Month: November 2023

Scout Trek Cart


TREK CART

It was great to see the Scout trek cart back in use outside the Church Hall advertising the recently held Village Show.

When we reformed the village scout group back in the mid 1970s we had nothing. There was nothing around belonging to any previous group so we hunted down anything we considered could be of use to running the group. One day while in a Barry wood yard I spied an old red painted fire cart, probably used to carry fire hoses, sand buckets, pumps etc to the scene of any outbreak of fire helping to contain the blaze while awaiting the arrival of professionals. The cart was no longer in use. A discussion with the owner resulted in the village scout troop possessing a trek cart; minor repairs were completed and a fresh coat of paint was applied. It was a much loved item when I was a scout.

Around our annual camp sites the cart proved extremely useful for moving tents and boxes etc. One year some of the scouts pulled the trek cart from the village out to New Wallace farm with their camping gear for a weekend camp. Around the village we used it as a mobile cooking platform when we went around selling freshly baked Welsh Cakes in aid of a Red Nose day appeal. Wonderful to see it back in use.

 

Ian

 

Wenvoe Wildlife Group

Wenvoe Wildlife Group

 

If you are interested in wildlife in and around Wenvoe keep an eye on our Facebook page ‘Wenvoe Wildlife’. We can no longer post to our original page ‘Wenvoe Wildlife Group’ but you can still look at the site where there are many years of posts. All new posts are on the new page. We continue to support the school wildlife patch and plan to install more planters and a small, guarded pond in the coming months. Anyone who would like to help with this project, please contact the Wildlife group – sometimes just 10 minutes of your time every now and again can make a difference.

We have mentioned in the past that we have just one Mistletoe growing in the village as far as we know and there are only two live plants on record in the county. If you have a mature apple tree and would like to try out germinating some berries, contact the Wildlife group as we shall have a limited number of berries you can use this Autumn. We are also planning to do our own simplified version of the Big Garden Birdwatch which takes place at the end of January which will enable us to find what birds are doing well or not so well in Wenvoe. Watch this space for more information

 

Taking Responsibility For Your Own Health FOOD

WENVOE FORUM

Considering tomorrow today

Taking responsibility for your own health FOOD!

 “We are what we eat!” so they say. Alongside exercise, your choice of what you eat, drink, breathe or absorb in some other way into your body must surely be the easiest contribution you can make to improving your own health. So let’s take a look at day to day eating and drinking – DIET.

To many, the word diet equates with trying to lose weight and certainly being over weight or obese is not good for your health at this very moment. It is also a predictor of a huge range of potential future health problems, from complications with pregnancies to difficult menopause; sports injuries to later life fractures; asthma to Alzheimer’s. It is no surprise, that with an eye to the future, that public health policy has a large focus on reducing obesity, hoping to educate children, through the menu of school dinners, to choose, and enjoy, healthy food options naturally as they grow into adulthood. For those of us grown ups whose reaction to being told it would be a good idea to lose weight is likely to be “But, I can’t live without… chocolate, cheese, chips, my mid-morning croissant, a fried breakfast at the weekend, or a glass of wine.” and so on, it is likely to be harder. One could concentrate on the unpleasant symptoms of diseases and conditions that are more common amongst the overweight, however if you are the optimistic type it might be preferable to find some positive motivations.

In 2004 Glanni Pes and Michel Poulain published the paper from which the concept of Blue Zones developed. Their study in Nuora Province of Sardinia, was exploring an area where there was no gender gap in longevity. Unlike other countries and indeed other parts of Italy, as many men lived to the oldest of ages as women. The area had roughly twice as many centenarians as the Italian average. Not only were people living longer but they were living in active good health far longer than elsewhere. National Geographic journalist Dan Buettner coined the term Blue Zones and added 4 more areas to the list and studied different aspects of life in those zones. At a time when in most of the world the average age of the population is getting older, there is great interest in successful aging and the prize of both a long and a healthy life.

General recommendations for a healthy diet usually mention the Mediterranean diet with lots of vegetables and fruit, protein from fish and plants rather than meat, reduction of free sugar, low salt and with an emphasis on whole foods and reducing processed food. It is often said that your plate should be colourful and that by choosing foods with a variety of natural colours you will be ensuring a balanced diet.

