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Lampeter's events, news and views monthly digwyddiadau, newyddion a barn Llambed bob mis
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G R A P E V I N E
contact us: [email protected] september 2012
a m
F R E E
d d i m
digwyddiadau, newyddion a barn llambed bob mis / lampeter’s events, news and views monthly
wild
wales
tourists: obtain them and sustain them listings p2, letters p5, serial p6, he borrowed wales p10, slugs p4
2
G R A P E V I N E no. 2, September 2012
Victoria Hall, Bryn Road, Lampeter,
Ceredigion, SA48 7EE
email: [email protected]
Published by Transition Llambed
Development Trust, Victoria Hall,
Bryn Road, Lampeter, SA48 7EE
www.transitionllambed.co.uk
Printed by TSD reprographics,
Lampeter
editor: Andy Soutter
listings: Annie May
advertising: Tricia O’Kane
distribution: Gro-Mette Gulbrandsen
design & page makeup: Captain Cat
admin: Dr Vole
inspiratrix: Linda Winn
listings are free. To list your event send
details to Annie May at
advertising rates: 1/4 column £10; 1/2
col. or double 1/4 col. £20; 1/4 page
£25; 1/2 page £40; full page £70.
Personal ads: up to 3 lines £2; up to 6
lines £4.
copy date: October issue: 15 Septem-
ber. We prefer electronic files, and
email for communications.
circulation: 1,500 copies distributed
free in the Lampeter area
what’s going on listings are free. send details of your event to [email protected]
movies
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (12), Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock. Friday
24 Aug., Cellan Millennium Hall. Doors
open 7.15, programme 7.45. Admission
by donation, £2.00. Big screen & digital
theatre sound.
Mirror, Mirror (PG) Julia Roberts. Fri-
day 7 Sept., Cellan Millennium Hall.
Doors open 7.15, programme 7.45. Ad-
mission by donation, £2.00.
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (12),
Emily Blunt, Kristin Scott Thomas.
21Sept., Cellan Millennium Hall. Doors
open 7.15, programme 7.45. Admission
by donation, £2.00.
music Cardifest: Goldie Lookin’ chain, the
Blims and Fountainhead headline this
new festival, which also features several
local outfits. Cardigan, 31 August–2 Sep-
tember. All the info:
www.cardifest.co.uk
The Castanet Club welcomes Smudger
& Friends featuring Jester Band. 1 Sep-
tember from 7pm, Victoria Hall, Lam-
peter. An extravaganza with jugglers,
comedian, and lots of musicians. £5.
Good food on sale. BYO bottle.
move your body Zumba keep fit session with Julie Lan-
caster. Tuesdays 7..30pm till 8.30pm,
Victoria Hall, Bryn Road, Lampeter. Info 01570 470542
Zumba keep fit session with Louise Ev-
ans. Wednesdays 7pm till 8pm. Victoria
Hall, Bryn Road, Lampeter. Info 07584
199372.
Lampeter Brazilian Jiu Jitsu with
Mike A. Banica. Thursdays 6pm till
8pm, and Sundays 7pm till 9pm. Victoria
Hall, Bryn Road, Lampeter. Info 07783
582081.
Boxersize. Body conditioning and toning
keep fit session with Andy Jacques. Sat-
urdays 2pm till 4pm. Victoria Hall, Bryn
Road, Lampeter. Info 07703 722344.
Line Dancing Mondays 7–10pm, Cellan
Millennium Hall. Info
www.cellanmillenniumhall.co.uk
Healing Yoga, Tuesdays 10–11.30am,
Cellan Millennium Hall. Info
www.cellanmillenniumhall.co.uk
Tai Chi , Tuesdays 6–8pm, Cellan Mil-
lennium Hall. Info
www.cellanmillenniumhall.co.uk
Yoga, 5.30–7pm Wednesdays, 10–
11.30am Thursdays, Cellan Millennium
Hall. Info
www.cellanmillenniumhall.co.uk
Five Rhythms Dance, 1st Thursday of
Month 7pm, Cellan Millennium Hall.
Info www.cellanmillenniumhall.co.uk
health Breathworks Mindfulness-Based
Stress Course, September 2012. At the
Millenium Hall, Cellan, Lampeter. Sun-
day September 2nd, 16th, 23rd (10am–
2), 30th (10am–4) Course Fee: £180,
includes handouts and 3 CDs. £140 low
income £100 benefits. Booking is essen-
tial. More info from Dr Colette Power.
