Month: July 2015

Nature Notes

 

 

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The photo shows a bee gathering pollen from a Borage plant in Grange Park in the middle of Wenvoe. Why is this important? The last and previous issues of Whats On have highlighted the many problems our bees are facing and if our bees are in difficulties we will suffer some of the consequences. Our parks can be wonderful green spaces but without any flowers that are good for bees they can be a lost opportunity. Regular cutting of the whole park means that most of the time a bee would be hard put to find a single flower to forage on. So, the chance to create a wildflower bed in the park was too good to miss and during July it was great to see bees working their way around the flowers and as late as 8pm on sunny evenings.

It has not been perfect as the enormous amount of shade from the park’s mature trees has caused the flowers to grow slowly and with a pronounced lean towards the west from where they get their main dose of sun. There is also competition from the dandelions and other ‘weeds’ and helpful squirrels have ensured that we have some ‘Conker’ trees growing in the bed. However, the bees are not bothered and during July their favoured plants were Borage and Bugloss. Incidentally Borage was often added to summer fruit cups – some refer to it as ‘the cup that cheers’ and herbalists many years ago used it to help hypochondriacs. In London Borage leaves floating in claret used to be ladled out to thirsty travellers at the Railway Stations. The bees clearly know what they are doing

 

Environment Team

ENVIRONMENT GROUP

In June the team concentrated on generally tidying up the village – weeding beds, pruning, clipping hedges, weed killing etc.

We understand that 11 villages have entered for the Best Village Competition 2015 many more than for a number of years. There are 3 different sections, village appearance, village feature and village activities. Some villages have entered all three sections while others only one. This year it should prove quite a challenge for all entrants after the low numbers we’ve seen recently.

By the time you read this piece judging the initial will have taken place although final decisions will be made in the week commencing 6th July. The presentation evening and dinner will be on the 16th July.

Rose

Trevor’s Garden

After such a cold, wet and windy May, the appearance of poppies is very welcome, heralding the arrival of summer. I always look forward to seeing the yellow Welsh poppy, closely followed by the much larger and more flamboyant oriental variety bringing my borders to life after the winter.

Poppies have been growing and multiplying in my garden for many years – in fact ever since we moved here.

The Welsh poppy is such a low maintenance perennial, spreading readily – even in dense shade – and has a superb colour and the plants will self-seed. They are perfect for naturalizing under trees or below a north-facing wall or fence.

The oriental poppy lives up any flower border with its large vivid flower heads. However their most serious fault is a weakness in the stem. You need to support them, either with canes and string or strong pea sticks. They are fully hardy, originating from the Caucasus, Turkey and Iran, where summers are hot but winters freezing and they thrive in almost any soil as long as they’re planted in full sun. To propagate poppies, lift mature plants, divide them and re-plant. They are also easy and reliable from root cuttings.

Now for a subject less welcome. I have read that the dreaded vine weevil are more widespread this year. Gardeners are all too familiar with the damage these pests can do with their larvae destroying roots and causing entire plants to stop growing and even keel over. Adult weevils are small, greyish beetles – less damaging than the larvae but equally unwelcome. Now is the time for an action plan. You can kill vine weevil larvae in potted plants by drenching the compost with PROVADO Vine Weevil Killer2\from Bayer. This will give several weeks of protection and destroys other pests\ such as aphids and scale insects too. To destroy adult beetles, go out after dark with a torch and pick them off the foliage by hand.

BEST KEPT VILLAGE COMPETITION 2015.

The annual dinner for the competition was held at Wenvoe golf club when forty eight villagers from the Vale enjoyed an excellent meal prior to the announcement of the awards.

Just twelve villages from seventy four entered the competition, this year sponsored by the Vale of Glamorgan Borough Council.

These are the results of the various categories.

Eleven schools entered with Cadoxton winning and the award was presented at Duffryn Gardens.

The special features competition was won by Gileston while the village activities award was given to Llanmaes. The Best Kept Village was judged to be Peterston super Ely.

 

St Mary’s Church news

The month of June has been a time of many commemorations, the Queen’s Birthday Parade, the 800th anniversary of the sealing of the Magna Carta, the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt, the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, and 2015 is the year that the times of our Sunday Services changed from the beginning of the month. A time of change can be difficult for many people, we gain some and we lose some, but the new arrangements, whilst in the early days, seem to be working and congregations have held up in numbers. We held our All Age Family Communion service on the 28th when our Pebbles Children took a major role in the liturgy.

The result of the Christian Aid Collection in the three churches of Sully, Wenvoe and St Lythan’s amounted to £2112.58. This is a good result and it is thanks to all the street collectors and money raised at the Lent Lunches etc. that we were able to send such a handsome cheque to Christian Aid this year. We have also supported other calls for financial help during the year for disasters across the world.

Work in the churchyard has continued, with overgrown bushes removed, the ivy taken off the boundary walls, the unsafe table tomb by the churchyard cross lowered to ground level due to Health and Safety issues, remedial work on the entrance to the Nell Family vault near the tower, and we are progressing the work on the boundary wall between the churchyard extension and the Community Council cemetery, where the vegetation, once removed, clearly showed that the wall needed rebuilding. This will be a dry stone wall to allow for movement of the trees which have made a home on the top of the wall. The large poplar tree near to the churchyard cross is to be taken down as the roots are causing all sorts of problems, and finally we are applying for a faculty to repair the ceiling and the stone flagstones within the porch. The cost of this work will be paid for by raiding our reserves, which we trust will be replaced over the years ahead.

