Month: October 2025
About Conkers and Israeli / Palestinian Conflicts
ABOUT CONKERS AND ISRAELI / PALESTINIAN CONFLICTS
(A Brief Summary of Part of an Intractable Problem)
By now local children will have collected their conkers in Grange Park. But let us stop a moment to consider how conkers relate directly to a century of conflict in the Middle East.
It began with a Jewish scientist named Chaim Weizmann. He was born in Russia in 1874 and after a rather colourful early life he was to become a professor of organic chemistry at Manchester University in 1904. By this time, he had become a committed Zionist campaigning for a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
(Incidentally, the British government had long been sympathetic to finding a Jewish homeland, and at one time they had offered the Uganda Protectorate as a possibility, partly to offset the ruinous cost of building a railway line through Kenya from Mombasa to Lake Victoria).
Back to Weizmann. Ten years of research at Manchester had led to him inventing a process to obtain acetone by fermenting starchy materials. It is now the start of the First World War, and the armament industry is in need of huge quantities of acetone to manufacture high explosive cordite.
At the beginning of the war, they relied on imported maize for the starch. But when supply routes were cut, Lloyd George, as Minister of Munitions, required that starch should come from closer to home. Weizman proposed horse chestnuts. There were factories at Poole in Dorset and by the dockside at King’s Lynn in Norfolk, producing as much as 90,000 gallons of acetone a year. Children collected the conkers and because the factory locations were top secret the collected conkers were sent to London to be passed on to the factories.
As the process was being kept secret, there were local suspicions that private profit was being made from voluntary efforts of the children. It was said that because so many conkers were collected around the country there were transport problems and piles of rotting conkers were left at railway stations.
Weizmann was thus the man of the moment, but a quid pro quo raised its head. “Seeing that I have helped the war effort, how about the British Government ceding part of Palestine (where the British had some influence) to become a Jewish Homeland? Prevarications ensued, and in 1919 when Palestine was under British control as a Mandated Territory following the defeat of the Ottomans the Balfour Declaration was issued: “His Majesty’s Government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.” (Author’s Bold and Underline)
We now know just how well that ideal worked out.
An historical footnote: When the state of Israel was founded in 1948, Weizman became its first president.
Tony Hodge
Talybont and Llanfeugan
Talybont and Llanfeugan
Talybont and Llanfeugan
Parking in Talybont, where toilets and showers were available for a small fee, we set off along a section of the canal. The walk was taking in parts of the Taff trail, Usk Valley walk, and the Brecon and Monmouthshire canal. Henry Vaughan ‘the Swan of the Usk’ is celebrated here, a 17thC poet and doctor and his twin, Thomas, a priest, and alchemist published devotional, poetic, alchemical and medical volumes. There is a short Henry Vaughan Walk – 4Km, with poetic extracts on wooden boards which tuck away out of the weather when not in use, ingenious. Henry was recognised as a poet who influenced many later poets such as Wordsworth. We walked through an herb garden containing plants which the brothers would have grown for use in their medical exploits.
On the Taff trail we read a quote from one of Thomas’s poems ‘What a clear, running crystal here I find! Sure I will strive to gain as clear a mind!’ I wonder what the Taff was like in their day.
We traversed fields and a small wood and came across an orchard overflowing with fruit, as all trees seem to be this year. One tree was the archetypal apple tree with glossy red fruit. There was a walk in aid of Mountain Rescue the day we were there, and we came across some marshals – luckily our routes were different.
The Usk valley walk has an otter as its symbol and utilises some permitted paths through lush fields and a copse of silver birch. We entered a wood and were pleased to spot various fungi but excited to see a large clump of fly agaric (the red mushroom with white spots). At this point someone said we had better stop spending so much time looking at fungi as we had only walked 2 miles!
We passed the ruin of a building and had our first view of the meandering river Usk. The path, which worshippers would have taken over the ages, was leading to Llanfeugan, but the church of St Meugan was still some way off. The Parish stretches 8.5 miles from the river Usk, over the 2523ft summit of Waun Rydd and down into the Taff Fechan valley. The track was well established with many old trees along the way. At least 4 types of fungi grew on the remains of a tree.
At lunchtime we arrived at the 13thC church, built on the site of a chapel and a pre-Christian sacred site, so it has been a sacred site for thousands of years. An amazing sight welcomed us; a beautiful noticeboard and gate led to the churchyard which has 13 ancient yew trees, at least two are over 2000 years old, and the atmosphere was awesome. We were invited to ‘Pick your yew’ and eat.
In 2023 a large bough broke off one yew in a storm, and the wood was saved to be used by local crafts people, including to make the frame for the yew noticeboard at the entrance gate. Cuttings from the
yews were taken in the Millenium year and three are now planted to the south of the church, as they were given back to St Meugan’s in 2003.
