Scout Post 2016 Report

 

 

So How did the Scout Post Go?

 

scoutposts02Happy New Year from 1st Wenvoe Scout Group. We hope that you had a wonderful time with family and friends, or perhaps just enjoyed a bit of peace and quiet and some better than usual telly. Here in the Williams residence as I type this, we are still waiting for our delivery scout elves to text us with confirmation that they have delivered their bags of post. We then have to report back to the main sorting office that all our mail has been delivered. So it’s all go here at the moment. By the time you read this it will be a distant memory and you will all be cursing through dry January or just about sticking to that diet. Keep at it!

I know we all grumble that scout post is so early but if you take a moment to think about what’s involved you might realise that we really do need that time to get the job done. Last posting day in 2016 was 5th December and we had already started sorting on the Saturday and Sunday. One person drives down to the main sort in Pontcanna scout hut where all the Cardiff and Vale groups meet to swap post for each other. We hand out post to each area – Barry, Rhiwbina, Grangetown etc and they hand us our Wenvoe post which is brought back to our sorters in the community centre. We sort this into streets, farms and so on and by Thursday of that week (so, Thursday 8th 2016) we finished sorting and handed out bags of mail to our deliverers. That mail has to be delivered by the following weekend – which is usually the weekend before Christmas. That’s the latest the mail should be delivered by so you can see I hope why we have to sell stamps so early and have such an early day for our last post. You’ll just have to be more organised if you missed it! And by the way, it is only stamps sold in Wenvoe which benefit our scout group – so don’t buy them from anyone else!. Oh, and another myth, last years stamps are just as valid as this years, they don’t go out of date!

This year we had the usual cards from optimistic senders, ie just names, no, and/or incorrect addresses. So if anyone recognises: Vicky Haines in Draenen Wen (no number); Mr & Mrs Pugh 53 Heol Draenen Wen (no such number exists); Julie & Ray & family, Culverhouse X; Nicola and Martin (no address at all) and the last one, John Burles or Burkes, (again, no address well I’m sorry but our scouting telepathy skills failed us and regretfully we were unable to deliver these cards. The 53 Heol Draenen Wen card is a serial offender each year – so if you do recognise it perhaps you might ask your friends and relatives if they have your correct address.

It’s just a thought.

I say this because we do have a report back from the scout post organisers in February each year and sometimes we hear the odd grumble that post was not delivered and whilst that is no doubt true for a very small amount of post for one reason or another, sometimes it’s because the address was simply wrong in the first place.

We also had a fair number of cards for further afield which we cannot deliver at all, for example, Sidcup, London, Welshpool to give you a few examples. We put most of these in the Royal Mail as we have no other way of delivering those. It would be nice to think that the recipients pointed this out to the senders – but I suspect that is wishful thinking. Of course, this year we have had a few more houses to deliver to with the developments at Redrow and Bellway at either end of the village. I apologise to our army of sorters who had to suffer the Husbands ‘witty’ nickname for each end of the village which I won’t share here, save to say that the word ‘end’ featured in both… I know, I know, I’m sorry and no offence is intended, honestly.

Moving swiftly on, of course the real reason for this article is to thank the army of sorters, sellers, deliverers, exchange swappers, Ian who is still the ‘main man’ despite what the Husband thinks, custodians of the post boxes and of course our treasurer who has to count up all the fiddling small change. We couldn’t do scout post without you, it would simply be an impossible task so we value your help more than you could ever know. We are always grateful for help with post – which is a lovely Christmassy thing to do, so if you fancy popping down next year please let us know.

Sue Williams

PS – We have a card for a Mr and Mrs K M Rees, Southlands, St Lythans, CF5 6BG. No house by this name is recognised in the area. Contact wenvoe scoutgroup@gmail.com if you wish to claim the card.

 

 

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More Musings of A Political Teenager

 

PLAY HARD, WORK HARD


Smells Like Teen Spirit

 

Being a teenager is hard

I’m only a few years into my teenage life and already, I can see it’s becoming, increasingly, a tougher challenge to face as the days pass by. It’s hard enough being a teenager, puberty knocking down your door and having certain restrictions; throwing in some exams makes life that much worse – and that much harder.

