THE latest community news from Aberystwyth.

Floral Society

ON Wednesday, 5 April, the chairman John James welcomed the demonstrator for the evening, Pixie Harcourt on her return visit to the society.

Her garden, which she has established over 20 years, is well known for its variety of foliage and flowers, so it was no surprise for them to enjoy the colourful designs both traditional and contemporary which she created in a variety of containers with plant material from her own garden.

Before the refreshments were served the chairman outlined some forthcoming charity fundraising events for this year and discussed suggestions for the garden visit in the summer. The tea hostesses for the evening were Sylvia Greenleaf and Joan Subbacci.

In her vote of thanks, Joy James expressed everyone’s delight at such a colourful and enjoyable demonstration.

The meeting held on Wednesday, 3 May, will be a demonstration at Bethel Chapel Vestry at 7pm.

On 12 April the demonstrator was Jaqui Cooper from Stafford. Jaqui has been to visit them before with demonstrations and workshops and she did not disap-point again.

Her title this time was “A Mixed Palette” and this brought two of her hobbies together showing how her love of painting mixes with her love of flower arranging.

Beginning with “Starting with Colour”, with two primary colours of green Leather leaf and red Gerberas giving movement and textures as in a painting.

Then “Working between the lines” showed her art of Contemporary work with Pussy Willow, White Lillies and two tone Orange Roses and garden foliage giving us a great parallel design.

Her third was “Tints and Tones”, arranging Pale Yellow Roses, Yellow Spray Roses, and White Lisianthus, along with foliage in a Circular Frame, all chosen for their tonal quality of lemon, yellow and green, bringing one ready made to beautifully complement her first.

Then on to “Twists and Turns” creating an artistic design showing textures and layers echoing how to build layers in a painting with Eringium, Broom, Hypericum Berries, Daffodis and Ranunculus in Red, Blue, White and Yellow colours.

Her last was “Brush Strokes”, a fantastic two-placement design with one prepared earlier of Red Anthuriums, Orange Salasse, and Green Bloom Chrysanths showing again her creative side.

The vote of thanks was given by Chris Hughes for a thoroughly enjoyable evening with an easy going, informative, and professional demonstrator.

There will be a meeting on 16 May when Linda Garratt will demonstrate on the title of “All that Glisters”. All are welcome to join - non members £4 on the door.

On Wednesday, 12 July, the Floral Society will be hosting a Fashion Show with a company “Shop2Drop” at the Marine Hotel, Aberystwyth. Part of the proceeds will be donated to the Chemotherapy Unit at Bronglais hospital.

The company “Shop2Drop” will have clothes from main fashion stores with up to 75 per cent discount in sizes eight to 20. All clothes are available to purchase and take home on the night.

Tickets are £10 each including a welcome drink and entry is by ticket only. They anticipate a great demand for these tickets so if interested contact members of the committee or Donald Morgan, at Blodau’r Bedol, Llanrhystud as soon as possible.

Postcard club

THE members of the Aberystwyth Postcard Club held a successful ‘bring and buy’’ meeting at the St David’s Church Hall on 4 April.

The next meeting on Tuesday, 2 May, at 2pm will be at the National Library of Wales when they will have the opportunity to browse a selection of postcards from the vast Welsh collection.

During the visit, members will be given a historical talk by the Curator of Visual Images, William Troughton.

Friendship Group

ABERYSTWYTH Friendship Group’s AGM and lunch (starts at 12pm) will be held at Harry’s on Friday, 28 April.

The group will be joined by guest speakers Mark Williams MP and Naomi Mc Donagh, 50+ strategy co-ordinator from Community Wellbeing, Ceredigion County Council. They will be reflecting on their first year as a group and celebrating their success so far.

U3A

ON 20 April members of Aberystwyth U3A were privileged to hear an interesting and instructive talk about the Osprey Project.

The Osprey Project was founded in 2009 to encourage the study and protection of these magnificent wild birds. The talk was given by Kim Williams, a member of staff at the reserve near to Machynlleth, and her knowledge and sympathy with ospreys was remarkable.

By a lucky coincidence, one of the ospreys had laid the last of the three eggs which is the customary number for these birds, and they were privileged to see a close-up video of the mother bird beginning to brood the egg.

The actual nests are largely made by the birds themselves, and are 200 metres away from the nearest viewing centre, but six cameras have been sited around the nest, and the quality of both photos and videos is remarkable.

An equally fascinating talk will be given on Thursday, 18 May, when the topic will be “Tales from the Coliseum” and the speaker will be Carrie Canham, Curator of Ceredigion Museum Aberystwyth. It will be held at Morlan at 2.30pm.

Trekking for Treatment

You may have seen pink flamingos popping up across Ceredigion lately and they visited Hyfforddiant Ceredigion Training (HCT) last month. This is in support of ‘Trekking for Treatment’ which was started by a group of women to raise money for a new Chemotherapy Unit for Bronglais Hospital.

All HCT staff and learners supported the cause by wearing something pink and by making donations on the day.

It all started with a group of women, led by Carole Price, walking from Talsarn to the Chemotherapy Unit in Bronglais Hospital, Aberystwyth, on New Year’s Day.

They are now in the process of ‘flocking’ local businesses across Ceredigion with pink flamingos and asking for donations towards the cause. Images of the ‘flockings’ are then uploaded to Facebook and Carole’s JustGiving page.

They also held a dinner/dance/auction in Lampeter university on 1 April to raise more money and to celebrate their achievement and the generosity that everyone has shown by supporting such a worthy local cause. Visit Carole’s JustGiving page (https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ardrampdrosdriniaeth) to read more about her story, including what inspired the fundraising and to see their progress so far.

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