Phone or text 07890 835 873.
email:[email protected]
www.mindfulnesscourse.co.uk
sport Clwb Rasio Harnais Llambed / Lam-
peter Harness Racing Club. The big
fixture: the last of this summer’s
Ceredrotian meetings. Children’s enter-
tainment, bar and catering facilities,
bookmakers. Admission: adults £7, chil-
dren under 16 free; group discounts.
2pm, Saturday 1 September, Pentre
Farm, Llanfair Clydogau, SA48 8LE .
More info: www.ceredrotian.com
TRANSITION LLAMBED’S BIG GATHERING VICTORIA HALL
3rd THURSDAY OF EVERY MONTH ALL WELCOME
COME ALONG AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE
WANTED journalists, writers, artists,
photographers, cartoonists
and contributors of all kinds
young or old,
aspiring or experienced
we need your stuff to make
this paper work !
we’re not hard to find:
see sidebar on page 2, or
turn up at victoria hall’s
big gathering
on the third thursday of eve-
ry month
3
friday movies
Aug. 24 “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” (12) Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock
Sept. 7 “Mirror, Mirror” (PG) Julia Roberts
Sept. 21“Salmon Fishing in the Yemen” (12), Emily Blunt, Kristin Scott Thomas
Oct. 12 “Moonrise Kingdom” (12) Bruce Willis
Oct. 26 “Dark Shadows” (12) Johnny Depp
Nov. 9 “Woman in a Dressing Gown” (12) Anthony Quinn
Nov. 30 “Men In Black 3” (PG) Will Smith
DOORS OPEN 7.15. PROGRAMME BEGINS 7.45. ADMISSION BY DONATION £2.00
BIG SCREEN & DIGITAL THEATRE SOUND
WWW.CELLANMILLENNIUMHALL.CO.UK
CELLAN MILLENNIUM HALL CLASSES AND GROUPS
Classes are subject to change: please see www.cellanmillenniumhall.co.uk for updates, contact details and the film page for up and coming movies
MONDAY Quilting (NEW VENUE: info 01570422066) RAY Ceredigion Play Sessions 4–6pm Line Dancing 7–10pm
TUESDAY Healing Yoga 10–11.30am Lampeter Home Education Group 12–5pm Qui Gong 6–7pm Tai Chi 7–8pm Beekeepers 2nd Tuesday of month 8pm
WEDNESDAY Table Tennis 10am–11.30 Craft Makers Collective (from 5 Sep-tember) 1–3pm Yoga 5.30–7pm
THURSDAY Yoga 10–11.30am Five Rhythms Dance 1st Thursday of Month 7pm Village Improvement Society 1st Thursday of month 7pm WI 2nd Thursday of month 7pm
FRIDAY Art Group 10–12.00am Film Night fortnightly 7.15pm
SATURDAY Seventh Day Adventists fortnightly 10.15am–3.15
Lampeter Farmers
Market
Market Street, Lampeter
9.00am – 2.00pm
alternateFridays
Women’s Workshop
St James’ Hall, Cwmann, Lampeter 10.30am–3pm Wednesdays
The hall has disabled access and toilet, and a free car park
11am Qi Gong-gentle exercise 12 noon lunch 1pm workshop
Autumn Workshops Wed. 5 September: craft Wed. 12 September: cookery Wed. 19 September: painting Wed. 26 September: craft Wed. 3 October: Celebrate National Poetry Day Wed. 10 October: quilting Wed. 17 October: craft
Only £2.50 a session, pay on the day, no membership fee or advance fee to pay, drop in when you please. Come and see if you like our group. New members always welcome. £2.50 includes vege-tarian lunch and all activities More de-tails: 01570 423167 / 01545 590391
religious services and
groups
Lampeter Parish
St Peter’s Church, Lampeter. Main
Sunday Service: 11.00am (bilingual).
Other services: 8am Holy Communion
(English). 9.30am Cymun Bendigaid
(trydydd Sul yn y mis yn unig, Cym-
raeg).
St Cybi’s Church, Llangybi. Main
Sunday Service: 9.00am (bilingual).
St Bledrws’ Church, Betws Bledrws.
Main Sunday Service: 10.45am (English
or bilingual).
St Sulien’s Church, Silian. Main Sun-
day Service: 2.00pm (blingual or Cym-
raeg).
St Mary’s Church, Maestir. Main Sun-
day Service: 2.30pm (second Sunday in
the month only, English).
Times apply to the first four Sundays in
each month. For the few fifth Sundays
there will be a single United Parish Ser-
vice at 10am: the location will be pub-
lished in the local newspapers. St Peter’s Church Hall in Lampeter
is available for hire at £8.50 per hour.