There is a lot of information on the internet, advice on diet and, in particular, on specific foods to help manage particular health conditions, all of which can be very confusing. It can also be contradictory and misleading, so take care where you take your information from. Use well known sources NHS, UK, USA and European Charities, World Health Organisation, Universities, academic journals and databases. Look for confirmation from elsewhere, check references and if an academic paper is cited at least check that it is published and you will normally be able to read a summary, called an abstract, at the beginning to check it out. If it is very scientific and you can’t follow it be careful.

While looking for information on a healthy diet I came across a couple of interesting bits of related information:-

• People who grow their own, eat more fruit and veg than those who just buy them

• An average household in the UK wastes a shocking 68kg of fruit and veg in a year. People who grow their own waste only 3.1 kg.

So read The Village Gardener and get growing for your own health and that of the environment.

Further information:-

• There is Netflix docuseries on all aspects of the Blue Zones https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/ 81214929

• Information on the Blue Zone Diet in more detail https://www.bluezones.com/recipes/foodguidelines/

• World Health Organisation information on a healthy diet. https://www.who.int/news-room/ fact-sheets/detail/healthy-diet

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Tips To Make More Of Your Garden

THE VILLAGE GARDENER

Tips to make more of your garden

By folk visiting the Wenvoe village show.

  1. Reuse your grow bags by taking the top off and growing late salad crops.
  2. After harvesting cabbage cut a cross in the remaining stump and, as if by magic, you will get another crop.
  3. If you want gardening gifts for Christmas, make sure you write a list, or you’ll get underpants.
  4. Never plant bulbs too shallow; the deeper the better.
  5. Old compost makes for a good mulch.
  6. Don’t bother taking a cuppa into the garden, it will without doubt be cold before you drink it.
  7. Get a mushroom kit; you can’t fail and you’ll have something to enter in the show next year.
  8. If your neighbour has a leaf blower, be prepared to do a lot of raking.
  9. Just had a tetanus jab at A&E; make sure you keep this jab up to date and a First Aid kit handy.
  10. £3 for a cup of coffee and a piece of cake and someone to talk to! When’s the next show?!

 

Thanks to Bernard’s chivvying, a lot of allotment folk entered the show and put their reputation on the line. Veg gardeners will be picking the last of their spring sown produce now and filling the compost bins with the waste. Any bare ground will have broad beans, onion sets and garlic planted and other bare patches will be covered to stop soil erosion and prevent weeds finding a good home. Another idea to think about is planting one of the many green manures you can buy. You just let them grow and then dig them in, sounds easy but it is a bit of work.

Trying to garden by reading the gardening magazines is so blooming difficult as there is a couple of weeks difference between the south and north of the country.

We had a friend who moved from Somerset to Aberdeen and could never grow a runner bean. As soon as it came into flower the first frosts got it. Down South we are tempted to plant early but it rarely works. A little more patience would save us a lot of wasted time and money. Like a fool I was tempted by the rows of delightful plants that had not sensed a breath of wind or cold until I got them home. Plants you buy now for the Autumn will need some protection from the elements before you plant out. They recommend at least 2 weeks of care before planting in their final position.

With cost a major factor in gardening, it is beneficial to try and store plants over winter. This is not easy as last winter proved, when pelargoniums perished in green houses even with bubble wrap insulation. You need to make sure there are no draughts. A friend recommended that begonia tubers should be thoroughly dried and then put in kiln dried sand to over Winter. This has worked for me over the past few years.

If you still have daffodil bulbs to plant, don’t delay as the sooner they go in the better.

Take care and happy gardening

 Llangorse Mynydd

 Llangorse Mynydd

Llangorse Mynydd

It was 13 weeks since I had been out with the Wenvoe walkers, so it was with some trepidation that I joined them on a trip to Mynnydd Llangorse. As we set off at a cracking pace, I thought I will never keep this up but soon got into the swing of it. The route is basically a climb from the car park outside Cwmdu village hall (fee £1) up to the moors on the top of Mynydd Llangorse and then a descent.

It was ideal walking weather slightly cloudy but dry with rain clouds hanging on the hills. The land was lush with grass and there were some wonderful old trees. Harebells were spotted and then seemed to be everywhere alongside the footpath.

Ahead of us were some dilapidated buildings. Three very old tractors stood, as if on parade, in a field. At the farmhouse slates were missing from the roof and guttering was falling off; it looked as if one end of the house was probably weatherproof, and the rest deteriorating. The corrugated iron roof of the barn was rusty with more holes than rusty iron. But there were several cars and apparently someone does live there. Even a sign for the bridal path looked as if it had been there forever being completely covered in silvery lichen, apart from the blue outline of a horse and rider.

