Category: New Items for July 2025
Latest post for the current month
July Letters
Dear Editor,
Gary, Carl and Leanne Davies and family would
like to thank all friends and family for their
magnificent support, messages and cards since the
passing of our beautiful, loving, caring and
thoughtful wife and mother, Nichola Davies. Nichola
was our world and meant everything to us and was
loved by so many people, especially for her
wonderful smile.
Thank you also to all who helped with the
‘celebration of her life’ on May the 22nd and to the
many, many friends and family who attended on the
day and made it a very special day. RIP my
wonderful wife.
ELY CORRIES SKITTLE TEAM
I really enjoyed Nigel’s article in the June
edition – Talkin’ about 1960s Vinyl Records. I’ve
never been knowledgeable about music myself but
do recall spending my allowance or early earnings
on singles and even an LP or two. The line that
brought back memories for me was this: “You didn’t
like every track, but you knew sooner or later
something would come up you liked.”
In this age of digital playlists and “skip”
capabilities (much easier than lifting the needle and
looking for the next groove), I sometimes forget the
value of listening to something that is not to my taste
and practising the patience, and hope, for something
I will like. Thank you, Nigel, for the memories and
the reminder.
Chris Hutchison-Hounsell
Summer Sunshine?
LIVING WITH CANCER STROLLERS
Summer Sunshine?
Summer sunshine? There was no sun anywhere to be seen in the sky above Cosmeston for the latest stroll. Instead, heavy rain poured down for the entire walk.
To lift the spirits, plenty of orchids were to be spotted in the fields. Well done to the hardy walkers who braved the conditions.
Thanks to Jan and Lynda for stepping in to lead.
Wenvoe’s Favourite Tree
Wenvoe’s Favourite Tree
Regular sightings of one or more Polecats on the wildlife cameras near the village has now confirmed that we have an established population of this rare and elusive mammal. It was once heavily persecuted and was on the verge of extinction. They were declared as vermin during Elizabeth I’s reign and the word was used to describe a vagabond.
By 1915 it was just hanging on in mid Wales and some border counties. However, it is now protected by law and making a comeback but there were only 896 confirmed sightings for the whole of the UK during 2024. Interestingly, there are no records in the last 5 years for Cardiff and Wenvoe – until now!! Most will be familiar with ferrets, but these are the domesticated version of the Polecat.
Polecats have a long history in mythology and folklore. Associated with the God Dionysus of wine, fertility and revelry fame but also the Norse Goddess Freya representing love, fertility and beauty and often depicted alongside her. They were valued by farmers and villagers for their pest control abilities, keeping down populations of rats and mice but also for their fur which was particularly warm and durable. Great to know that not only do we have a species coming back from the brink, but they can be really useful to us in helping to control our rodent population.
Operating For Over 50 Years
WENVOE PLAYGROUP NEWS AND EVENTS
Registered Charity, right in the heart of the Village.
www.wenvoeplaygroup.co.uk
The Playgroup has been operating from the Village Hall for over 50 Years. We are registered both as a Charity and with Care Inspectorate Wales to care for 30 Children at any one-time from the age of 2 years. We open from 9am until 1pm Monday to Friday and on Wednesday and Thursday we offer care until 3:15pm. Wrap around care for those attending Gwenfo Nursery School
We collect nursery age children from the Early Risers breakfast club at 08:50am and bring them across to Playgroup. We then take children across to afternoon nursery class for 1pm where they attend until 3:30pm. This allows care from 07:50am until 3:30pm Monday to Friday. Great for working families.
We collect children daily at 11:20am from Gwenfo Nursery and on into our lunch club until 1pm. On Wednesday and Thursday children may stay until 3:15pm. Ideal for those working part-time!
30 Hour Funded Childcare Offer Children from Cardiff and The Vale are benefitting from this offer. 12.5 hours are used for LEA Nursery and 17.5 hours per week can be allocated to time with us here at Playgroup. This offer is for children the term after their 3rd Birthday. To find out more, please visit our website:
www.wenvoeplaygroup.co.uk
Tax Free Childcare: We accept payment via the Government’s Tax Free Childcare. Currently, many families use this method to pay fees for all ages, or use alongside the 30 Hour Childcare Offer to top up extra hours and/or transition fees. Families set up a Tax-Free Childcare account and for example; every £8 the family pay in; Welsh Government pay in £2. For further information go to www.gov.uk/tax-free-childcare.
Further information can be found on our website www.wenvoeplaygroup.co.uk along with photos of our group in the gallery.
Our Statement of purpose and Admissions Policy & Procedure can be found in ‘DOCUMENTS’ on our website, which may be useful for times and prices. However; if you want to know more, please email or phone. All contacts are on our website.
Should you wish to be added to our list for 2025 or 2026 please email wenvoeplaygroup@btinternet.com.
