Month: August 2026

Tucker’s Victorian Christmas Fayre


TUCKER’S VICTORIAN CHRISTMAS FAYRE

Sunday 15th November
10.00am – 4.00pm

On Sunday 15 November come and join us for this event which will take place from 10.00am to 4.00pm in the Community Centre. This will be a taste of Victorian Christmas fun and will include craft stalls from good quality crafters, a visit from Santa, Madam Gorgonzola will be telling cheesy fortunes and there will be Victorian style fairground games for children of all ages.

Refreshments in the form of hot and cold drinks and homemade cake and brownies from Glen will be available. There will be a good quality raffle with proceeds being donated to the Wenvoe Wildlife Group. The money raised will help enable the brilliant work done by the Wenvoe Wildlife Group in and around the village.

There will be no Tucker’s reindeer on sale on the day due to storage problems. However, Mike will take a limited number of orders for reindeers from the beginning of October.

Come and meet Charles Dickens and if you would like to dress in Victorian style we would love to see you; you won’t be alone. Mark the date in your diary.

A Successful Fruit Tree Pruning Course

Wenvoe Wildlife Group

A Successful Fruit Tree Pruning Course

Another successful fruit tree pruning course has been held at the Wenvoe Community Orchard. Arranged by the Vale Local Nature Partnership team and run by the Orchard Project. This is a great opportunity to share our orchard with visitors and to get our trees pruned in the process. Courses are free.

We have arranged for the Watercress Beds, Orchard and Bee Loud Glade and all at Goldsland to be strimmed. The hedge behind the School Wildlife Patch has been cut back. The planters in the Nursery section of the school have been kept going despite drought and school closure, with good crops of Spinach, Tomato and Curled Parsley.

Tour Of the BBC Cymru Studios

 

WOMEN’S INSTITUTE

Tour Of the BBC Cymru Studios

Instead of an official meeting in August, we had lunch in Cardiff followed by a tour of the BBC Cymru Studios.

The tour lasted 90 minutes and seemed to fly by. It started off in the general purpose studio, where we were able to inspect the cameras and the use of green screens was explained. We then went onto the Dylan Thomas spoken word recording studios and witnessed the effects of different surfaces on the quality of the sound. Our next stop was the radio studios followed by the news studio, which is next to the newsroom. We were able to sit at the news desk and stand in front of the weather screen. We also saw how augmented reality is used to put apparently solid objects onto the screen images. Our final stop was the Betty Campbell Studio where we had the opportunity to present the news and weather using autocue in front of a green screen. Our tour guides were excellent, and we were certainly informed, educated and entertained.

On September 3rd we are looking forward to our local historian Steve Jones telling us about History of Wenvoe.

Visitors are always welcome to our meetings. Please ring 07881853032 for further details.

Carol Charlson (President)

Fan Llia & Afan Forest

Fan Llia & Afan Forest

Fan Llia

A beautiful walk on an ideal summer’s day, we were exploring Fforest Fawr and Fan Llia. Sarn Helen, the Roman road which runs from the South Wales coast to the north, followed the river Llia up the valley on an almost level track. The Afon Llia joins the Dringarth to form the Afon Mellte which passes through the Dan yr Ogof caves before plunging down the famous waterfalls around Ystradfellte.

Even at the beginning of the day, we were surrounded by amazing views of the hills. We spotted Maen Llia in the distance, a massive Bronze Age standing stone 12ft high. As we progressed, we could see the flatter lands to the north ahead.

Two people stayed on the lower track while most of us headed up the hillside. The ground was very dry considering it was a peat area and made for easy walking. We saw very little water and at higher levels even the bogs and ponds were dry with the footprints of various animals in the bottom of dried-up ponds. We wondered how the sheep and other animals were managing to survive.

We had lunch near the top of the ridge, glorying in the amazing views surrounding us. The Carmarthen fans were visible to the west and once we reached the ridge, an unusual face of the Pen y Fan range came into view. The forecast had promised a temperature under 20OC and winds of 14mph on the hilltop, a relief after the heat this summer. A breeze blew and some people put on fleeces, but it was not cold.

