Fan being the highest) and we felt the keen wind as we reached it. We met a group of deaf people taking a group photo. Then it was time for our group photo, and after heading downhill slightly a well-earned lunch out of the wind and looking over the next stage of the walk.

We saw a few people walking in T shirts, apparently with no refreshments or waterproof gear. But we were impressed by a family: a woman, man and two very young children were steadily climbing with the children stopping now and again to examine something which had caught their attention. The woman carried a rucksack, presumably so that the man could carry the children if it became necessary.

We continued, taking in the views of the Dragon’s Back and the distant hills. It was a perfect day for walking, not too warm but sunny with occasional cloud and the visibility was incredible; we could see the Bristol Channel, rolls of mountains to Pen y Fan and beyond to the west and the flattish landscape of the north stretching into the far distance. Gliders were being lifted by planes from a nearby airfield and then soaring on the up draughts. They mirrored a red kite which flew below us displaying its divided tail and distinctive colouring.

Now we approached the promised finale as we took in the crest of Y Grib and then dipped and climbed along the mounds of the Dragon’s Back keeping the 360O views. All too soon we were facing the last climb to Castell Dinas Hill fort. A few people opted to skirt around it but the rest of us struggled to the top. At 450 metres it is the highest castle in England and Wales and is positioned to defend Rhiangoll pass, between the market towns of Crickhowell and Talgarth. Standing there you get a sense of Welsh history and of the many people who have been there before you over hundreds of years The original Iron Age defence is reduced to stone wall ruins, outlines of ditches and ramparts. One piece of wall has an arch which it was decided was the ‘Dragon’s eye’.

A stroll downhill over a rickety stile, passing some beautiful oaks and lush grassland and we stopped briefly to look back at where we had been. A brief walk along the original track and there was the carpark with the Dragon’s Back Hotel beckoning us for a drink.

The weather had been great with no rain and the word I used on the day, for the walk and views was splendiferous – what more could you ask for? Walk 7.4miles 2100ft Map OL13

A map of any of the walks featured in ‘Footsteps’ can be obtained from ianmood029@gmail.com

 

September 2022 Book Choice

“The Fortune Men” by Nadifa Mohammed

The Fortune Men portrays life in the racial, cultural hub of Cardiff’s Tiger Bay in the early fifties. It centres on the plight of a Somali man, Mahmood Mattan, who finds himself on trial for the murder of a local shopkeeper.

Mahmood is a chancer, a father and a petty criminal who is innocent of the crime, but as the local paper of the day described, “Almost within a stone’s throw in which he lived in Cardiff, Mahmood Mattan was executed…” He was the last man to be hung in Cardiff prison. Many years later, the conviction and execution of Mahmood became the first miscarriage of justice case ever investigated by the Criminal Cases Review Commission and in 1998 Mahmood was exonerated by the Court of Appeal.

Nadifa Mohammed, whose father knew Mahmood, is herself a British Somali and seems well placed to write Mahmood’s story. Nadifa manages to paint a credible picture of life and the events in the 50’s that led to the wrongful conviction of Mahmood for the murder of a white woman just because of the colour of his skin. It is a story of racism, discrimination, police corruption, conspiracy and cruelty.

The Page Turners thought it was an important story that needed telling, as racism remains an issue today, and on a regular basis there seem to be reports of miscarriages of justice when wrongly convicted people are freed.

Many book club members thought the writing style and language used was difficult, especially when there were many words in foreign languages that were not translated. Some felt that sentences and

descriptions were overly long and descriptive passages tedious to read. Some readers did not like the fictionalised account of this historical event and would have preferred to read a biography of Mahmood.

Everyone agreed it was an important event that needed to be told; the discussion was mainly around the telling. Have a read and judge for yourself! The Page Turners average score was 6.5!

 

The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

The Victorian language of flowers was used to convey romantic expressions: honeysuckle for devotion, asters for patience, red roses for love.. But for Victoria Jones it’s been more useful in communicating mistrust and solitude. After her childhood spent in the foster care system she finds she has a gift for helping others through the flowers she chooses for them. The story follows Victoria’s blossoming into adult life as she haphazardly learns to trust and be trusted, to love and be loved.

This book was well received by the majority of us. It was agreed that the effects of the care system upon young people was very well understood (the author had herself been a foster parent). Victoria’s difficulty emerging into independent life was palpable; we wanted her to succeed in life.

The history of flowers and their changing language was beautifully versed. The inclusion in the book of a dictionary of flowers and their language made for fascinating study, although there was disappointment when favourite flowers of our own turned out to have negative attributes (eg sunflower: false riches, yellow rose: infidelity) There was relief by most that the book ended on an optimistic yet realistic note. This enjoyable book scored an average of 7/10.

Drop Some Of Your Carbon Footprint

WENVOE FORUM

Considering tomorrow today

Click and drop some of your carbon footprint

How many of us really think of the electronic data we store as part of our carbon footprint? Not many we suspect, until someone like us, points it out. We may be familiar with the idea that server farms, huge banks of computers, that are used for creating crypto currencies like Bitcoin; use lots of energy. But have you considered that all the data that Google, One Drive, Photobucket, Instagram, Facebook, etc etc etc “generously” save on our behalf, free of charge is using energy and therefore has a carbon footprint. If you generated the data it’s your carbon footprint!