Teenagers have the hard job of revising, and trying to keep social. Universities these days decide that we need to have the right qualifications, by staying indoors with no human interaction to study, and spending every waking minute on studies; whilst we must also make sure that we have things to put on our resumee, like extra-curricular activities we shouldn’t have enough time for. Telling me to ‘take some time off every now again’ is easier said than done, because according to everyone else, and educational boards, I ought to be a robot. But that’s not what they want either. Still with me?student01

The expectations put upon us make the heavy load harder to bear. You’re set a target each term – if you have a bad target, you’re expected to be able to get better; if you have a more-than-achievable target, ‘the teacher thinks you can achieve it’ and so you must. But there’s never the question of do you think you can achieve it? It’s always a given, and so help you if you fall short.

Being a teenager (and a young one like myself), has its restrictions. Work experience? You must be at least 18, don’t you know the rules?! It’s infuriating. There’s the aspect of politics too. You are unable to vote at 16, but can legally have a child. What is the difference between deciding our political future – it is our, isn’t it? – and caring for a child? I would presume the latter is harder. You’re legally unable to earn minimum wage at a job until age 16, and unfortunately, there’s still the unlikely chance that you might not have time to have a job at 16.

The ‘grunt’ is one my mother in particular likes to overplay. It’s the mimicking that parents do when they shout at you and you, annoyed, shout back ‘OKAY!’ and they continue to use it as a soundtrack to your life, and mentions the ‘teenage phase’ to possibly anyone they see. Nope. I am not someone who continuously has their headphones in (actually, I do that. I like my music.). I’m a teenager. Who’s continuously tired of working so hard from such a young age for exams and work that I could be doing when I’m older and more capable.

Being a teenager is hard. . . . . . .

 

 

 



 

Peregrine Falcon Order

 

 

The Destruction of Peregrine Falcon Order

 

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falcon02In 1940 the Government issued a Destruction of Peregrine Falcon Order because this most successful of predators was taking out the pigeons that were being used by bomber command if the crews had to bail out in order to get a message back with their location. Around 200,000 pigeons were supplied by private breeders as message carriers.but maybe 600 peregrines were killed as a result of the order. In areas like Cornwall and Devon peregrines were almost completely wiped out. By the 1960s pigeon-fanciers in South Wales were complaining that the peregrines were causing major losses but in the investigation that followed it was found that there had been a massive decline in the numbers of this falcon and this was primarily down to the use of DDT. In 1962 they reached a low point with only 350 pairs left in Britain. Our ancestors revered the falcon – the male was known as a Tiercel from the French for 'la tierce' as it is a third smaller than the female. They would have been horrified to hear how we have been persecuting a bird that has been descibed as the Ferrari of the bird world, 'our most splendid bird of prey' and 'of all wild creatures the peregrine is the most truly symbolic of freedom'. Fortunately egg collecting became illegal from the 1960s and persecuting the birds is illegal. That however does not stop it being shot and poisoned as regular reports of killed birds appear in the newspapers. Last year a Peregrine nesting on the roof of the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust's headquarters building was shot and killed. But they are resilient birds and it is wonderful to be able to publish this photo of a peregrine taken in the parish of Wenvoe in late November.

 

 

 

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Christmas Draw

Christmas Draw Results

The Village Hall Management Committee would like to thank everyone who kindly donated prizes to this raffle and also to the people who support us by buying and selling of the tickets. All money raised through the raffle contributes to the on-going insurance, maintenance and daily running costs of the Hall which is primarily for the use of the villagers.

We thank you all and wish you Good Health and a Happy and Prosperous New Year

If you have not provided an address or telephone number to claim your prize please ring Gail Adams on 07968 865550 to arrange collection

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Keep Wales Tidy Awards

 

 

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WWGWe were runners up in the Biodiversity category of the all-Wales Keep Wales Tidy awards. This is the second year we have been shortlisted and we shall enter a different project again next year in the hope that we make it to the top spot. Thank you to everyone who voted for us at Tescos. Again we did not make it to first place but the substantial grant involved will enable us to make significant progress on our wildlife initiatives down at Goldsland Farm. We have had two school visits during December. The first involved Year 11s from Michaelston College who really got stuck in to the Community Orchard, spreading compost, planting a cherry tree and taking cuttings of Guelder Rose. A number of them expressed a wish to return and we shall be delighted to have them. Younger children from Wenvoe Primary School also had a short walk, gathering holly, ivy and other bits for decorations and hopefully learning something along the way.