We are holding an open morning on Wednesday 3rd September, from 09:15am to 11:15am. Please come along and view our group. We look forward to meeting you
We would like to thank all those who volunteer to keep the Playgroup operating successfully and wish you all a lovely summer break. We close on Friday 18th July, until our open morning on Wednesday 3rd September
Report from the Hub July 2025
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
Report from the Hub
July 2025
JULY 2025 IN OUR COMMUNITY LIBRARY / HUB
NEW OPENING HOURS
We are now open Monday, Tuesday and Wednes-day 10 am – 4 pm and Saturday 9 am – 1 pm.
Winners of Spring Raffle were D Hooper (ticket no. 55) and J Vaughan (ticket no. 27)
New Books
Wild Seed by Octavia E Butler
It begins when two immortals meet in an African forest.
Southern Man by Greg Iles
A music festival turns into a mass shooting in Mississippi,
Final Traitor by Andy McDermott
The mission comes first – you are a desirable asset. Betrayal is punished by death.
Bees and Honey by Steve Merishall and Rachel de Thoniple
A practical guide to caring for bees and using honey.
Summer Reading Challenge 2025
The Hub is launching the Summer Reading Challenge as it has done each summer. The Summer Reading Challenge encourages children to keep reading during the summer holidays, ensuring they are ready for a great start to the new term in the autumn. Children set a reading goal and collect rewards for reading anything they enjoy. Children can sign up at the Wenvoe Hub from 10th July and it’s FREE to take part.
All Primary School and Nursery children are invited to take up the Challenge.
This year’s Challenge is called Story Garden, and it is all about inspiring children to explore the connection between storytelling and nature.
From nature spotting to outdoor activities there is something for everyone. The children will be encouraged to create their own Story Garden from what they see in the natural world around them.
The 2025 Summer Reading Challenge will be launched in the Wenvoe Hub on Thursday 10th July; the day the school has their visit. Each child signs up to read at least 6 books over the summer holiday. They can be anything they enjoy: comic books, picture books, nonfiction and fiction. After every two books read, there is a reward and then by the end of the summer holidays a special certificate and a med-al. There are 3 rewards to collect and then finally the medal if six books have been read.
Last year our children did well. Sixty-eight from Nursery right through to Year 6 in Primary School, signed up and of these, at least fifty read at least two books. Seventeen children completed the challenge
and a further six were Super Readers. These were children who read more than six books. They received a special reward to celebrate their achievement. Let’s hope we can do even better this year. So, let’s get Reading!
Review – Buzzing with Knowledge: A Brilliant Talk Wraps Up the Season of Talks at the Hub
Our latest season of Talks at the Hub ended on a real high, thanks to an utterly fascinating session from Professor Robert Pickard. With wit, warmth, and a deep wealth of knowledge, he captivated our audience with The Wonderful Thing about Bees.
Professor Pickard, Emeritus Professor of Neurobiology at Cardiff University and President of both the Cardiff Beekeepers Association and the UK Central Association of Beekeepers, brought the world of honeybees to life with insights drawn from his own research and that of others.
We discovered that bees have been buzzing around for over 120 million years, evolving alongside flowering plants. Even more surprisingly, they share round 60% of their DNA with humans. It was mind-blowing to learn that MRI scans have even been taken of bee brains to understand how these tiny creatures process information and further medical research.
Among the many nuggets of knowledge that we absorbed:
- Bees can’t see red, but they do see ultraviolet, allowing them to detect dazzling petal patterns invisible to us
- Bees make collective decisions when swarming—scouting, dancing, debating, and reaching a consensus in a process that resembles political caucusing.
- They can even be taught tricks—and, amazingly, some are believed to keep pet flies to clean their mandibles!
Professor Pickard also shed light on lesser known facts: the use of tiny “skirts” for queen bees to pre-vent egg laying to control disease, and their exceptional sense of smell, enabling them to identify flowers by scent alone. We also heard about the famous waggle dance, translated by Nobel Prize winner Karl von Frisch, and how modern researchers have developed bee robots to replicate the dance to communicate with real bees.
It wasn’t just science—it was storytelling at its finest, leaving us all buzzing with new appreciation for our winged friends. Bees, it turns out, aren’t just brilliant pollinators. They’re complex, intelligent, and endlessly fascinating.
Heulwen Davies
Wenvoe Repair Café
Successful Junior Wildlife Workshop
Wenvoe Wildlife Group
Successful Junior Wildlife Workshop
A successful second Junior Wildlife workshop took place at the Elizabethan Orchard in June. Fully booked again and all who had booked turned up. The children made floral headbands, hunted for mini-beasts and enjoyed a picnic on a fine day. They found the Common Green Capsid bug and a Goatsbeard plant, both interesting discoveries. Our thanks to course organisers and leaders Angela Peterken and Claire Newland helped by Zak on the day, to the Reader family for providing facilities and Mike and Glynys Tucker for raising funds through their events. The final workshop for this year will take place in August – date to be advised.
