Category: Community Groups

Valeways Walks March 2024


Valeways Walks March 2024

 

 

FOOTPATH – WENVOE 41

The footpath between Vennwood Close and Wrinston Farm was closed at the start of this year after the footbridge across the ditch leading onto the old railway route collapsed. A new bridge, with gates, has now been installed making the route safe for use again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEW KISSING GATES

Recently, five Valeways volunteers joined with 3 Public Rights of Way officers to install 3 new kissing gates, one to replace a severely damaged wooden stile, the other two on a newly created route around Greave Farm, Wenvoe instead of through its yard and buildings. The work involved removing an old stile, digging new holes for the new gates, the 3- part gate assembly and securing with concrete. Then finishing off with some landscaping, ensuring the boundary was stock-proof and finally waymarking the new structures and surrounding indicators to make walkers aware of the new route. A job well done and enjoyed by all.

For more information about Valeways walks, strollers, self-guided walks and volunteering, visit www.valeways.org.uk

 

 

“The Marriage Portrait” by Maggie O’Farrell

“The Marriage Portrait” by Maggie O’Farrell

Regular readers may remember that we reviewed this book briefly last month; it was received by one of our group from our “lucky dip” read in December. Our group member recommended that we should all read it as our January book.

The author Maggie O’Farrell has based this book loosely on historical characters who lived in 16th Century Italy. Lucrezia de’ Medici was a 16 year old who, it is rumoured, may have been murdered by her husband. The author came across a very small oil painting of Lucrezia and felt that she could imagine the life of this young girl who died at such a young age.

In 2020 O’Farrell started writing a novel about this imagined life. The book focuses on Lucrezia who was the third daughter of the Grand Duke Cosimo de Medici of Florence. Her older sister was betrothed to 27 year old Alfonso, Duke of Ferra. Sadly, this young woman died before they married and it was decided that the 13 year old Lucrezia would become Alfonso’s wife. The marriage is one of political convenience and Lucrezia is a pawn in this power union. The story starts one year into the marriage and Lucrezia is convinced that her husband is intent on killing her. The narrative rewinds to show the reader what has happened in Lucrezia’s life to reach this point. O’ Farrell’s writing is descriptive and she paints vivid images. She beautifully illustrates life in an Italian court in the 16th century and the insignificance of women in the courts of powerful men at that time. The story alternated between two time periods and several members of the group did not enjoy this, stating that it was difficult to follow.

The group also spent time discussing whether this book could be classed as a historical novel or a novel with historical content. The majority of the group felt that they became emotionally engaged with the characters especially the main one, Lucrezia and enjoyed the surprise ending.

Although two members of the group felt that this was not one of Maggie O’ Farrell’s best novels, the rest thoroughly enjoyed the story and gave it strong recommendations. The overall score was 8 out of 10

Cancer Strollers at Cosmeston

LIVING WITH CANCER STROLLERS

Cancer Strollers at Cosmeston

 

A sun filled blue sky greeted the Living with Cancer Strollers at Cosmeston for their February walk. Coats and hats were abandoned as we strolled through the woods and around the lakes. Who wouldn’t enjoy a walk, a chat and a coffee in such beautiful surroundings?

 

 

The Glorious Vale Of Glamorgan Coast

The Stress Buster Strollers

 

 

Is there a better way to spend a Tuesday morning than walking along the glorious Vale of Glamorgan coast, with friendly folk to chat and laugh with? Ask the Stress Buster strollers who enjoyed their leisurely Tuesday morning stroll with fabulous views across to English shores

“Metronome” by Tom Watson

OFF THE SHELF

“Metronome” by Tom Watson

This dystopian novel was highly praised on BBC TV programme ‘Between the Covers’ We had mixed feelings; most agreed that it was well written and portrayed the desolate island landscapes convincingly. The thoughts and feelings of the characters drew the reader into their alien and bleak world. Some of us found it a page-turner, however, we all agreed that the further we read the less believable the story became. Ultimately, although expertly written, we decided it was a frustrating and flawed story.

We gave it 6.5

Tricia Coulthard

Community Library March Events

WENVOE COMMUNITY HUB

Tel: 02920 594176 – during opening hours or wenvoelibrary@outlook.com

Like and follow us on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/WenvoeCommunityLibrary

For general enquiries you can email us at wenvoelibrary@outlook.com

MARCH EVENTS

Cuppa with a Copper – 2:30 Wed. March 13th

Wellbeing Group – 2-3 Friday March 15th.

Talks at the Hub – Gardeners’ Question Time 7 p.m. Friday March 22nd

Our horticultural experts: Mike Tucker and Joyce Hoy are waiting to answer your gardening questions.

Everything Welsh

To celebrate St. David’s Day, this month’s article focuses on Wales and the Welsh Language.

Clwb Clonc, our Welsh language group has been meeting for about eight years now and has been so successful that we have had to split it into two groups. Members range from native speakers to entry level learners.

We just chat and develop our speaking skills. There is no pressure to speak, and new members often find it useful to just sit and listen to how the language is pronounced and spoken. Members say that practising the language improves their vocabulary, builds their confidence, and advances fluency.

We work closely with Dysgu Cymraeg, and many of our members attend classes at Palmerston and other centres across the Vale. To support their learning, the Hub holds reference copies of all the workbooks used by these centres from entry level to proficiency and we hold the full range of the recommended reading books to support the courses which are available for loan.

This year, the Welsh National Eisteddfod, which is the largest cultural festival in Europe, is held in Rhondda Cynon Taf so we are planning a bus trip to join the fun. Further details to be released soon.

