THE latest community news from Aberystwyth

Wildlife Trust

The next meeting of the North Ceredigion Section of the Wildlife Trust South and West Wales, will be held on Monday, 4 February, at 7pm in room C22 in the Hugh Owen Building on the Penglais campus.

The meeting will hear about the latest conservation work on the trust’s Ceredigion reserves and reports from members of any unusual sightings and observations over the last few months. The talk will be on the Living Seas Wales project, the Wildlife Trust’s collective vision for the seas around Wales and the United Kingdom.

In Wales the seas are suffering at present and need significant and urgent effort to achieve the vision of a wildlife-rich marine environment. All are welcome to the meeting to learn more.

Merched y Wawr

Cynhaliwyd cyfarfod mis Ionawr yn festri Capel y Morfa ar y trydydd nos Lun yn y mis yn ôl yr arfer.

Croesawyd pawb gan Eluned Richards, y llywydd, a hyfryd oedd cael crosawu dwy aelod newydd i’n plith.

Hawl i Holi oedd teitl y noson. Cyflwynwyd y panel gan Eluned, sef Phil Davies, Dana Edwards, Richard Griffiths, Mari Turner a cadeirydd y noson Esther Prydderch.

Cwestiynau aelodau’r gangen a drafodwyd ac ni chafwyd eu siomi gan yr atebion.

Cyn diwedd y noson daethom i adnabod aelodau’r panel yn dda iawn.

Eu rhieni oedd wedi dylanwadu arnynt fwyaf, yn rhyfedd iawn nid oedd un ohonynt wedi gwneud adduned ar ddechrau’r flwyddyn. Eu cas bethau oedd bwlio, plant yn cael niwed, sbwriel, baw ci a’r bobl oedd yn bwydo’r gwylanod yn Aberystwyth. Hefyd eu hoff ddiharebion.

Diolchodd Eluned i aelodau’r gangen am y cwestiynau amrywiol ac i aelodau’r panel am eu hatebion gonest. Diolch arbennig i Esther am gynnal y noson mewn ffordd mor hwyliog.

Cafwyd amser i gymdeithasu dros baned.

Mis nesaf dathlir G?yl ein Nawddsant trwy wledda yng ngwesty’r Marine. Bydd y noson yn dechrau 6.45yh.

Cymdeithas yr Aelwyd

Brynhawn Gwener, 25 Ionawr, daeth Rhiannon Ifans a Trefor Pugh atom i ddathlu’r Plygain.

Mae cyfnod y Plygain yn ymestyn drwy’r adfent ac am chwe wythnos wedi’r Nadolig, sef hyd at 2 Chwefror, G?yl Fair y Canhwyllau. Cadarnle’r Plygain yw Sir Drefaldwyn ond yn y blynyddoedd diwethaf cynhaliwyd gwasanaethau plygain ledled y wlad.

Mae Rhiannon a Trefor yn arbenigwyr ar ganu Plygain ac yn ystod y prynhawn cafwyd nifer o enghreifftiau ganddynt o’r carolau, hen a newydd. Hefyd eglurodd Rhiannon y gwahaniaeth rhwng carolau cyffredin a charolau Plygain, a’r drefn draddodiadol mewn gwasanaeth Plygain, er nad yw hynny yn ysgrifenedeg.

Y cadeirydd oedd Delyth Evans.

Beekeepers’ Association

The January meeting of the association took place on the evening of Tuesday, 15 January in the Waunfawr Community Hall.

Twenty eight members came to hear a very interesting talk on mead by Dr Benjamin Guscott.

Mead, a drink with an ancient history, is made from honey, water and yeasts, and is a wonderfully versatile drink with huge potential. Benjamin wants to help this venerable drink regain the reputation it deserves.

He produces it in his Shire Meadery at the Aberystwyth University Gogerddan Campus, and aims to create unique light meads with a focus on delicate flavors and drinkability.

His talk focussed not only on his operation, but also the techniques available to ordinary beekeepers who simply want to produce a few bottles of their own beverage, made by carefully fermenting their own honey.

A good question and answer session ensued and a number of fantastic meads were sampled, with relish, by the members. Some members will be taking up his offer of showing small numbers of members his operation.

The next meeting of the association is the AGM on Tuesday, 19 February in Waunfawr Community Hall at 7.30pm when the programme for the coming year will be finalised.

Looking forward to spring, the association will be repeating a beginners’ taster weekend in May and anyone interested in taking up the craft should get in touch with Ann Ovens, the secretary, on 01970 832359.

