The Official Wenvoe Homepage
ORCHID FIELD RE-VISIT
Following last month’s visit to clear brambles by over a dozen workers, another attempt is planned to complete clearance of some areas on the field on Thursday 8th October from 9.30am. Hopefully the field will have had its annual cut and clear by this date. Please bring your own tools. All are welcome
ENVIRONMENT GROUP
Bramble Clearing Collective
The Wildlife Group had help from the Environment Team on a glorious morning at the orchid field. John made the suggestion to assist in clearing brambles.
We will meet on the second Monday of each month by the Community Centre at 9.30am in an attempt to keep the village tidy. October meeting Monday 12th. If anyone is interested and has an idea of where we should tidy up next, just come along and join in.
THE VILLAGE GARDENER
Top Tips for October
Top horticultural show judge Mr Gwyn Williams’s tips for October.
Actor, author, poet and politician Mr Noel Williams has some thoughts on gardening.
Six months ago we struggled to get seeds and plants from online retailers and garden centres as they had not got a delivery mechanism in place. At present there are plenty of options to purchase plants. Come March who knows where we will be. Order seeds, summer bulbs and corms now as they are in stock. Quite a few gardeners used potatoes left over from grocery shopping, with some quite remarkable results. Most people will now hopefully save seed for next year. Wenvoe gardens have been great this year, with people sharing their spare plants. The term golfing gardens came about when golfers in Wenvoe turned to the soil and improved their gardens while the courses were closed. When the courses reopened some of them found their mowers wouldn’t start…..
October is, as usual, a busy time on the veg plot planning next year’s harvest. Broad beans as well as certain varieties of peas can be sown now. Salad mixes grown under cover will soon provide fresh produce. Cauliflower variety Snowball can be sown in cold frames now and will be ready to plant out in early spring.
Look after canna lilies by lifting, then drying and store in a cool dark place. Make sure you finish planting your spring flowering bulbs. If you’re planning to sow some wildflowers next year, clear a patch as a lot of these plants cannot compete with grass. Also do not add any nutrients, the poorer the soil the better they like it. Cowslips will grow in a lawn; you need to sow the seed now as they need a cold spell before they will germinate. Winter flowering pansies must be one of the best value plants. They will, with dead heading, flower from now until next May.
Trying to keep tender plants safe, by giving them shelter in the months ahead, can take up a lot of room. It is false economy to try and cram them in, they need space and should not be touching, otherwise infection will spread.
If by any chance you see a hedgehog in your garden, then look after it by feeding it with dog or cat food. You will not make it dependent on you as they will only use the food put out for them as a supplement. Provide shelter for them and you will have one of nature’s best garden pest predators
The library not working at full capacity has curtailed the gardening advice available from the staff. The horticulturists have been busy with their own plots. Joyce is redesigning her back garden. Heulwen has taken wildlife gardening to another level and Gordon is growing deadly plants – can’t say more
Take care and happy gardening.
WOMEN’S INSTITUTE – September
Our September meeting would normally have seen us presenting a cheque to a speaker representing our chosen charity. Unfortunately this was not to be this year, due to the challenging times we are living through. Hopefully we will be hosting a charity afternoon tea in the summer of 2021 to raise funds for Assistance Dogs – this year’s chosen charity.
Assistance Dogs provide support, hope and happiness, as well as being loyal friends. Anyone who saw 12 year old Molly featured in Countryfile on Sunday, 13th September could sense the bond between her and her assistance dog, Chess. Since his arrival Molly has grown in confidence and she has become much stronger with Chess by her side.
As soon as we are given the go-ahead to resume monthly meetings members will be contacted immediately. In the meantime we remain connected via our newsletter, our WI Life Magazine and our individual thoughts.
Members will be pleased to learn that Judy Marsh is progressing well after her knee surgery at the beginning of August. Unfortunately Sandra Anstee has been in hospital for some weeks and we send our sincere get well wishes to her with our special thoughts.
Similarly, good wishes are extended to all members celebrating their birthdays in October
It is hoped that all members and their families stay safe and well, with a positive outlook. Don’t forget that if you need to chat please pick up the phone – “It’s good to talk”.
OFF THE SHELF – September
This month’s book was ‘Born A Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood’ by Trevor Noah.