After their long journeys, the rector and congregation, played handball until the bells stopped ringing and resumed their game on completion of the service. There was even cockfighting, especially on Holy Days!
We briefly explored the interior of the church and then continued our walk, glancing back at the church which was almost entirely hidden by the yews. Through fields and tracks it was downhill to the canal, passing hawthorns loaded with bright red haws and a spindle tree (so called because its branches are perfectly round and were used for spindles) with its bright pink capsules that split open to reveal vibrant orange, berry-like seeds.
On reaching the canal an easy walk along it allowed us to watch wildfowl, barges moving slowly along and even the tree in which an osprey nested, near the canal this year.
Soon we were back at Talybont, a village which grew from the canal and the thriving industry powered by local coal. Today it buzzes with mountain power. Mountain streams cascade down waterfalls into the reservoir driving the hydro to power our homes, businesses and cars.
A memorable day which despite the forecast, remained dry and was finished off by a cuppa outside the local café/shop watching the participants in a much longer sponsored walk pass by.
Walk 7.5 m 880ft Map OL12 and OL13
Seeing Further Ahead Together
WENVOE FORUM
Considering Tomorrow Today
Seeing Further Ahead Together
The Wenvoe Future Forum was set up in the immediate post Covid period, when life was getting back to normal but there was a feeling that the world had changed and people were more aware of their own actions and their impact. We set out to capitalise on this environment and stimulate discussion and action that contributed to addressing climate change. We feel that we have had some success, generally through working to support other organisations in the village.
Members of the Forum care deeply about Wenvoe’s future — its environment, sustainability, and sense of community. Our aim is simple: to explore practical ways we can all make our village greener, cleaner and more resilient, now and for generations to come. Anyone who shares our aims is very welcome to join us.
In 2026 we are considering being more ambitious in looking to the future and thinking further ahead. We’ll be focusing on community connections – listening to residents’ ideas and gathering thoughts on what sustainability means for Wenvoe. We hope to widen the conversation and orchestrate a rigorous collection of ideas from residents with the aim of exploring whether these ideas large or small can be put into practice.
In the early days of the Forum someone said, “If the people of a community work together the only thing that limits what they can achieve is their imagination.”
If you’d like to get involved — even just to share an idea or a few hours of help — please email gwenfo.foum@gmail.com. If you’re passionate about recycling, gardening for wildlife, saving energy, or simply curious to learn more, we’d love to hear from you. Together, we can make small changes that add up to a big difference.
Message to hop growers and potential hop growers
Thank you to everyone who donated hops this year. It seems to have been quite a good year for hops, certainly for some but for others their hop harvest was poor. If your plants didn’t deliver don’t give up hope as 2026 may be a better year for the hops.
We enjoyed beer and pizza last night at Pipes Brewery in Pontcanna. Simon, brewer of the community beer, Taff Temptress beer hopes it will last for sales up to Christmas and can be purchased in cans to take away. When you purchase mention the Wenvoe Hops group – at the moment still offering 20% off. Steve and I hope to purchase Hop plants and seeds in November as ours has died, so if you want some seeds from us, please let us know. We have one new member who joined this week. If you want to join our Wenvoe Hops group, please contact sianjo@btinternet.com
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
Potato Hash with Tomatoes & Banana Bread
What about a tray bake for bonfire night or for an easy supper on a cold night served with warm crusty bread followed by easy banana bread with a twist!
Potato Hash
with Tomatoes, Pepper and Kale
Ingredients
2 large potatoes, unpeeled, cut into bite-sized chunks
½ tsp dried chilli flakes
1 tsp olive oil
1 large yellow pepper, deseeded and thickly sliced
1 red onion, cut into thin wedges
125g/4½oz cherry tomatoes, halved ·
40g/1½oz curly kale, thinly sliced ·
4 large free-range eggs
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
- Preheat the oven to 220C / 200C Fan / Gas 7.
- Toss the potatoes with the chilli flakes, oil and a generous amount of salt and pepper on baking tray. Roast for 20 minutes.
- Remove the tray from the oven and toss the pepper, onion and tomatoes with the potatoes. Return to the oven for 15 minutes.
- Put the kale in a bowl with a large pinch of salt. Massage the kale between your fingertips until it becomes soft and damp.
- Toss the kale with the potato mixture and create four wells in the mixture. Crack an egg into each well and return the tray to the oven for 4–5 minutes, or until the egg whites are just set but the yolks are still runny.
Peanut Butter Banana Bread
Ingredients
100ml vegetable oil
2 bananas
150ml plain yoghurt
3 eggs
50g peanut butter
225g sugar
225g self-raising flour
100g raisins
10-12 banana chips
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180°C / 160° Fan / Gas 4. Grease and line a 2lb/900g loaf tin.