Horticultural Society

The January meeting of the Cardiganshire Horticultural Society took place in Waunfawr Community Hall on Tuesday, 8 January and attracted an audience of some 40 people. The speaker was Peter Styles who runs a successful landscape design company based in Shrewsbury and Welshpool.

Everyone present thoroughly enjoyed an enthralling presentation on a wide range of innovative landscape design projects both in the UK and abroad and he certainly showed how plants and landscaping could come together in unlikely places, and to good effect.

The February meeting will be on Tuesday, 12 February at 7.30pm in Waunfawr Community Hall when Michael Thurlow, a very experienced gardener, will be talking about his work as head gardner at Audley End, where over a period of 13 years, he was employed by Garden Organic to restore and manage the walled kitchen garden organically on behalf of English Heritage.

Anyone interested in gardening and horticulture can be assured of a warm welcome and an interesting meeting.

Holy Trinity Church

Last Sunday, 27 January the 11am service was the annual RNLI Service of thanksgiving, and was a very special one, with a very good turnout of the congregation and people associated with the Aberystwyth Lifeboat.

The service was lead by the Vicar, the Rev Mark Ansell and involved people working with the Aberystwyth lifeboat.

It began with the RNLI standards being brought from the rear of the church and placed near the altar.

Mark Morgan the chairman of the Aberystwyth lifeboat station welcomed people to the service and Richard Griffiths the operations manager reviewed the year’s operations.

The guest preacher was the former vicar of Holy Trinity, Rev Ian Girling, who was also prior to his retirement, the chaplain to the Aberystwyth branch of the RNLI, and he gave an excellent sermon based on the ethos of the RNLI that every life matters.

At the end of the service, tea and coffee was served with many friends and acquaintances meeting and chatting with Ian.

A video was also shown of the Aberystwyth lifeboat’s activities over the past year.

Ramblers

ON Sunday, 3 February, Wyck (01545 560499) will be leading a five-mile, moderately strenuous walk from Cwmeinion picnic area (Ystrad Einion) up Moelyllyn and Foel Goch, coming down via Mynydd Coronwen.

These impressive looking mountains, which can be seen from the train while passing Borth, afford spectacular views down the coast and the Dyfi Estuary.

Meet at 9.30am at Plascrug Leisure Centre or at 10.15am at the picnic area (grid ref SN 707940).

Cambrian Floral Society

THE programme for 2019 started on Wednesday, 2 January, with an instructive demonstration on ‘miniatures’ by John James.

An enthusiastic crowd had gathered to see this special demonstration and it started with John going through the NAFAS rules for competitors of miniature exhibits.

He also named suitable foliages and plant material and brought along numerous containers ranging from bottle tops to tiny dishes and accessories suitable for these dimensions.

Plant material used for the five different designs were tiny rockery ferns, erica, mahonia flowers, rosehips, berries of the hedera and feverfew, which had flowered out of season.

During the afternoon refreshments were served by Pat and Mai.

The next meeting will take place at Bethel Chapel Vestry on Wednesday, 6 February, at 2.30pm.

The afternoon demonstration will be by members, including Ann Bates, Mae Cullum, Eirlys Davies and Pat Edwards.

Bridge club

RESULTS from Friday, 4 January: 1, Magda Corser and Robert Griffiths; 2, Pamela Woodhouse and Margaret James; 3, Ian Finlay and Mike Yeo.

Results from Sunday, 6 January: 1, Roger Boyle and Jeff Thomas; 2, Sue Sherman and Margaret Ellis; 3, Elenid Thomas and Pam Woodhouse.

Results from Friday, 11 January: 1, Dai Hayes and Keith Bellamy; 2, Sue Sherman and Pam Woodhouse; 3, Elenid Thomas and Betty Brookes.

Results from Sunday, 13 January: 1, John Holmes and Gabor Gelleri; 2, Roger Boyle and Jeff Thomas; 3, Mair Jenkins and Jean Harrison.

Results from Friday, 18 January: 1, Alan Stein and John Holmes; 2, Keith Bellamy and Mike Jones; 3, Mike Tedd and Yuan Shen.

Results from Sunday, 20 January: 1, Roger Boyle and Jeff Thomas; 2, John Holes and Gabor Gelleri; 3, Mike Jones and Alan Stein.

Aberystwyth and District Floral Society

AT the most recent meeting, the first demonstration was by Pat Edwards on the theme of a Teddy Bears’ Picnic.