Trevor Noah is a South African comedian, television host and actor. This is the story of his childhood in Apartheid South Africa. He was born of a black mother and a white father at a time when any mixed-race relationships were illegal. For much of his early days Trevor was concealed by his family – hence the title. Even though Noah suffered poverty, abuse and identity problems, he doesn’t come over as a victim. He is a great narrator and the book is hilarious in parts and also enlightening. Each chapter begins with an explanation of some illuminating aspect of Apartheid and sets the background to his chaotic life: his living conditions, upbringing, isolation, education, the police state and of course race.
Noah’s mother is central to the book. Unconventional, strong, and extremely religious, she takes him to church three times on Sunday to Black, White and Coloured services (to cover all possibilities). She also believes in demons, hands out harsh beatings and couldn’t love him more.
A chapter that stood out highlighted Trevor’s sketchy education. As well as a traditional African name, Trevor and his friends were all given a random European name. As a teenager Trevor, then a DJ, and his dancers were invited to entertain at a middle-class Jewish family party. They didn’t understand that shouting out the main dancer’s name (Hitler) was offensive to the hosts and were mystified that they were thrown out. ‘We weren’t taught how to think about how Hitler related to the world we lived in. We weren’t being taught to think, period’.
This book will make you laugh, cry and cry laughing. 9/10.
LIVING WITH CANCER STROLLERS – September
The wipers were rapidly moving across the windscreen as I hurried to Cosmeston for the first Living with Cancer stroll since lockdown in March. Fortunately, on arrival and for the duration of the walk the rain stopped, and the walkers enjoyed a dry stroll.
Two new walkers were welcomed to the group. They had enjoyed walking during the lockdown and now wanted to join a group and explore new areas. With most children back in school, Cosmeston was quiet and it was easy to follow Welsh Government guidelines to socially distance when around other people. The group enjoyed catching up and sharing lockdown stories.
Cosmeston is ideal for a circular walk as there are many routes through the trees and fields and around the lakes. Wildflowers, squirrels and birds are also in abundance. Many of the group do not realise we go on different routes as they are too busy chatting, and openly admit they probably would not be able to find their way to the car park if they were abandoned! Join us next month, if you want a short stroll in friendly company and you will never be abandoned!!
NATURE NOTES
Community Orchards Resurgence
With 5 Community Orchards in the parish we are starting to reclaim some of the ground lost through the wholesale removal of orchards over the last hundred years. In this and future articles we shall consider the origin of orchards, the history of their rise and fall and why they are important for wildlife.
To begin at the beginning – the ‘sweet’ apple that we eat originated in the Tien Shan mountains of Kirghizia on the border between western China and the former Soviet Union. A Russian plant geneticist writing in the 1920s commented that it was like a Garden of Paradise with apple groves, mountain turkeys, porcupines and a host of other wildlife. Alma Ata, capital of Kazakhstan, means ‘Father of Apples’. Over time these apples travelled locally in the intestine of bears and other animals or were carried along the silk roads, eventually reaching Europe and Britain. A couple of thousand years BC the remains of apples have been found in Mesopotamia. The Persian word Pairadaeza was a walled garden enclosing fruit trees and canals and this translated to the Latin word Paradisus and our word Paradise.
Now, take an apple and plant a dozen or so pips from it and you will get 12 different apple trees of which 11 may be useless and just one palatable. Because apples from seeds do not grow true to the original, grafting is necessary where a bit of branch/twig from the original is attached to a rootstock. So if you find a particularly tasty apple you can produce more of those trees by grafting. The Romans understood the principles of grafting as specialist tools have been found in excavations. Pliny referred to over 20 varieties of apple in his Natural History and he was writing in the first century AD. Subsequently fruit growing was maintained by the monasteries but really took off in Tudor times with Henry Vlll’s fruiterer, Richard Harris, establishing what was England’s first large fruit collection. The 18th and 19th centuries was a high point in the development of apple varieties with thousands of varieties being grown, many of which have now been lost.
There have, of course, been apples in Britain for thousands of years but these were Crab Apples, small, sour and often sporting spines on the branches. There are many still growing in the hedgerows around Wenvoe. References to apples in old Celtic traditions and myths would have been about Crabs which were cooked or fermented. But most commentators suggest that Crab Apples had little or no impact on the origins of the sweet apple and that they do not generally hybridise.
The image in the painting shown may be a little idealised but it is one that it would be nice to replicate and we are getting there slowly. Next month we shall discuss the decline of orchards and apple-growing in Britain and why it is important to bring them back.