Of course some of that carbon footprint replaces a much higher footprint represented by other non-electronic forms of data storage. For example, over its lifetime, the valuation report of 64 pages on a prospective house purchase surely generates, less greenhouse gas emissions as a digital version rather than printed out. However, here is where you might be able to do your bit to reduce global warming. If that report from 2015 is still stored in the cloud, it is still using energy and every day it sits there unused it is using energy. This is where you can help, delete it when you have finished with it.

According to Tom Jackson, Professor of Information and Knowledge Management, Loughborough University and Ian R. Hodgkinson Professor of Strategy, Loughborough University writing in The Conversation (theconversation.com) huge amounts of data is stored unnecessarily and energy is wasted contributing needlessly to greenhouse gas emissions. Jackson and Hodgkinson provided some staggering statistics.

More than half of the data collected and stored by firms is only used once

For a typical data based business, say insurance, of 100 employees they create 3 000 gigabytes of unwanted, but saved, data every working day.

Storing that data for one year has a carbon footprint equivalent to 6 flights from London to New York

Over a year, the never to be used again data that companies store has the carbon footprint of 3 million transatlantic flights.

Back in 2020 is was estimated that all digital data storage accounted for 4% of total greenhouse gas emissions and was growing rapidly

Unless action is taken, by 2025 and estimated 181 zettabytes (that’s 181 trillion gigabytes if it helps) of data will be stored; much of it unwanted and gobbling up energy unnecessarily.

Clearly as individuals we are small fry in the data stakes, however, as often, it’s a case of everyone needing to do a little bit which adds up to a lot. Let’s imagine you take 10 photographs of the family around the Christmas tree intending to send one to relatives in Australia with a Christmas message. Lunch is ready and rather than deciding which, you save them all to Photobucket to sort out and send later. It is likely that the majority of them become unwanted data as you never delete them. If you consider how many mobile phones there are you can see how if everyone takes a little care about what is happening to their data a chunk of global warming could be avoided.

We urge you to just stop and think about what you deliberately save to the cloud to your own Drop box space or Google drive or whatever you use. Go back and delete photos and files that you don’t want or better still select the version for long term storage as you save them and get rid of the others. Be mindful that some applications will keep a copy of your data even after you have deleted it, but that discussion is for another time.

New Forum members are always welcome to join e-mail us on gwenfo.forum@gmail.com Contact to us on :-Facebook: Gwen Fo @ https://www.facebook.com/gwen.fo.1/ and Wenvoe Forum @ https://www.facebook. com/groups/635369267864402 or twitter @ForumGwenfo

A Round Up Of Activities

Considering tomorrow today

A round up of activities

We had a great time at the Wenvoe Village Show. Well done all those Wenvoe Hub volunteers for rekindling it after the restrictions of Covid over the past couple of years. This year’s at times, very hot and very dry weather has made it a surprisingly difficult one for gardeners, especially inexperienced ones but the show gave motivation for some to expose their hard won produce to keen eyes of judges. It is a lot of hard work to organise but a lovely opportunity to get together.

The Wenvoe Forum decided to join in and we had a stand set up outside in the car park and provided some information. We spoke to lots of people about the various things the Forum has been involved with recently and for those of you who weren’t there here is a round up.

Maybe it was the warm afternoon and the thought of a cold beer that set the agenda, a lot of people were interested in the Community Hop growing. A few Forum members and others in Wenvoe have been growing hop plants in their gardens, harvesting them and sending the cones to join the crop of the Community Hop growing group in Cardiff. They are made into a delightful green hop beer provocatively called Taff Temptress, brewed by Pipes of Cardiff. The Forum has an aim of recruiting enough local growers to brew Wenvoe’s own community beer. Judging by the interest at the show and the new growers recruited, we might not be so far away. If you want to join us e-mail gwenfo.forum@gmail.com.

Along with most of the world, we have been focussing on energy recently and have been asking residents to complete a survey for us. We are trying to assess what we can do to help people in this coming winter when energy prices are going to be so high. We do know the answer would probably be “cash” but in the long run we have to learn to do without fossil fuels and other carbon creating heating, lighting and cooking methods. The real answer is to use less energy altogether and now seems a perfect time to accelerate the process of learning how to do that. Our survey offers different ways in which we might be able to help for the community to prioritise what the forum develops. Please complete it by 31st October, you will find it on our blog site https://wenvoeforum.wordpress. com/ or we will leave some copies at the library and please pass it back to the library or e-mail it to us gwenfo.forum@gmail.com. To encourage you to complete and return a survey, each that includes a name, will be entered into a prize draw for a bottle of wine.

On our table at the show we had a recording of Manny Ebubedike’s thorough rundown of a host of energy saving tips small and large. The recording is a must listen and you will find it via our blog site. https://wenvoeforum.wordpress.com/

One way we can help was mentioned last month. Tackling some of the bigger alterations and installations that will help reduce energy use and keep those bills down is a daunting prospect, full of potential pitfalls. The community could actively help each other with some of these issues by sharing their own experiences. Those who have already travelled the path could shine a light for others. One of the activities we will be undertaking is creating a few case studies and making them available on our blog site. If you have experienced the purchase and installation of a solar panel scheme or of a heat pump or improving insulation, and you are willing to share the story whether good, bad or indifferent as an anonymised, written, case study, we would like to hear from you. A forum member will interview you and do all the hard work of writing it up. Nothing will be made public without your permission. Please e-mail gwenfo.forum@gmail.com, your e-mail address will go no further without your permission. You may be able to help someone get on the road to a more climate friendly future.

To help keep children interested while their parents or grandparents were talking to us at the stand, we held a free guess the name of the bear competition. So now this delightful little bear has a new home and is called Embo.

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