Birds abounded and we saw a pair of kites, ravens, larks, and other small brown birds. As we left our lunch spot a pair of corvids swooped down to see if we had left any crumbs.

We descended quickly through long grasses and dried bog to meet our friends at a bridge over the river. We walked together back to the car park next to the river. As we were in the middle of nowhere and it was someone’s birthday, a surprise picnic was produced: beer, soft drinks and even cups of tea with delicious bara brith. All nicely finished off with a paddle in the river. Delightful!

Walk 7 miles 1140ft Map OL12

Afan Forest

This is north of Pontrhydyfen. The early part of the walk saw us climbing quite steeply under a sun which beat down on our backs. This was unexpected as the temperature was supposed to be lower than recent weeks!

At the car park are three large stones which are worth inspection as they are carved with symbols of the local area – the viaduct, industry and even a mug.

At lower levels the forest is mixed woodland which can come together over trails to provide shade but higher up it is mainly fir trees and there is little shelter. We were happy whenever we had one of these tunnels of shade as a delicious cooling breeze blew through them.

We came across the single wall, ruin of Gyfylchi chapel (gyfylchi means coming together of mountain passes) – not a parish church but an important place of rest and prayer for travellers on the Cistercian Way, an ancient long-distance path. It linked the great Cistercian Abbeys and hill churches of Wales, including Tintern and Margam.

Near the top of the walk is the remains of Nant y Bar farm whose cows once supplied milk to the whole valley. It was a longhouse where people and animals shared accommodation but at opposite ends of the building. A stream through the cobbled yard flushed the ty-bach (loo).

We mostly trekked on very good tracks, with large stones or sunbaked paths – quite hard going. In open sunny areas there were buddleia bushes and lots of butterflies; tortoiseshell, red admiral and gatekeeper were identified. As lunchtime approached, we had hoped to descend to the river, but the footpath shown on the map had disappeared. We managed to find a satisfactory patch of grass in the shade and enjoyed the rest.

Someone with eagle eyes spotted a slowworm. Soon after we found several benches and picnic tables, but they were all in the sun. Nearing the river, we took a short diversion to let the dogs enjoy the water and to appreciate the cool. Then a short walk took us back to the cars where we changed our boots and went to the hospitable Bethel chapel café for refreshments.

Walk 8.75miles 1700ft Map OS165

 

 

Turned Up With His Arm In A Sling

VILLAGE ENVIRONMENT GROUP

Turned Up With His Arm In A Sling

 

On a beautiful late summer’s morning the team cleaned up at the community centre in preparation for the Village Show. A fair turnout, considering the heat and the age of some of the participants. Old soldier John just shows the attitude of the team by turning up with his arm in a sling and got on with the job.

Alan and Ieuan recently celebrated their 88th birthdays and are still active members of our unit. It proves that getting out and about and mixing with others is such a good thing to do. Their generation were brought up to do the right thing, and this rubs off on the people they meet. They have a tendency to tell of their exploits in the Second World War and how they enlisted when they lied about their age. They were two!! It must have been tough back then.

The Health Benefits of Ice Cream

LIVING WITH CANCER STROLLERS

The Health Benefits of Ice Cream

 

How many activities can involve a 19 month old toddler and a 90 year old stroller…walking around the lakes at Cosmeston is one activity which benefits all ages!! Not sure about the health benefits of the ice creams enjoyed at the end of the stroll…but they were very tasty and a birthday treat courtesy of Anne.

Saying ‘Goodbye’ for a while.

WENVOE FORUM

Considering Tomorrow Today

Saying ‘Goodbye’ for a while.

The Forum will be taking a break from contributing to the Wenvoe What’s On for a few months. We will still be thinking about the future and what we as individuals and as a community could be doing to make an impact on the environment in the Wenvoe area. We want to be able to hand Wenvoe on to the generations to come in good shape, but it seems that writing in the WWO is not a way of having the impact needed. In all the time we have been contributing we’ve had less than a handful of responses, so we are taking a break and hoping for enlightenment. Perhaps something will blossom in the gap left and be more effective, we hope so.

