Month: November 2017

Winter Preparations

 

 

A huge thank you to everyone who gave to Children in Need through The Village Gardener at the end of October. Some of you may not have realised, but your tips and donations raised £100. Brilliant.

There is an unusual vegetable taking over the garden at Judy Holmes house. A three year old cabbage which was grown from seed. Judy accidentally mowed the top off it and thought she would use it for cooking. She put it in water to keep it fresh and roots grew from the side. This remarkable cabbage is still providing for Judy with enough left to feed any insects that need sustenance. On the subject of greens, don't forget to put your sprouts on to boil or they will never be of the right consistency for Christmas dinner. The 1st of December should give them enough time.

As I’m writing this the weather is still unseasonably warm, which means that grass is still growing and will need cutting if dry enough to get on to, but keep the cut high. Slugs are still in abundance so a recommendation from the intrepid explorer, Joyce Hoy, will help. Joyce says to spray the rims of your terracotta pots with WD40, if pots are plastic soak a piece of string in WD40 and tie around the rim.

We still have time to plant bulbs especially tulips and then look forward to lovely colour in spring. There should be some bargains to be had now as shops and garden centres try to clear stock. If you have spare space, why not try some hardwood cuttings of deciduous trees and shrubs. Willow is good to try. Using this year’s growth, cut pieces into 6'' lengths. Cut on an angle above a bud so that water runs off and then cut again straight across just below a pair of buds. Plant outside to about 2/3rds of its length. Tree cuttings can take until next autumn to root. The same techniques can be used on honeysuckle, vines and fruit bushes.

Cold weather will be with us at some point so check your outside taps are covered. The RSPB say that the need to provide water for birds is just as important at this time of year as ponds and puddles are frozen. Their tips include putting a light ball in the birdbath as the slightest breeze will move it and this will help stop water freezing. Another good tip is lining the bath with polythene, so you can lift out the ice.

The BBCs Gardeners World series ended last month and I know how much you enjoy the programme with Monty Don. It is a great programme and we always watch it. That said two items really wound me up. The first was when presenter Adam Frost was mulching a huge border, on which weed control fabric had been put down, with Grow Sure Smart Ground Cover. This mulch is £9.90 a bag and i promise you all it is not worth it, any mulch will do the job. The second was towards the end of the series. Monty Don was shown raking leaves off a lawn then spreading them on a path only to run a mower over them to break them down to use as mulch. Just run the mower over the grass on a higher setting, with the grass box on and all the leaves are picked up and mulched at the same time. Roll on the next series.

Leading up to Christmas the one plant most of us buy or are given will be poinsettias. To care for these, keep on a warm window sill, only water when top of compost feels dry then give it a good soaking and feed once a week.

 

I hope you all have a lovely Christmas, take care and happy gardening.

 

 

The Late Dennis Moran

 

The St Mary's 200 Club was started in 2004 by the late Dennis Moran, as a means of raising money to help with building maintenance of the church. For each £1 share bought, 50p goes to the building fund, and 50p is returned as prizes. The Club operates under the regulations of the Lotteries and Amusement Act, and is registered with the Vale of Glamorgan Council.

Dennis Moran worked tirelessly to build up the membership, until his sad death in 2015. His efforts will be remembered and appreciated for a long time. By the end of 2017, the Club will have contributed almost £20,000 to the building fund and helped to maintain our lovely church, thanks to the fantastic generosity of the people of Wenvoe.

The prize draw is carried out each month, generally on the fourth Sunday, in the church hall after the morning service.The "random number indicator machine" which selects the share numbers for prizes was built by John Custance, and the children of the congregation have fun pressing the buttons each month to see who has won. In the last few days, the 300th share has been bought, which would surely have made Dennis very proud. We shall soon have to make a decision on whether to change the name of the club to the "300 Club"!

If anyone would like to join the Club, please contact Dickon Oliver on 02920 679108. Who knows, one day we may have a 400 Club!

 

 

Christmas Sand Cookies – Spain

Christmas Sand Cookies – Spain

1cup butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

2 med eggs

2 cups plain flour

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cardamom [see Mr Greedy’s tip]

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp salt

Topping- 2 tbsp. golden caster sugar

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. [ use a hand mixer ]. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Sift the flour,cinnamon carda-mom, cloves and salt in abowl and mix together. Add to wet mixture and mix well. Gather the dough together, wrap in cling film. Refrigerate for about 1 hour, for easier rolling. Preheat oven 175C. Roll out dough to about 3/8inch thick on a well floured sur-face. Cut into 2 inch circles and place on baking trays. leave space between cookies. Sprinkle with the topping and bake for about 12- 15 mins until golden. Cool on wire rack and enjoy

 

 

Snow Flakes – Bavaria

 

Snow |Flakes – Bavaria

250g butter, melted

100g icing sugar

A few drops of vanilla essence

100g plain flour

250g cornflour

50g ground almonds

Melt butter in a small saucepan over low heat [ don’t burn it ]. When cool add the vanilla essence. Sift remaining ingredients into a bowl, add butter and mix well. Leave to cool for about 30 mins. Preheat oven to 175C. Shape walnut sized balls from the dough. Place on prepared baking trays. Leave space between the cookies. Inprint stripes on to the balls with a floured folk [optional] Bake for about 20 mins until risen. Dust with icing sugar when cold.