 

 

 

 

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Year End Activities

 

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On November 16th Mr Dean Powell gave us an insight into the life of the actor Glyn Houston .Born in Tonypandy in 1925, he was the younger brother of actor Donald Houston. He really wanted to be a comedian. However, acting roles came along. He appeared in the film The Blue Lamp and comedies such as Are you being served with John Inman and Arthur English. He also featured in a holiday comedy on the " Costa Plonka".

We held a quiz on November 23rd with a series of pictures of famous people, who we recognised but "Oh dear, what is their name"?

Once again Joyce entertained us with her humorous anecdotes at our November 30th meeting and our Autumn session came to an end with a visit from the Amy Britten singers who gave us an enjoyable afternoon, which was rounded off with mince pies.

Finally ,on December 14th, 20 of our members met at the Walston Castle for our Christmas lunch, and Shirley, as usual, provided us with a large collection of prizes for our annual raffle.

We recommence on January 11th with a game of Bingo, followed by our A.G.M. on January 18th Our new programme begins on January 25th with a talk by Mr Peter Finch entitled Old Cardiff.

As always new members and visitors are always welcome, so why not come and join us. Wishing all our members a very Happy New Year.

 

 

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Chicken and Bacon Pie

 

 

Creamy Chicken and Bacon Pie with Cheesy Pastry Crust.

 

Alternative for the filling. Use any leftover turkey, pork and ham.pie03

Pastry

325g plain flour

1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

180g cold butter

50g good strong mature cheddar, finely grated

1 large egg beaten

Filling

2tbsp olive oil

25g butter

800g chicken breasts, diced

200g streaky bacon or pancetta, sliced

2 carrots chopped

1 onion chopped

100g small button mushrooms

2 tbsp plain flour

500ml dry cider or dry white wine

300ml chicken stock [oxo cube]

200ml double cream

2tbsp wholegrain mustard

2tbsp thyme leaves

1 egg beaten

Preheat oven to 180C Pastry. Add the flour and bicarb together in a large bowl. Coarsely grate the butter over the flour and mix until crumbly. Stir in the cheddar. Add the egg and then enough water to form a dough, {not too wet] Form into a ball, wrap in Clingfilm and chill for about 30 mins.

In a large pan heat the oil and butter, add the chicken and bacon and fry until browned. Remove and set aside. Add the vegetable’s and fry until lightly col-oured. Stir in the flour and return the chicken and bacon to the pan. Add the button mushrooms. Pour in the cider/wine and stock and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down and simmer for about 20 mins, until veg is just tender. Add the cream mustard and thyme, season to taste. Mix well. Spoon the mixture into a large pie dish and leave to cool a little. Roll out the pastry to about 6mm thick. Brush the edges of the pie dish with a little water and lay the pastry on top, pressing the edges down to seal. Trim any excess pastry from around to dish, re-roll, and cut into carrot shapes. Place on the pastry top and brush with the beaten egg. Slice a hole in the centre. Bake in the oven for 30 – 35 mins until golden brown. Serve with green veg.

If using leftover meat, brown the veg then add the meat before the flour. Continue as per recipe.

 

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December’s Book Choice

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"Cranford"

By  Elizabeth Gaskell

 

Page Turners were greeted with mincepies. Mulled wine and Buck’s Fizz to ensure plenty of Christmas spirit at the final meeting of 2016.

Less palatable however, was the book the group had been offered for December. To continue the foodie theme, it was not easily digested by the group and left a bitter taste in the mouth!cranford

“Cranford “ is one of the better-known novels of the 19th century English writer, Elizabeth Gaskell. It was first published in eight instalments, between December 1851 and May 1853 and was a popular novel at the time. There is no plot, rather a collection of satirical sketches portraying small town customs and values in mid Victorian England.

Only one member made their way through the whole book. Readers did not like having to constantly refer to the book notes and some thought it was a punishment to have to read it! The only positive comment on the book was that people thought it made you appreciate life today, instead of having the anxiety that surrounded women in the 1850’s who had to worry about their choice of bonnets!

No scores were given and it was not a recommended read.

When the discussion was over, the more important business of the discussing the merits of the Yule log and the Malteser Christmas pudding could continue.

The group can now turn their thoughts to the next book and more happy discussions in 2017.

 

 

 

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