Whether you are a Welsh learner, a native speaker or just interested in Welsh history and culture, are you aware of the resources freely available to you from libraries across the Vale and from the Vale of Glamorgan Library page?

My Digital Library provides a fantastic collection of online resources – over 200 top e-magazines, 25,000 e-books and hundreds of e-audio books, e-comics – all for free, simply join the library! Scroll down the page to also find access to a selection of reference resources about Wales, free newspaper archives and family history resources.

People’s Collection Wales is a free website dedicated to bringing together Wales’s heritage. The Collection is full of fascinating photographs, documents, audio and video recordings and stories that link to the history, culture, and people of Wales. These items have been contributed to the People’s Collection Wales website by national institutions, individuals, local community groups and small libraries, archives, and museums across Wales.

The National Library of Wales offers a wide range of electronic sources, ranging from scholarly journals to encyclopaedias and newspapers. Ask a Librarian is a free online service that allows you to ask a question to the enquiries team at the National Library of Wales. The National Library’s dedicated, knowledgeable, and bilingual enquiries staff are available to answer enquiries which are based on the varied collections held at the library, as well as basic genealogical enquiries.

BorrowBox. Enjoying e-books and e-audiobooks? The BorrowBox website and app is now available in Welsh.

Dictionary of Welsh Biography This website contains over five thousand concise biographies of Welsh people who have made a significant contribution to national life, whether in Wales or more widely.

Geiradur Prifysgol Cymru is the only standard historical dictionary of the Welsh language. It presents the vocabulary of the Welsh language from the earliest Old Welsh texts, through the abundant literature of the Medieval and Modern periods, to the huge expansion in vocabulary resulting from the wider use of Welsh in all aspects of life in the last half century.

The Welsh Academy English-Welsh Dictionary online. A digital version of the Dictionary

Valeways Walks Really Are For Everyone!

LIVING WITH CANCER STROLLERS

Valeways Walks Really Are For Everyone! 

 

 

For the first walk of 2024 at Cosmeston, we had Anne celebrating her 80th birthday (with left over Quality Street from Christmas!!) and two teenagers accompanying their grandmother for a stroll around the park. And we stayed mud free…almost! Join us..all ages welcome!

 

Brynna

Brynna

Parking on the northerly edge of Brynna we took the track to the hills. It was a cold but beautiful sunny morning, and we were looking forward to some good views. Soon we came across a farm with lots of vehicles, some obviously still in use but many abandoned and one so deeply buried in brambles it was anybody’s guess how long it had been there.

Approaching another farm, I saw from a distance, a woman in full riding regalia mount a horse and ride off. Getting nearer we could see that there was ice on the surface of a pond, a sheep covered in mud from head to toe apparently stuck in a feeding trough, as it attempted to negotiate a very muddy area to access the trough.

There were ducks on the pond, hens and quail wandering around the farmyard and a couple of geese. Our ‘horse whisperer’ tried to soothe a horse in its stable who seemed to have something caught in its throat – probably just a seed from the oats but it was causing obvious irritation.

Back out on open areas we could see the tops of wind turbines sat stationary on the hill. A tree trunk facing the full sun had a hole which was alive with honeybees buzzing in and out of the trunk, a few of them even seemed to be sunbathing as they perched with their backs to the sun on the edge of the hole.

Before long we were off the track and on mountain paths, crossing a field near Mynydd Hugh to the track which passes in front of the original wind turbines on the Taff Ely Ridgeway. When we reached the noticeboards, we had brilliant views of the channel and the vast field of turbines turning slowly. It was a still day and we wondered whether they were not producing electricity but being turned by motors.

As we continued the distinct outline of Tylor’s Town tip came into view. Then a member of our group pointed to some animals in a distant field ‘look how the long shadows of those sheep make them look like human beings staring our way’. As we got closer, we realised that they were not sheep at all but people on horseback all done up in their riding best

But curiously they didn’t seem to be moving.

It was lunchtime so we made our way to some rocks near the remains of St Peter’s Church. The church had a head stone for someone buried in the 18th C. We draped ourselves across the stones above and watched the ‘action’ as we ate. There were two Masters of the hunt dressed in red jackets, everyone else being in black. After a while we realised that there seemed to be a problem with the hounds: apart from a brief glimpse of a group of about six hounds descending the hill, we saw three individual hounds which one of the masters was calling from the valley just in front of us. But curiously most riders were just hanging around in the distant field.

As we resumed our walk, we realised that the riders were coming towards us along the path we were about to take, so we kept out of their way. We waited on the edge of a field as a long line of riders passed us. Later we met a few people who were leaving, and they said that they had indeed been watching the hunt rather than participating which meant that children could join.

Walking east a short way we spied the green Daffodil sculpture at Caerphilly and explored some tracks, then it was time to swing round to get back to Mynydd Coedbychan for the descent to the cars. Unfortunately, this bit of the walk was very wet and involved crossing a fast-flowing stream to an island before crossing a second stream to terra firma – it was clearly marked with footpath signs but once again rainfall had altered the terrain. Lots of encouragement was needed for some of us (me in particular) but as usual we found a way through.

At this point I spied my first buttercup of the season, just a tiny spark of yellow in the grass. Soon we gained the main track. Small groups from the hunt shared the track with us as they made their way downhill. After a sunny day the sky was darkening with clouds at dusk and the temperature was dropping as we arrived back at the cars.

A lovely walk on good paths, highlighted by the entertainment provided by the local hunt. Refreshment at a local hostelry rounded the day off nicely.

Walk 7.2m 1000ft Map OS151.

 

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