 

 

Vanilla Crescents – Germany

 

Vanilla Crescents – Germany

100g butter, at room temperature

100g plain flour

25g fine corn meal

65g ground almonds

50g icing sugar

1 large egg yolk

1 vanilla pod

100g white caster sugar

Preheat oven to 180C. Cormbine the butter, flour and corn meal until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the almonds, icing sugar and egg and mix until it forms a dough. Shape into a log, wrap in cling film and place in the fridge for about an hour. Split the vanilla pod and mix into the caster sugar. Remove the wrap from the dough and cut into 25 pieces. Roll each piece into log shapes, pinch each end and bend into a crescent shape [banana] Place on baking trays and bake for about 15 mins until golden brown. Dust liberally with the vanilla sugar.

 

 

November Events

November is always a time for remembrance, beginning with the Commemoration of All Souls which was held at St. Mary’s on November 5th at 6.00 pm. This coincided with that other celebration of remembrance, the fireworks for the unfortunate Guy Fawkes, and the church felt it was under siege, as the night sky was brilliantly illuminated with the aerial display of rockets and maroons.

The following Sunday the traditional service for REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY was held, beginning at 10.00 am in church. As in previous years the church was full, and with the Scouts and their banners being paraded, it was once again a opportunity to pay our respects and to honour those who lost their lives in the two world wars and other conflicts since the ending of WWII. This year the emphasis was on the Battle of Passchendaele which is described as the bloodiest and muddiest of battles and “Eternal Rain, everlasting mud. Hell on earth” is how it is remembered, by those who were fortunate to have survived and came home to tell the tale. This was a community service with representatives of organisations in the village taking part. The loose money on the collection plates amounted to £211 and will be donated to the work of the Royal British Legion in supporting the Armed Forces Community, including serving men and women, veterans and their families. Following on from the service the congregation headed by the choir assembled at the War Memorial in good time for the two minute silence and laying of the wreaths on behalf of the church, the Community Council, the Tuesday group, The Scouts and Wenvoe School. The Roll of Honour was read by the Chairman of the Wenvoe Community Council and The Vale of Glamorgan Brass band was in attendance. As on previous years the loud speakers provided by the Community Council was a great help with the proceedings. A big thank you to all who ensured with the smooth running of the arrangements in church and at the War Memorial, not forgetting the tea and coffee that was available in the Church Hall following the services.

The Christmas Chattery – Held in the Church Hall on Thursday November 9th attracted a good crowd of people all enjoying the opportunity to meet up for a “catch up” on things, which all meant that the financial result was a whopping £301.35 for the church building fund. Photographs of the proceedings will be published in the December issue of “Connections” the joint parish magazine, available in church on the first Sunday of December. Congratulations to the Social Committee for a great result.

The Parish Songs of Praise featuring the top six hymns as voted by congregations of the Ministry Area took place in St John the Baptist church in Sully on Sunday October 29th and the top six hymns were…..Love Divine, How Great thou Art, Cwm Phondda, Dear Lord and Saviour of Mankind, I the Lord of Sea and Sky, Eternal Father Strong to save which shared sixth place with Thine be the Glory.

Christmas Cards giving all the details of the Christmas Services will delivered to all homes in the early weeks of December. A reminder that the Community Carol Service will be at 7.00pm on Wednesday the 13th December in St. Mary’s Church followed by mulled wine and mince pies in the Community Centre.

Christmas Greetings and Blessings to all readers

Parry Edwards

 

 

Always On

Growing up in a time where the internet and danger is available at the touch of your fingertips is an interesting life. In some ways, some would argue I was lucky, considering technology was around when I was very young, although the tablets and smartphones did not become available to me until I was around 10 years old. These days, I am constantly seeing articles branding parents as ‘unfit’ for allowing their children to have tablets from the age of three.