Continuing we spotted orange waxcap fungi on the steep slope above the farm. Now we were getting closer to the purply pink flowers of the heather strewn moors. The heather on Mynydd Llangorse was ‘going over’ but that on Pen Tir, our return route, was glorious. It was close to lunchtime when we reached the trig point and Llangorse lake had not come into view, but we sank into the springiness of the heather to eat. It was quite cold with some of us wishing we had gloves!

Dark clouds still clung to the hills around, and rain was visible in the distance, but at last there was Llangorse lake, looking quite murky, below us. A cairn marked the turning for the path over Pen Tir and we were soon surrounded by heather in full flower with its subtle scent.

The descent was gradual at first, and the last half an hour was steep which I found quite demanding. But what a lovely walk. Although dark clouds clung to the hills, we had got away with some sunshine and just a few drops of rain. After refreshments at Tretower castle, we drove home over the top and were lucky to see a kite and a wide rainbow.

Walk 7.2m 1350ft.

 

 

Looking For Medlars

Looking For Medlars

There was a post recently on Facebook, not local, where someone mentioned they had been looking for Medlars for 6 years. They should have come to Wenvoe where we have 6 trees all covered with fruit in 4 of our Community Orchards! Once very popular in Britain, they are now unfamiliar to most but are staging a bit of a revival.

Medlars are related to apples and are very easy to grow. All of those planted by the Wildlife Group have taken and are growing well with fruit appearing after a couple of years. They are self-pollinating with large white flowers in late Spring. The fruit are small and hard and ideally should be left until the first frosts have ‘bletted’ or softened them. They can be used to make a fragrant amber jelly, as an accompaniment to cheese or cold meats or in a sweet dessert. Look online for different recipes.

Common names for the Medlar are a bit too vulgar to be quoted here but the French call it ‘cul de chien’. It appears often in literature with the suggestion it is ‘beautiful, bawdy and rotten’. Chaucer, Shakespeare and Dekker all referred to it but one of the earliest mentions is by Theophrastus, a Greek naturalist and philosopher in 300BC.

As the RHS say – Steeped in history, easy to grow, and with stunning foliage, medlars are superb trees to grow, offering you a supply of vitamin-rich fruit to see you through the winter months.

 

St. Mary’s Church News – October 2023

0CTOBER REPORT

It is a pleasure to report that the Village Show and the Picnic in the church grounds was a tremendous success. It brought together the village in support of St. Mary’s building fund and raised a staggering amount of £1500.12. Grateful thanks to Glenys and Mike Tucker and their wonderful team of helpers. Thank you also to the people who donated the superb range of raffle prizes and to those who generously bought the tickets. The warm sunshine brought the crowds out for a very enjoyable day.

The number of entries from the oddest shaped vegetable to the wonderful array of bread and cakes, together with flowers and craft items, jams and chutneys and not forgetting the photography section, made this year’s Village Show as good as any in the past. We are all looking forward to a similar event next year. Many enjoyed Anthony’s gorgeous cakes and coffee and tea and were able to sit and enjoy catching up with friends not seen very often. So thank you Glenys and Mike for your enthusiasm and drive to arrange this village event to raise money for a good cause. Diolch yn fawr.

The Teddy Bear Picnic in the church grounds, organised by Alyson, was very well supported. Poppy, and her friend Victoria, organised the face painting to great effect, and donations given helped to swell the final amount raised. Poppy also designed the colourful poster used to advertise the picnic following her excellent GCSE exam results. She achieved 3A*, 9As and passes in Welsh Baccalaureate and additional Maths. What a clever girl. It was heartwarming to see the number of young children and parents enjoying their time together, and many took the opportunity to see inside the church. Many compliments were expressed as to how well looked after it is. Many did not realise the absolute treasure we have in St Mary’s. The repointing of the tower and porch a few years ago has greatly improved the external appearance and with the grounds being so well looked after by Mike Tucker, it makes your church one that has to be admired within the Diocese.

Harvest Celebrations. Our Harvest Eucharist service is at 9.30am on Sunday 24th September. Gifts of Fruit and Vegetables are most welcome and will be passed to a church in Cardiff for those who find it difficult to buy fresh vegetables and fruit. The Food Bank will receive all the dried and tinned goods which will have been used to decorate the church. Help will be needed on Saturday 23rd at 10.00am to arrange the flowers etc. “Come ye thankful people come, raise the song of home”. We look forward to see you on the morning and in church on the Sunday. A retiring collection will be taken for the Christian Aid Harvest Appeal following the service.

