Tag: Latest Posts – November

A compilation of the most recent posts for the current month

The Essex Serpent

 

THE ESSEX SERPENT by Sarah Perry

This beautifully written historical fiction is set in 1893 in London and rural Essex. It was Waterstones Book of the Year 2016 and nominated for both The Women’s Prize and the Costa Book Award.

Cora is recently widowed from an unhappy and abusive marriage. Throughout her husband’s illness, she was supported by Doctor Luke Garrett, a pioneering surgeon and his wealthy friend, Doctor George Spencer, a physician.

Accompanied by her eleven year old autistic son Francis and their companion and friend Martha, Cora leaves London Society for a visit to Colchester. Whilst there she learns that after some 300 years, the mythical Essex Serpent is said to be roaming the marshes of the Blackwater Estuary once again and claiming human lives. As a keen amateur naturalist, she wonders if this could be some undiscovered species and decides to investigate. Her investigations lead her to Aldwinter, a fictional village situated on the Blackwater Estuary, where she is introduced to the Reverend William Ransome, the resident Vicar of Aldwinter, his frail wife Stella and their family.

This novel explores science vs faith and religion, social conscience, love and friendship and has received very positive public reviews. However the Page Turners were mostly of the opinion that there are many negatives which include the following:

There is too much going on but no depth to the various story-lines which are not memorable,

disjointed and at times, dreary and depressing. Even the titled story-line of the Essex Serpent fizzles out to nothing. Additionally, the majority of the characters, including Cora, are not very endearing.

On the positive side, the Page Turners concluded that the book is beautifully written and wonderfully descriptive. The author is clever and has done some very good background research, especially with regard to medical advancements during that era.

The scores ranged from 5 to 8 and produced a final average of 6.5.

 

 

October Events Report

October began with the rehearsal on Monday evening, Oct 1st in preparation for the recording of the two services on Monday 8th Oct. Jon had written the service for Bible Sunday with the help of the many written suggestions from the congregations, who had been invited to share their thoughts and ideas from the Bible teaching that had helped them during their lives. As you would expect in Wales, hymn singing formed a large part of the service and we sang a version of the Gloria to the tune of “Cwm Rhondda” and finished up with “We shall go out with joy” and we were even allowed to clap, clap, clap during the final verse as is our practice in St. Mary’s.

The second service had Epiphany (the visit of the Magi or wise Men or Kings from the East to the baby Jesus) for its theme, and we were all transported to the Twelfth day after Christmas. The Gospel according to St Luke provided the readings, the carols included “We three kings of Orient are” and we finished up with “One more step along the way we go”

The actual recording of the services were quite different from the rehearsal. We began at 6.30 pm on Monday evening October 8th, and soon realised that the first thing to happen was the voice checks to get the right level. Then everything was recorded in segments, which the producer explained was for any editing to be done to make sure there was enough material to edit or to fill in to the allotted time allowed for the programme to go on air. It must have been about 10 o’clock before the recordings were in the can, and now we have to wait until the broadcast times to hear the final result. It was a good experience to have representatives of our three churches together in an act of worship that was not only fun to do, but enjoyable at the same time.

The 1st broadcast is on Bible Sunday on BBC Radio Wales at 7.30am on October 28th. With the 2nd broadcast on The Feast of the Epiphany on BBC Radio Wales at 7.30am on January 6th 2019.

A session of “Messy Church” was held on Saturday afternoon October 6th in the Wenvoe Community Centre, when some 60 parents and children gathered for this informal family type worship. The theme was “The Wedding at Cana” and the children all helped to make a banner showing the bride and groom with their hand prints in the form of footprints along the bride’s train. That, together with wedding like bunting to decorate the feast, brought the afternoon to a close. A special thank you to the Vale Church for the help they give to make these events such a success.

The recent “Scarecrow Festival” brought many famous people to Wenvoe, despite the wet stormy weather. Due to the rain the event was quickly moved into the church and every nook and cranny seemed to have a scarecrow. We had Geraint Thomas, the winner of the “Tour de France” on his bike in the transept, “Flora the Wenvoe flower Girl”

in the Nave and Donald Trump, the President of the USA presided over all. All were worthy of prizes, for the effort that goes to assembling the scarecrows, and we look forward to next year, when perhaps the weather will be kinder to us. A full list of the prize winners, judged by the people who came, can be found in the October edition of the Parish Magazine “Connections” available in church.

During the “Scarecrow Festival” weekend, the plans for the church extension were displayed in the Transept. They will remain there for some weeks to allow as many people as possible to examine them. There has been a lot of favourable comment for the design and the facilities we hope offer our congregation and the community at large, as we make St. Mary’s Church fit for purpose in the years ahead. For a selection of the illustrations and the floor plan see adjoining page.

Eira Jervis RIP – The church community was saddened to hear of the passing of Eira Jervis after many months of illness. Eira was born, raised and married in Wenvoe and her adult life was spent in the service of others in the community. She served on the Wenvoe Community Council for many years, and has been Chairperson during that time. She was a faithful member of the congregation and undertook the church hall bookings in her spare time. For many years she was the village hairdresser, working from home and then later opening the salon at the rear of the village stores. She was an active member of the Wenvoe Historical Group and provided the foreword to the Tempus book on “Old Wenvoe” Condolences are extended to Viv, her husband and to her sons and their extended families. Well done thou good and faithful servant.