We will also be thinking about what we can still do. We have always been about ideas, solutions, thinking things through, taking different views of the situation so that unintended effects are avoided or if there is a conflict between good ideas working, helping to make a choice.

This month I’d thought maybe to write about the 5 different types of drought and which type we have. Or how green roofs for your garden shed could hold moisture and cool air. Or how we could, as a community, plan to capture or slow the water that hurtles down the hill and into the drains and away when there is any rain. Water that could lower temperature while it kept the plants growing and might even generate electricity. Water which if left to itself could result in significant flooding. There is lots to say but it is better to keep the farewell short.

One thing that we, and you all, can do, is pressurise community leaders: elected representatives, decision makers, the volunteers who already work so hard to make things happen. Ask them to get together, to focus on making things better for the future, to consider all aspects of any plan or action that affects Wenvoe and make sure it’s all coordinated to maximise positive effect.

Each one of you also – please whenever there is an opportunity to have your say about what is happening – make sure you take it.

We’ll still be here and if you want to get in touch, or you have an idea for us to follow up on, get in touch via Facebook @ Gwen Fo

P.S. The hops look as though they will be ready early this year so the brew date for Taff Temptress may be early. Keep an eye for messages from Sian.

To join our Facebook group, please ‘friend up’ with the GwenFo account @ https://www.facebook.com/gwen.fo.1 and then jon the Wenvoe Forum @ https://www.facebook.com/groups/635369267864402

Some further information and updates, blog site https://wenvoeforum.wordpress.com/. Any Wenvoe community member is welcome to join the Forum meetings, via Zoom, which are normally held 19.00 on the second Thursday of each month. E-mail gwen-fo.forum@gmail.com if you wish to join

Goodness Me! Where Has the Time Gone?

THE VILLAGE GARDENER

Goodness Me! Where Has the Time Gone?

I’m now planting daffodils in pots ready to put into borders so that when they’ve finished flowering, I can remove the pot, give them a foliar feed and then let them die back in a quiet corner ready for the next season. Big jobs now include cutting back and separating larger clumps of perennials to give us more plants. Sweet pea seeds should be sown now for earlier plants next year. This is a good way of avoiding the hottest times next year as the later plants this year couldn’t cope in the long dry spell.

Please consider what has gone on over the last few years with the long dry spells before ordering plants for next year. Pelargoniums, herbaceous geraniums and bedding begonias are, as I said last month, a better option. The plants in gardens that have stood proud this year, have been the roses. Only once did I water the ones in our borders. The RHS are considering moving all their Hydrangeas further north, which is fine for a big organisation like them but for us we need to think carefully before purchasing any.

The extreme weather would have left the lawns weak and prone to the durable weeds which, during August, were the only bits of green on the lawn. When we do have some rain the grass will need an autumn feed and weed. Do not use the summer feed which is the full of nitrogen that will promote top growth when what we need to encourage is root growth.

At a large house in St Andrews the staff planted runner beans along the South facing border adjacent to the house on 8ft canes, and with the watering this has kept the ground floor relatively cool. By the time they’re taken down we should be in cooler weather.

After last year’s glut of fruit, especially apples, damsons and plums, this has been a fallow year. There have been some plums, but they are quite dry due to the hot spells. What fruit the trees did produce has come early as the trees are stressed and are getting ready for Autumn at least a month early. The fruits that have produced well are figs, gooseberries and blackberries that were ready to eat at the beginning of July. Blackberry thorns seem to thrive whatever the weather.

There have been cases of sudden limb drop from trees due to stress. This is a rare occurrence, but we are advised not to sit under older trees in hot spells. You will have noticed that this year a lot of trees young and old have branches that have died. This is all down to the trees cutting off life to a limb to save itself.

A tip from a lady in Sully to ease the itching from bites and stop the blighters before they prey on you, is to rub Vicks VapoRub on. It works brilliantly.

Take care & happy gardening.

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