The hire charge includes use of the
kitchen facilities. For enquiries or book-
ings contact Beryl on 01570 422 324.
For more information visit:
www.lampeterparish.org/
Annual summer fete, St Peter’s Church
Lampeter, Saturday 1 September,
10.30am–12.00. Entry by donation for
which you will get a complimentary
drink and naughty but nice cake. Kids’
games & prizes, raffle, cakes & produce,
bric a brac, bookstall. A warm welcome
is extended to all.
Monthly Hunger Lunch in support of
Christian Aid Food Project, St Peter’s
Church Hall, Lampeter, Friday 7 Sep-
tember, 12.00–1.30pm. There is no fixed
fee for this two course lunch but all do-
nations received go to the Christian Aid
Food Project. A warm welcome to all.
Seventh Day Adventists meet fortnight-
ly on Saturdays at Cellan Millennium
Hall, 10.15–3.15. More details:
www.cellanmillenniumhall.co.uk
Lampeter Evangelical Church
meets every Sunday at Victoria Hall,
10am–7pm. Contact Gareth Jones at The
Mustard Seed. Tel. 01570 423344
An introduction to Buddhism group
with Steph Jacques. 2nd Thursday of the
month, 7–9pm, Victoria Hall, Bryn
Road, Lampeter. Info 01570 422273.
4
victoria hall bryn road, lampeter
activities and classes
Monday: 2pm till 3pm Herbalife weight watching session with Hazel Pugh. Tel: 07854 743291 Tuesday: 730pm till 830pm Zumba keep fit session with Julie Lancaster. Tel: 01570 470542 Wednesday: Fortnightly. Young at Heart. Tea and sandwiches for the wiser folk of Lampeter. 130pm till
430pm Wednesday: 7pm till 8pm. Zumba keep fit session with Louise Evans. Tel: 07584 199372. Thursday: 6pm till 8pm Lampeter Brazilian Jiu Jitsu with Mike A. Banica. Tel: 07783 582081 Thursday: Second of the month 7pm till 9pm An introduction to Buddhism Group with Steph Jacques. Tel:
01570 422273 Thursday: Third of the month 7pm till 9pm Transition Llambed ‘Big Gathering’. A chance for all those in-
terested and involved with Transition Llambed to plan and coordinate activities. Everyone welcome! Friday: 430pm till 630pm LYTSS: Lampeter Youth Theatre and Stage School with Annie May. Tel: 01570
423077 Saturday: 2pm till 4pm Boxersize. Body conditioning and toning keep fit session with Andy Jacques. Tel:
07703 722344 Saturday: 2nd and 4th of the month. 10am till 1pm. Lampeter People’s Market. Local food, produce and
crafts. Plus cafe and other various attractions. Sunday: Lampeter Evangelical Church 10am till 7pm Gareth Jones at the Mustard Seed. Tel: 01570
423344 Sunday: 7pm till 9pm Lampeter Brazilian Jiu Jitsu with Mike A. Banica. Tel: 07783 582081
serious about slugs maj ikle
Perhaps the best pest in wet Wales today is our apparently infinite
selection of slugs. Born as tiny clear pinheads, they grow rapidly,
gorging on our favourite green vegetation, until some are as big as
sausages.
Slugs eat everything they can, including taking the odd chunk
out of one another. Given the choice however, they like the most
delicate of plant parts - enough rainfall, and they have the ability to
eat a whole garden crop in less than one night.
These soft-bodied garden community members have become
many a normally pleasant, patient vegetable gardener’s sole hate
figure – forcing them, frothy-lipped, to murder, evict, poison and
maim without apology. Our gardens have become a battleground
with one particular party taking the whole thing very personally.
But consider the cost, when we find ourselves so angry and defeat-
ed in our very own green zone? What herbivores don’t consider, as
they sprinkle the salt, is the damage they are doing to their own
soul.
Slugs are not out to get us, they are just grabbing a quick bite at
teatime, and so what, you don’t like the look or feel of them? Slugs
probably think we take more than our fair shares sometimes too.
However hope of reconciliation is here: salvation and soul dam-
age retrieval could be close at hand. There is something you can do.
Creating a slug sanctuary, in the form of a well-sealed, in-full-
sun compost container where these slow movers can be safely re-
housed, turns every sighting from a gnashing of teeth to a moment
of excitement. Assiduous after-dark collection, and relocating slugs
in with a pile of weedy overgrowth where they can eat away happi-
ly whilst creating pure soil in the process, is as easy as a walk in the
park.
