Wildlife Trust

THE JANUARY meeting of the North Ceredigion Section of the Wildlife Trust South and West Wales, took place on Monday, 11 January, and had a very local focus – Greener Aberystwyth. There were over 50 people present at the meeting which began with Em Foot, the trust’s wildlife officer for Ceredigion, giving an account of recent conservation work she has undertaken with her team of volunteers in the trust’s Ceredigion Wildlife Reserves. This was followed by members of the audience being invited to share their recent wildlife experiences with the meeting. With the very changeable and often unseasonal weather conditions prevailing, some very interesting observations were shared. Section chairman John Wildig then warmly welcomed to the meeting Cllr Alun Williams, the Ceredigion county councillor for the Bronglais ward in Aberystwyth, and the Cabinet member for environmental services, assets, transport and carbon management. Alun’s talk consisted of an overview about what the council and local organisations are doing for the town’s environment and covered many topics, including work and initiatives with street trees, the environmental management of Aberystwyth Cemetery, environmental initiatives in the university and Parc Natur Penglais and green initiatives in Penparcau. A wide-ranging presentation opened the eyes of many in the audience and was brought to an end with a very warm vote of thanks from Roger Bray, one of the stalwarts of the Greener Aberystwyth Group. The next meeting of the section will be at 7pm on Monday, 1 February, in C22 in the Hugh Owen building on Penglais when Sue Parker of First Nature will be speaking on wild orchids of the Algarve. All are welcome to the meeting and more in-formation on it and the section’s programme of winter meetings and activities, is available from the secretary, David Purdon, on 01970 871012

Choral Society

THE SOCIETY’S performance of Handel’s ever-popular masterpiece Messiah in the Great Hall on Saturday, 12 December, was a huge success, with a choir of over 80 voices, four professional soloists and full orchestra, work-ing together with conductor David Russell Hulme to give a performance which will be long remembered by the 400 plus audience who were in the Great Hall.The Christmas break was however soon over and on the cold, wet, wild and windy evening of Tuesday, 12 January, over 60 choristers made their way back to the Old Hall in the Old College for the start of rehearsals for the Spring Concert on Saturday, 23 April.This will continue the society’s aim of providing full-scale performances of the great choral masterpieces – regarded as some of the most wonderful music ever written. The forthcoming Spring Concert will certainly do this as the work is the Verdi Requiem – Verdi’s powerful choral and orchestral masterpiece. The first practice saw choristers, includ-ing a good number who had never sung the work before, getting to grips under the baton of David Russell Hulme with the beautiful Requiem and Kyrie Eleison.January and early February is an ideal opportunity for anyone interested in joining a flourishing and sociable society which has a no auditions policy, to come along to the Tuesday evening rehearsals at 7.30pm in the Old Hall in the Old College where they can be assured of a very warm welcome and enjoy the great pleasure of large scale choral singing.

Côr Meibion

THE ANNUAL general meeting of the choir was held on 14 January at Aberystwyth Rugby Club. The first report to the meeting was from the almoner/welfare officer Ossie Rees. Ossie reported on current and past members who were unwell and also spoke to the meeting on the imp ortance of fellowship in the choir. Ossie was thanked for his valuable work which brought an extra dimension to choir life. In his report, the chairman, Glyn Collins, commented on how fortunate the choir had been to recruit Alwyn Evans as their new conductor following the retirement of Carol Davies. The choir had had a busy year with a total of 18 engagements. In his report to the choir, AGM musical director thanked the members for the warm welcome he had received. He also expressed his gratitude to Elenid Thomas, choir accompanist, for her strong support. He commented on the changing nature of the male voice choir performance calendar.Following the report of the concert secretary, Hywel Wyn Jones, he was thanked by the chairman for his work which covered not only concert engagements and choir tours but also the general secretarial work of the choir.Ken Edwards was confirmed as choir chair-man for the next two years following his service as vice chairman for the past two years. The other officers and members of the committee accepted nomination for a further year.

Bridge club

RESULTS from 10 January: 1, Jean Harrison and Mair Jenkins; 2, Margaret Ellis and Anne Edwards; 3, Pamela Woodhouse and Elenid Thomas; 4, Gill Joel and Jacqui Roberts.Results from 12 January: 1, Pamela Wood-house and Margaret James; 2, Jo Davies and Elenid Thomas; 3, Betty Brookes and Gill Joel; 4, Dor een Anthony and Dylan Raw-Rees.Results from 15 January: 1, Pat Roe and Margaret James; 2, Mike Tedd and Yuan Shen; 3, Pamela Woodhouse and Jo Davies.Cymdeithas yr AelwydNOS WENER, 15 Ionawr, ein cadeirydd oedd Lionel Madden a chroesawodd Iestyn Hughes, Bow Street.Wedi iddo ymddeol o’i swydd fel pennaeth yr archif sgrin a sain yn y Llyfrgell Genedlaethol, aeth Iestyn ati i ailafael mewn ffotograffiaeth. Arweiniodd hynny at ymchwilio lluniau a thynnu lluniau ar gyfer papurau newydd a chylchgronau, llyfrau, digwyddiadau ac unigolion.Cawsom gipolwg ar lyfrgell eang Iestyn o’r lluniau a dynnodd dros y blynyddoedd diwethaf, llawer ohonynt yn gysylltiedig â’r tywydd a golygfeydd lleol.