Harvest at St. Bleddian’s Church will be at 3.00pm on Sunday 8th October.

Don’t forget the meeting about the future of St. Bleddian’s Church on Thursday 12th October at

7.00pm. Please support and make your feelings known on its future.

200 Club. Renewal letters have been distributed to all shareholders seeking their renewal and hopefully taking out additional shares, together with an invitation for new shareholders to support this fund raising for the church building fund. If you are not at present a shareholder, please consider becoming a shareholder to help us keep the church in good order. Talk to Dickon Oliver 02920679108.

Visit to Margam Abbey 29th October to attend the 11.00am Mass. Book your seat on the FREE coach, leaving Wenvoe at 9.45am. Lunch can be a BYO to be eaten in the Church Hall or within Margam Park with a tour of the Abbey before we leave at 3.30pm.

Foodbank. Many thanks for continuing to support the Foodbank. Your gifts are very much appreciated; both gifts or food and money. Currently the store is providing more help than the donations coming in, and so they are reliant on stock they had received previously. Our weekly donations really do fill some of the gaps.

Pilgrimage to Sully Island 2nd October, 2.00pm –

Vicar Lyndon writes with an invitation to all.

Following our successful pilgrimage to Penrhys, some of us have been talking about finding an opportunity to do something similar – only shorter – out to Sully Island so…

Please join us on Monday 2nd October at 2.00pm to walk to Sully Island where we will celebrate a brief Eucharist and give thanks for the beauty of creation, weather permitting of course. I promise we will be back before the tide comes in!

It’s a bit rocky so could be a bit challenging at times, but it’s not very far. Please wear appropriate footwear.

We will gather by the Seashore Grill at 1:45pm on Monday 2nd October for our 2.00pm departure. All are welcome. Please feel free to invite your friends. For those who wish to do so, we will stop at one of the pubs upon our return to celebrate our safe return to the mainland.

Mid week Eucharist to be resumed at 10.00am in October on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday at St. Mary’s and the 2nd and 4th Wednesday at St. John’s in Sully. This is an opportunity to join in a quieter celebration of the Eucharist if you are unable to attend church on a Sunday. Please join us.

The Chattery will be meeting on Thursday 12th October in the Church Hall at 10.30am. All are welcome to join together for a coffee/tea and posh biscuits plus a FREE raffle for £2.00.

Thank you for reading this newsletter. There is a lot going on at St. Mary’s. Do join us for a great welcome. God bless.
Parry Edwards

 

Spring Forward, Fall Back


SPRING FORWARD, FALL BACK

 

On the 29th of this month many of us will bask in the joy of knowing that the clocks go back at 2a.m. and we get an extra hour in bed. The idea has been around a long time and so has the controversy over its benefits or otherwise.

The idea of aligning waking hours to daylight hours is usually credited to the American Benjamin Franklin who first proposed the idea in 1784. Franklin was dismayed by the wasting of daylight hours and so proposed a way in which everyone would benefit from getting up as soon as it was light enough. He published that old proverb ‘early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.’ In a satirical letter to the editor of The Journal of Paris, Franklin suggested that waking up earlier in the summer would economise on candle usage; and calculated considerable savings. He proposed, tongue-in-cheek, taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public at sunrise by ringing church bells and firing cannons!

British Summer Time, also known as Daylight Saving Time, was the brainchild of a builder from Kent called William Willett. On his way back from riding his horse in Petts Wood in 1905, he noticed many of the blinds and curtains in the neighbouring houses were still drawn, even though it was light. This led him to consider the idea of adapting the time to better fit daylight hours. It seems Willett had an ulterior motive for his suggestion. He was an avid golfer who disliked cutting short his round at dusk.

Willett’s proposal, which he published in 1907, was to advance the clock during the summer months. His original proposal was for the clocks to be put forward by 80 minutes in total, in four steps of 20 minutes each Sunday at 2am during April and turned back in the same way in September. He argued that this would mean longer daylight hours for recreation, improving health and also saving the country money in lighting costs. Liberal Party MP Robert Pearce introduced the first Daylight Saving Bill to the House of Commons on 12 February 1908 but it failed to become law.