A number of Swift nesting boxes have been installed on the farm buildings at Goldsland farm by Rhys, Lee, Lydia and Lee Burrows. Rhys will next be setting up the sound system which emits Swift calls to encourage them to investigate the boxes and to be installing some Swallow boxes.
Zak has been working with the group as part of his Duke of Edinburgh assessment. He has been doing jobs in the Community Orchard, making up wildflower seed packs and joining the Junior Wildlife workshop. Last year we helped a student doing the Baccalaureate to register her volunteering hours.
Two Months’ Worth of Reports!
Two Months’ Worth of Reports!
“Less ” by Andrew Sean Greer
This Pulitzer Prize winner was boring, uninteresting and not at all funny. So said all ten of us Page Turners. Our score was the lowest yet of one out of ten. Less was clearly not more.
However, it was lovely as always to meet up together for a welcome cuppa and exceptional bara brith and brownies. Thank you, Nicola. You spoilt us
“Frank and Red” by Matt Coyne
Frank is a widowed older man who likes to keep himself to himself. Red is a six-year-old boy who is chatty and excitable.
Frank is a gruff, ill-humoured loner since the death of his wife, Marcie, whose “ghost” does her best to cheer him along or put him straight on a few things. His house and garden are now neglected, and he’s turned his back on the world. Then Red and his mum Sarah move in next door after Sarah’s divorce
Red hates the new house, it’s tiny compared to his old house, he hates his new school, none of the kids speak to him, excluding him at playtime, and one boy in particular is a real bully. It’s no better at home, no one to play with, and then there’s Frank, the grumpy old man next door who’s really mean.
The most unlikely of friendships, but somehow, two people who are decades apart in age, are thrown together by circumstance. What follows warms the heart to see just how the relationship develops. Frank and Red are new neighbours and complete opposites.
The group felt that it was an easy read with some laugh out loud moments and was sad and emotional. There were some issues that some members found difficult to accept. Firstly, why didn’t the teacher do more about the bullying of Red which was quite obvious as the story developed. The whole group questioned whether a six-year-old would have taken this difficult journey on the underground as he was trying to reach Frank’s son or would Frank have got away with driving on the pavement (which he did) trying to reach his son.
The story was heartwarming and uplifting but had varying scores between 5-9. The final score was 7.1
Many thanks to Jill our hostess for the afternoon who provided us with delicious chocolate cake.
Full English Rice! & Microwave Cake
You don’t need an all-day breakfast menu to enjoy a full English! Rustle up this tasty rice dish, trust me sounds odd but delicious…….Follow it with a microwave pudding!
Full English Rice!
Ingredients
2 tbsp oil
1 onion
100g bacon lardons
250g mushrooms
2 tsp dried rosemary
400g tinned chopped tomatoes
200g white rice
800ml vegetable stock (made with 2 stock cubes)
100g kale
4 medium eggs
Method
Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a large, deep frying pan. Chop the onion and add to the pan with the bacon lardons. Fry for 4-5 minutes, until the onion has softened. Slice the mushrooms and add to the pan along with the dried rosemary. Continue to cook for 3-4 minutes, until golden. Add the chopped tomatoes and cook for a further 2-3 minutes. Add the rice to the pan and stir well until the rice is well coated with the tomatoes. Pour in the stock and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the rice is tender, and the stock has all been absorbed. Add the kale and continue to cook for 2 minutes, or until wilted. Season well.
Heat the remaining oil in a large frying pan and crack the four eggs into the pan. Fry for around 3 minutes, until the whites have cooked, and the yolks are still runny. Spoon the rice into four shallow bowls and top each with a fried egg.
Raspberry and Lemon Microwave Cake
This microwave cake makes a super speedy dessert using mainly store cupboard ingredients!
Try swapping the raspberry jam for your favourite flavour or try lemon curd for a zesty kick…
Ingredients
2 eggs
110g sugar
110g flour
110g softened butter
½ tsp baking powder
½ lemon zest and juice
4 tbsp raspberry jam
Crème fraiche and raspberries to serve
Method
Grease a microwavable bowl with a little butter. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and add the softened butter, flour, sugar, baking powder, lemon zest and juice. Beat until smooth, then pour into the microwavable bowl.
Cook in the microwave for 3-4 minutes, until the cake has risen and is cooked through. Set aside and leave to stand for 2 minutes. Spoon the jam into a small dish and microwave for 30 seconds. Loosen the cake around the edges with a knife and turn out onto a serving plate. Pour over the raspberry sauce and sprinkle with the lemon zest.
Serve warm with fresh raspberries and crème fraiche