- Beat together the oil, banana, yoghurt, eggs and peanut butter until smooth.
- In a separate bowl , combine the sugar, flour and raisins, then stir the wet ingredients into the dry mixture and mix well.
- Tip the batter into the prepared tin and scatter the banana chips over the top.
- Bake in the oven for I hour 20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. If cake is getting too brown cover the top in foil for the last 20 minutes
- Leave to cool in tin, turn out and cool completely before cutting.
“Gabriel’s Moon ” by William Boyd
“Gabriel’s Moon ” by William Boyd
Gabriel’s Moon by William Boyd was met with mixed reception by the group being thoroughly enjoyed by some but others felt that it was a disappointing read and wouldn’t recommend it.
The main character was a travel writer who somehow became embroiled in espionage and managed to gain entry to several different countries becoming involved with historic events such as the assassination of Lumumba in the Congo. As such there was a mixture of fact and fiction in the book.
There were themes in the book of the main character’s relationships with women – among others his psychoanalyst, the woman who became his ‘handler’ – his brother and contacts made in the field, while at the same time he was dealing with the childhood trauma of losing his mother in a fire. There were a lot of different threads within the book that many felt quite confusing.
Some felt the book was well written with good description of places visited but others found it ‘bitty’ and confusing with no real theme to the story.
The ending was ambiguous but this is the first in a trilogy so any loose ends may become clearer in future books.
One of the group has read a number of books by William Boyd and felt that the story followed previous themes.
Overall, the book was given a score of 5.
Definitive List Of Welsh Apples
Definitive List Of Welsh Apples
There has been some press coverage recently following an announcement by the National Trust of the publication of a definitive list of Welsh Apple varieties. There are 29 listed. As we have gone to great lengths to plant many of the Welsh varieties in our orchards, we have been considering the list and its implications. In fact although 29 are listed they are broken down into 3 categories. The first category is the Historic list – apples unique to Wales with evidence of cultivation in the country pre-1950. There are 16 of these and include varieties planted in our orchards such as Cissy, Gabalva and St. Cecilia. We have 11 varieties of these.
The second category is referred to as Modern which are unique to Wales but introduced by a Welsh breeder or nursery post 1950. One of these is Bardsey which is claimed to date back hundreds of years as it was found in an old orchard on Bardsey Island and sold around the world as such. However, as there is no evidence to support the claim and it was discovered in 1998/9, it is officially post-1950 and thus Modern. There are 5 of these of which we have Bardsey and Machen.
The final category is called Associated and these are not unique to Wales but may have been given a Welsh name and widely cultivated in Wales or the Marches. There are 8 of these of which we have only planted Morgan Sweet.
However, we have another 7 which we understood were Welsh but do not fall into any of these categories such as Afal Wern, Pig Aderyn and Cadwallader. The implication is that these are English apples which were just given a Welsh name. So, this list does help to clarify which varieties are truly Welsh and which were adopted and introduced from elsewhere. To check out the full list go to the National Trust website.
September 2025 200 Club Winners
Orchard Maintenance
Wenvoe Wildlife Group
Orchard Maintenance
Sian has cleared a section of the Watercress Beds at Goldsland. Llewellyn from the Vale Local Partnership team has done a fantastic job cutting the Community Orchard, Wild, Goldsland and Elizabethan orchards whilst also widening the paths around the Upper Orchid Field.
These and many other jobs are made possible through the money raised by the Tuckers’ events and all of you who support them. Other items we have spent this money on include new benches in the Community Orchard, new noticeboard in the Community Orchard, junior workshops for 7- to 11-year-olds, insurance, schoolbooks and items in the wildlife patch, leaflets, signage, tools and materials. Thank you to all who support us directly and those who participate in the Tucker events.
Date for your 2026 diary. The Garden Birdwatch takes place between Friday 23rd and Sunday 25th January. More details will follow nearer the time.
“Into the Storm ” by Cecelia Ahearn
OFF THE SHELF
“Into the Storm ” by Cecelia Ahearn
Cecelia Ahern is an Irish novelist, known for her works like PS, I Love You; Where Rainbows End; and If You Could See Me Now.
It is a wild night in the middle of December, and GP Enya is crouched over a teenage boy, performing CPR in the rain.
The boy survives, but Enya’s life splinters in two. Trapped in a loveless marriage, the storm propels her to break free. But even in the remote country town that becomes her sanctuary, Enya is haunted by the night in the rain. Beneath the boughs of an ancient tree that tells a thousand stories, can she find the courage to face her demons.
The book was enjoyed by all members of the book club. However, some members found the ending unbelievable because they felt that the author had not set up some of the characters well, particularly the GP in the story who they felt was not credible.
Despite this it was readable and well written, and some members really enjoyed it and would recommend it.
A score of 7/10 was given overall.