The idea resurfaced during World War One when the need to conserve coal made the suggestion of daylight saving more pertinent. The Summer Time Act was finally passed in the UK on 17th May 1916. Backed by press advertisements, the clocks went forward one hour on the following Sunday, 21st May. To return to GMT on 1st October 1916, people were advised to put their clocks forward by 11 hours rather than turning the hands back an hour, as in those days this would break the mechanism.

Sadly William Willett died of the flu in 1915 aged 58 and didn’t live to see his ideas become law. Fittingly though, there is a memorial sundial in Petts Wood, set permanently to Daylight Saving Time, in his honour. His ideas still form the basis of the system we use today. Advocates for it claim the lighter summer mornings save energy, reduce traffic accidents and get people out leading to them becoming more active with associated health benefits. Critics claim darker winter mornings are more dangerous for children going to school and mean farmers working longer hours before daylight.

Whichever side of the argument you favour, the fact remains that we need to make a note to put our clocks back at 2a.m. on October 29th. Nowadays of course our mobile phones, computers and laptops do not need reminding of this momentous event

 

 

November Letters

 

 

Dear Editor,

I am writing to express my heartfelt gratitude to our many friends and neighbours in Wenvoe for their tremendous support following the passing of my husband, Gordon Jones, on September 18, at the age of 86. Your cards, flowers, and messages of support have been a source of great comfort, as well as a testament to how well-respected Gordon was within the village.

I would like to extend a special thank you to The Reverend Lyndon Hutchison-Hounsell for conducting the lovely funeral service at St. Mary’s Parish Church on October 10, and to all those who were able to attend and join in the wonderful singing. Your presence meant a lot to us.

I’m please to say that the collection held at the service raised £1000 for the Royal National Lifeboat Association (RNLI), which was a cause close to Gordon’s heart.

With sincere thanks,

Elizabeth Jones

 

ELY CORRIES SKITTLE TEAM

We are looking for a couple of players to boost our team, we have five players already from Wenvoe.

We play from Ely Cons on a Friday night and away games any night. We car share where possible. This team has been going since the 60’s.

If interested please ring Bernard on 07960135606

Tips from Residents of the Old Rectory et al.

THE VILLAGE GARDENER

Tips from Residents of the Old Rectory et al.

Old Rectory

1. Plant garlic now, it’s supposed to increase the flavour by sowing in the Autumn.

2. Keep the lawns clear of leaves, tedious but necessary.

3. Be sure to open greenhouse door on nice days to increase air flow.

4. Ripen any green tomatoes by putting on a sunny windowsill.

5. Take extra care outside this time of year, as surfaces will be slippery.

Lawn care tips from Ray Darlington

  1. Aerate the lawn either by machine or just by forking over.
  2. Sweep up worm casts as they make perfect areas for weeds to settle.
  3. Raise the cutting height on mower if the grass still needs mowing.
  4. Tidy up the edging, it will make the garden look neater.
  5. If you’re considering adding a flower bed to the lawn, now is the time to start. Just turn the turf over so no grass is showing, and it will die off leaving a good base for Spring planting.

November can be an unforgiving month, which can seem worse with the garden devoid of bright colours except for some berries which will soon be eaten by the birds. Keeping things tidy in the garden can make things easier on the eye. There is always something to be done outside, whether it’s moving shrubs, cutting back or thinning out clumps of grasses. It can be be quite hard to get motivated but once outside the mood changes. A little effort now will make a big difference when Spring comes round.

It’s not often garden centres have bargains but at this time of year seed packets are on offer, just be sure you remember where you put them for safe keeping. The large garden centre in St Mellons has a dedicated area for cheap plants and there are some good offers, if you have room to look after them. Bare root shrubs are available from now until March online and there are big savings to be had compared to pot grown specimens.

Apologies if I’ve mentioned this before, we seem to be under the cosh from the box tree caterpillar. This pest has only been in the UK since 2007; it was first found in the southeast of England it has since spread across the UK. They are difficult to get rid of and can survive the winter months. This caterpillar will ruin box hedging and bushes if you don’t catch it early and treat throughout the year. Dyffryn Gardens has taken loads out and will not be replacing as it is so destructive. This pest is not going away so unless you are prepared to fight against it, don’t purchase.

Lighting a bonfire? Please check for hibernating hedgehogs, I’ve been told by some of the older residents that they’re nice roasted, but only in foil with seasoning.

Take care and happy gardening

 

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