I love my phone. I know it sounds so ‘millennial’, but it’s true. I think it’s so fascinating that you can do anything from a computer on a small screen without much effort. But I’m not one to argue that it’s only young people who are addicted to their devices. My tadcu loves his computers and since I can remember, has loved playing with them, uploading images from his much-loved camera, or sending funny memes he’s seen online to the family via email; he bought an iPad within the past year or so and so far, without fail he has been the first to find you an answer on the internet using it. My parents, (who both work in IT, so obviously!) enjoy using their tablets and phones and my Mam in particular has a deep love for her Kindle which I don’t think we’ll ever be able to compete with! My brother, just like me, loves his tech, because it’s just so easy for him to read his seventeenth book of the week (okay, maybe that’s a slight exaggeration, but he reads a lot) on his Kindle or phone via app.

It doesn’t make me any less capable of speaking to people in real life. But, I suppose you must be careful because a screen gives you a false sense of confidence which is unexplainable to anyone who’s never used a computer. It’s the ability to often submit an online comment which is controversial or wrong, but because it’s anonymous, it’s this sense that no one will ever know. I’m aware of this – more than some of my peers possibly. Because I write these articles – either for my own online blog, or for the What’s On, but they’re always sent via email or put up online. But I’m always careful. And I always make sure that whatever I say online is my own opinion – and one I’d have no problem reiterating in real life.

That’s the biggest issue I have. The fact that what you see online is almost never what the full picture is. That ‘Instagram models’ make you feel inadequate because of the visage they try to convey online which never truly matches up to their own personalities or looks. I’ve never hidden the fact I’ve had body positivity issues, but surely filtering your photos into oblivion makes them all the more fake and gives the wrong sense of your true body? I’m lucky that I was slightly older joining social networking sites like Instagram (mainly because when I was very young, none of it was around – I mean, Facebook was, because Facebook’s always been, just… there) because I can only imagine what young girls think about themselves now. I’m still rather impressionable, but at almost eighteen, I have the knowledge that these images are created to give a certain image, but if I was still nine and looking at a girl without any bones on her body, I might think of it as being somewhat normal. And maybe I’d try to copy those kinds of images.

I’m not saying these women – or men – should stop posting pictures of themselves. We all try to look good, but my argument is that they shouldn’t be editing their photos so heavily, because if you still caption it ‘mirror selfie!’ but look alien because your waist is the size of a pinkie finger, it becomes more cartoon-like, and young girls and boys start believing that’s what they ought to look like. But I also don’t think that every one of every age should be on social media. And at age three, I think it’s odd for you to be able to use an iPhone, but not be able to speak. I know it’s hard to say that, because the world is filled to the brim with new technology, but maybe there’s a point when technology should be a treat for very young children, not a normality.

By Tirion Davies

 

 

Many New Members

 

It is great that so many new members of the group are coming from people who have recently moved into the village. Whether you are a specialist or generalist, whether you prefer digging and planting or spotting and recording, there is plenty of opportunity for everyone who cares about wildlife to do something positive. In the last month, when weather permits and it has not been wonderful, we have been strimming the vegetation, thinning out trees, planting bulbs in the wildflower planters, digging out self-sown trees, weeding vegetable patches, planting trees, trimming our hedgerows, treating our timber structures, putting up notices and leaflet dispensers. In the coming weeks we hope to plant up our fifth orchard, dig in some new Bullace trees, cut back a small wildflower meadow and generally get on top of things before Spring arrives and it all starts over again. For more detail follow us on Facebook – Wenvoe Wildlife Group.

 

 

‘The Quality of Silence’

‘The Quality of Silence’
by Rosamund Lupton

Yasmin who is an Astrologist, and her daughter Ruby, who is deaf from birth, have flown to Fairbanks to meet up with her husband Matt, who makes documentary wildlife films. They were met by a policeman who explained that Matt had been staying in Anaktue, a village north of the Artic Circle where a fire had claimed the lives of everyone living there.

Yasmin felt strongly that Matt would have survived and set out with ten year old Ruby, who is a bright little girl and internet savvy, in a hired giant ice-road truck across the Alaskan tundra in search of Matt. Within hours they were faced with biting piercing coldness, raging storm conditions and a bleak and unforgiving landscape.

The majority of us accepted the implausibility of the idea of mother and daughter taking on the ice road and an Arctic monster storm and concluded that they were either very brave or delusional. The adventure, events and descriptions of the wilderness compensated for the far-fetched storyline. Most of us were of this opinion, some thinking that credibility was a bit of a stretch and in fact quite ridiculous, the idea that a mother would subject her 10 year old daughter to such danger.

In spite of the reservations concerning the credibility of the storyline, the majority felt that they would recommend the book and that it would appeal to adults and early teens alike. The average score out of 10, was 6.

Tea and cake were served and being November the evening concluded with a brief but spectacular firework display

 

 

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