She began with a picnic basket which was lined and placed a block of oasis in the basket.

She arranged cream-coloured open lilies with multi heads at the centre and created a triangular shape using leylandii and aspidistra sprayed with leaf gloss.

To this she added a mixture of white roses and white chrysanthemums and completed the arrangement by adding white anthuriums.

The next arrangement was by Chris Gilbert on a Go Continental design theme.

She began her arrangement with two hollow cube shapes, one slightly smaller than the other, placed side by side with one slightly in front of the other and with a natural hessian bauble in the hollow space of the cube.

She had a posy tray on top of each cube and used echo friendly biodegradable oasis for her arrangement.

She wanted to created two vertical parallel design and used cornus dogwood to create height and a graduated line.

The third arrangement was by Jane Solomon on a ‘Go Minimalistic, Go Modern’ theme.

She used a tall bronze-coloured vase and used high-bond oasis fix to secure the container that fitted into the top of the vase and used biodegradable oasis.

She placed a circle of high bond tape at the base of the vase and then began placing the lengths of phormium into the oasis at the top and following the shape of the vase and securing to the bond at the base. These were placed equidistant apart around the vase.

She used aspidistra leaves which were folded and some were split down the middle to create little kisses.

She added a variety of phormium in lime green and yellow, a variety that could be folded and good for cascading.

She added three multi headed lilies to create a stunning simple effect and then added some indoor Chinese money plant to create more interest.

Donald chose a theme of ‘Santes Dwynwen’.

He began with a shallow square dish with a metal heart-shaped wire which was held in place by kebab sticks. He added various lengths and shapes of wire covered in green wool to create interest.

To this he added aspidistra, elaeagnus pungens and ivy leaves. He then added red passion roses, tulips, red grand slam dianthus and phormium leaves at various heights which were stapled with loops at the top and then added elephant ears and skimmia japonica to complete the design.

His second design began by creating an abstract construction of dogwood, held together by cable ties which created a cone shaped frame.

To this he added test tubes held in place by cable ties and then threaded aspidistra leaves, as if making a hand-held arrangement.

He added red carnations and roses and contorted hazel and placed tulips in the test tubes. This created a free-standing arrangement.

The next meeting will be held on 19 February with Kevin Davies portraying ‘Fab Feb’ at 7.30pm.

Bibliographical group

IT’S always a good sign when every seat is taken at a lecture, and it was particularly appropriate that this was the case for the 300th lecture of the group on Tuesday, 22 January, at the Four Seasons Hotel.

The speaker was Dr Christopher Baggs, a former lecturer at the College of Librarianship in Llanbadarn, who the group was surprised to learn had last spoken to the society 21 years ago.

On this occasion his subject was George Gissing, Library History and Me.

While teaching at the College of Librarianship, Dr Baggs was asked to supervise a student who was doing research on 19th century novelist George Gissing, and in order to do so explored Gissing’s life and work himself.

Gissing sought to portray the life of the working class in his 23 novels and did much of his research in the libraries of the various towns where he lived and stayed.

This led our speaker to investigate the library provision available to Gissing: public libraries, circulating libraries, subscription libraries, and the reading room of the British Museum.

The lecture was followed by a lively discussion. The group then entertained the speaker to dinner at the Four Seasons Hotel.

The next meeting will be held on Saturday, 23 February, at 11am in St Paul’s Methodist Centre.

Prof Jane Cartwright of the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Lampeter, will speak on Buchedd Gwenfrewy: the Life of St Winefride in NLW MSS Peniarth 27ii and Llanstephan 34.

Headway Ceredigion

FEBRUARY’S local Headway meeting for brain injury survivors in Ceredigion is on Monday, 4 February.

The Disability Rights Service will be giving advice on benefits and there will be a chance to have a go with the new boccia set (chair-based bowling).

People can also register for Headway Ceredigion’s Tai Chi sessions which start on Tuesday, 12 February at a local venue.

It is free for those with an acquired brain injury, their partners and/or carers.

Proof of an acquired brain injury is required to register.

Headway Ceredigion offers support for people who have experienced brain injuries, through stroke, accident, or illness and can signpost people to medical and legal professionals and a library of Headway Literature.

Drop-ins and peer support meetings are held in the Community Room, Tesco, Aberystwyth, Park Avenue SY23 1PB on the first Monday of the month from 2pm to 4pm.

There will be free refreshments.

If you’re a member of a club, society or group, send your news to [email protected]