A reminder that the Community Remembrance Service takes place at 10.00am on Sunday 11th November starting in church and proceeding to the Village War Memorial by 11.00 am. This year is the Centenary 1918-2018 of WW1 and so is a very special occasion as we remember the Armistice. We also remember the 100 years of the Royal Air Force and the part they played in both World Wars. We will remember them.

Blessings to all our readers and a welcome awaits you at St Mary’s.

Parry Edwards

 

 

Vision 20/20 St Mary’s Church Extension

 

Here are a few of the drawings showing the proposed extension to St Mary’s Church, Wenvoe to provide a hall and kitchen and toilet facilities on the north side of the church and a balcony in the nave at the west end. Further plans can be viewed in the transept of St Mary’s. If you have any questions or comments about these designs then please contact Jon on revjonormrod @yahoo.co.uk.

 

 

The provisional plans were designed and drawn by the architect, the late Richard Dean, who sadly died whilst working on this project in September. It is still the intention of the PCC to proceed as we can use this concept as the basis of our design. More details will follow later, in the meantime our prayers go to Richard’s partner Jo at this sad time.

 

 

 

November library Notes

 

Library Statistics:- We are delighted to report that our latest figures show a marked increase in library usage over the last six months. In fact we have doubled the footfall during this period. We are further pleased to note that more of our borrowers are taking advantage of the Vale’s on-line services. Home visits have also doubled so please let us know if you would like us to deliver books to your home.

Library Winter hours:- We will continue to open as usual except for Monday when we shall be closing at 5 pm.

 

Christmas raffle:- Our raffle this year is extra special. We have two hampers as main prizes as well as a range of various other goodies. Tickets £1 each for sale at the Library. Tickets will be drawn midday on Saturday 15th December in the Library.

Reading Challenge:- Volunteers Alina and Sandra visited Wenvoe School and awarded certificates to pupils who completed the Challenge. The twenty-two children who received a certificate from Wenvoe School are: Evie, Erin, Abigail, Abbie, Alfie, Charlie, Erica, Georgia, Grace, Harrison, Hannah, Harry, Mali, Mia , Nathan, Olivia, Phoebe, Poppy, Seren, William, Charlotte and Jessica.

Other children who completed the Challenge but who do not attend school at Wenvoe have also received their certificates.

Clwb Clonc:- Cymraeg 2050 – a million Welsh speakers, is a government initiative aimed at providing people with the skills to be able to use the language with their families, in their communities and the workplace. Since its launch there has been a surge of adults wanting to learn the language or seeking to improve their existing skills. If you are a learner, or want an opportunity to practice your Welsh conversation skills,, then join us. We meet every Monday at 11 am in the café in Pugh’s Garden Centre. This has got off to an amazing start with support from the village increasing. Please come along whatever your ability.

Welsh magazines on the all Wales e-zines site. Three are now available through the RBDigital Gateway.

Y Wawr – Leisure – aimed primarily at women (it is Merched Y Wawr’s own publication – quarterly)

Barddas – poetry – quarterly

Mellten – children’s – quarterly

 

New books for November:- This month we have an abundance of new books from many genres to include several new crime titles. In addition, we have several new Welsh and English teen fiction titles and children’s books.

Village Show:- We hope everyone enjoyed the village show. Any new venture doesn’t come without its hiccoughs and so sincere apologies to those who fell foul of our inexperience.

Off the Shelf

Back When We Were Grown Ups – Anne Tyler

Anne Tyler shares a perspective on mid life crisis and writes with honesty and openness about roles and relationships within extended families. The main character Becky, is surrounded by people but still feels incredible loneliness and she dwells on thoughts that she is not her ‘ real self’. If another husband had been chosen she believes her pathway would have been different and she would have been another person. For a while Becky pursues her romantic memories of bygone years leaving the reader worrying for her sanity. Sadly her crisis goes totally unnoticed by those we think are closest to her. Anne Tyler uses the overlap between her family and her business of organising parties and draws on good humour in these events, suggesting that all families are from time to time dysfunctional units. This books shows Anne Tyler’s attributes of great character development with both Poppy, the step uncle and Peter, the step grandson, both of whom are portrayed as quirky, needy individuals with specific traits. But rather cleverly Anne Tyler reaches out to the reader with words of warmth as the story unravels around them.

It may be difficult to get your head around all the characters for a while in the early chapters, but it is well worth persevering. After reading this book we thought that the quote from Rudolph Nureyev summed up Anne Tyler’s work and our message to Becky and any person out there with similar misgivings would be: ‘In life don’t look over your shoulder for fear of falling down the stairs’.

This book was an interesting read, which the group enjoyed, and we gave it a high score of 8.

Isobel Davies 07815 602 148

 

A Community Library

 

Our library is now well established as a Community Library. We are now ready to further develop the library for the people of Wenvoe, and can look forward to the Community Council providing a new library building in the near future.

There are a number of volunteers who give their time to work in the library and the development of the library is overseen by a company limited by guarantee, Wenvoe Community Library Limited. The company currently has 4 volunteer directors, one of whom is leaving at the end of the year, and we are looking for more Directors. The role of a Director is to guide the development of the library and to ensure that the library’s day to day activities are run in a competent manner. A Director should have an interest in contributing to the way forward for the library; it is not essential to work in the library as a Volunteer.

We invite any person who might consider becoming a Director to contact one of us. The time commitment is one half day meeting a month and being prepared to have oversight of one or more of the library activities.

Sylvia Harvey 2059 2261

Brenig Davies 2059 2815

Alan French 2059 8092

 

 

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