We are already looking ahead to the autumn when we are planning to hold a Scarecrow Festival at the time of our Harvest Celebrations on the 26/27th of September. We invite entries from children, organisations and individuals to enter the scariest, the prettiest and the sportiest scarecrow. So get your thinking caps on and make this the most talked about event in the village.

Later in the year a Barn Dance in the Village Hall on the 14th November is being arranged to raise funds to support the recovery of Romeo Hadley, who will have many health issues ahead of him as he grows. More information later when all plans are finalised.

Don’t forget the 4th Sunday in the month, a service of All Age Worship with Holy Communion lead by our Pebbles children, followed by coffee and the drawing of the 200 club. Parish Picnic at the Rectory on July 5th from 12.30 – 2.30 pm. See posters in the church porch.

Parry Edwards

 

Wenvoe W.I

WOMEN’S INSTITUTE

At our meeting on Thursday 4th June President Madeleine welcomed everyone especially friends from Barry Highlight Institute and our speaker Mrs Lynne Oliver. Members were thanked for their trust and faith in electing Madeleine as their president for another year. The ladies who attended the recent Link Meetings at Cadoxton and Dinas Powys had really enjoyed themselves and we are looking for-ward to the Pendoylan Link Meeting on June 16th. Our recent Table Top Sale was very successful and we are making plans for our Centenary Afternoon Tea along with various events within the Glamorgan Federation, including skittles and a quiz in Pontyclun on October 5th.

Our speaker Mrs Lynne Oliver gave us a most in-formative talk about her search for details regarding her Great Uncle who was killed in World War I. We also learnt many interesting facts regarding the life of Lynne’s grandmother Mrs J. Penny, a former mayoress of Stockport. A story connected with the Great War would not be complete without mention-ing the beautiful poppy. Lynne had very kindly brought along her three poppies from the Tower of London display, each handmade and individually boxed with a certificate. They were truly beautiful and so special. Lynne’s talk appropriately finished with her reciting “In Flanders Field”.

Our next meeting is on Thursday July 2nd when we welcome back again Viv Truran who will entertain us with her amusing holiday stories.

 

Footsteps – Rockfield and St. Maughans

Rockfield, a country village just outside Monmouth was our starting point. From the church we walked a short way on road and transferred almost immediately into a field with the occasional pale lilac of Lady’s Smock flowers and white flowers on spikes of Annual Nettle. We turned west and went over a field of stubble with evidence of recent muck spreading; ahead were two oak trees just coming into leaf and in the next field was a sole Canada goose. We passed a group of Longhorn cattle, many having one horn pointing upwards and the other downwards. Avoiding a growing crop by keeping to the field margin brought us to a restored farm building in a delightful spot with a stream and trees adjacent. We continue north-west and reached St. Cadoc’s church at Llangattock-Vibon-Avel where the lych-gate has a plaque commemorating the meeting of Charles Rolls and Henry Royce in 1904. The Rolls-Royce Company contributed towards the refurbishment of the lych-gate and Chares Rolls is buried in the churchyard because his family the Llangattocks have their roots here. Taking a path along the edge of a growing crop we reached woodland and had a lunch break sitting on a fallen tree trunk.

Continuing on a path through the woodland we started to go north-east; after a section uphill on grass we came to a group of bullocks and passed them by remaining close to the hedge. As we left their field they bellowed loudly. We now reached a stream down in a fairly steep gully without any obvious crossing places and were forced to take a detour. As an alternative was being established there was time to enjoy the groups of spring flowers on the top of the bank and birdsong from the trees. Once we picked up the original intended route we headed towards St. Maughans. The sky was overcast and the hills ahead showed misty light rain but so far we were being lucky. The church tower at St. Maughans had square spaces in it rather like a dovecote but possibly to amplify the sound of the bells. Regrettably colours in the landscape were muted and the undulating hills ahead were mostly grey.

We reached Tregate Bridge over the River Monnow which takes the road over into England. In the early 1600’s at the time of Roman Catholic persecutions this area was the scene of much clandestine activity; many of the landowners here were sympathetic to the Catholic cause and Mass was held illegally along the river bank. On occasions Catholics fled from England and sought refuge in Wales and vice versa. We continued with the river on our left leaving three realistic scarecrows in a field behind us. Ahead willows marked the borders of two fields while in one place the river bank had eroded and collapsed. On the other side of the river we could just see the remnants of a Motte and Bailey. As many will know this is a form of castle of stone or wood on raised earthworks and surrounded by a protective ditch and fence. They became common after the Norman Conquest.

Our final leg was south-west and we took a track which brought us past an ancient square tower by a farm.The earlier sixteenth century building here was named Plas-yn-y-berth (the mansion within the long fence) and had been a manor house, a mesne manor of the Lordship of Monmouth i.e. within the domain of the Lordship. Back in the modern world there was a camper van by the farm with a young child sitting looking expectant about a drive. We crossed the stubbly field to go towards Rockfield. The road into the village passed a studio where some famous rock groups recorded: Led Zeppelin did some work and Queen recorded "Bohemian Rhapsody" here. All in all what appeared to be a quiet corner of Monmouthshire had given us a most interesting and varied walk.

ANSWER THE HEDGEHOG SOS.

The humble hedgehog is now as endangered as the tiger and could disappear within the next decade so now is the time for action so what can we do?

Hedgehogs travel over great distances – the size of 2 football pitches to find food but it’s becoming more difficult with the increase of walls, fences and other boundaries in their way. A hedgehog – hole at the bottom of a fence or a brick removed from the wall will allow hedgehogs safe passage across gardens to forage more widely. Such a small thing can make a really big difference to the life of these creatures. Slugs and snails are food for hedgehogs but don’t use slug pellets

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