Slugs have as much right to be on the planet as we do – without
their work we would be knee-high in rotting vegetation by now.
Simply going about their daily business of eating and excreting,
slugs could be seen as soil enhancers of the first order. They are
beneficial beings, whose ability to break down plant matter into soil
means that they can speed up the process of composting beyond
many a wildest dream.
Like any creature, they need boundaries to stop them over-
reproducing and running amok, but given a tight-lidded, half-full
composter, they can munch their whole body weight in less than
twenty minutes, and keep on munching for a very long, long time.
Think how much compost they will produce as they chow down
hard in your composter. Unfortunately for them, their eggs will not
survive the heat and it is also even rumoured that the Nematode will
flourish in such environs.
From their point of view, a compost bin is a damp, safe-from-
predatory-bird haven, filled with their favourite munch material. So
as you walk your little charge on a trowel towards its new home,
you can hold on to your heart, knowing that you are taking them to
a place they would call ‘heaven’.
5
LETTERS
letters, grapevine, victoria hall, bryn
road, lampeter SA48 7EE
email: [email protected]
on the buses
Read the Grapevine re buses to Swansea
and Cardiff. You can get to Swansea
daily on the Big Blue Bus (701) from
Lampeter. See Ceredigion bus times for
timetable. Granted it takes a little longer
and you have less time if you are just
going for a day. It does follow the Arriva
route which it has always done. Plus side
if you have a bus pass it is free! You are
recommended to let the company know
that you are travelling as it often gets
full, especially as the people of Port Tal-
bot use it as the quickest way to Cardiff.
S. Davies
switching to hitching 2
Dear Editor,
In response to Philip Rhodes’ letter in
the first edition of GrapeVine, regarding
switching to hitching ...
On a few occasions recently, I have
stopped to pick up hitch-hikers heading
from Llandeilo on my journeys back to
Lampeter. On all occasions I've been
engaged in pleasant chat, on a variety of
subject including politics & alternative
world view. The hitchers have been ever
so grateful of the helping hand a stranger
has stopped to offer, & I had no ulterior
motive, such as taking a few quid for a
couple of litres of fuel, in mind. All too
often a favour for a stranger is what we
all need to do, just for the warm fuzzy
feeling we ought to be getting inside
knowing that we have come to the aid of
a fellow carbon-based being.
Things we ought to remember, espe-
cially regarding the issue of insurance, is
that those of us in control of a car are not
‘driving’ in law, we are in fact travelling
in our own private vehicle. There should
be no question of insurance cover, as we
have paid our insurance in order to travel
for social, domestic & pleasure purposes
on the whole. ‘Driving’ is a practice of
commerce, i.e. taking something some-
where for the purpose of engaging in a
business transaction, & I suspect this
definition of the word is something
which has been forgotten. As far as safe-
ty checks for those intending to hitch a
ride, or indeed for those with noble in-
tentions, this would be consenting to
even more scrutinisation or control from
some bureaucratic department, or might
lead to the creation of the Ministry of
Hitchers. Aren’t we subject to enough
licensing or registrations for our every-
day existence? Why a safety check?
Hitchers & travellers in control of a ve-
hicle, whether you call them a driver or
otherwise, should always err on the side
of caution, of course, but we should nev-
er fear or be kept in a culture of fear.
Bogey-men aren't around every corner,
or in every life scenario.
Jim Hussell
Lampeter
much thanks
Dear editorial team,
I am writing to congratulate you on the
contents, format and layout of the first
issue of ‘Grapevine’. Your ‘news and
views monthly’ is very useful to us as
we are two of the many people in the
area who do not have access to broad-
band and we are unable to afford the
high monthly charges for the satellite
options.
I found the Grapevine easy to read
through and very informative. I did not
realize that there was so much going on
at Cellan millennium and Victoria halls.
It was only through picking up a copy of
your Grapevine at the dentist that I
found out about Lynne Denman and
friends at the Castanet Club, resulting in
me buying three tickets for that evening
and very enjoyable it was too. I was not
aware of Transition Llambed until I read
your circular which I hope to follow
with interest. I also enjoyed reading the
serial by Annie May. Some of the places
I recognized and walk them in my mind
as I read the article. This serial has en-
couraged me to seek out the next issue in
hope that the serial will lead me to other
interesting places close to my home.
If I was asked for my views on future
developments I would suggest two
things:
1. That there was a column listing
local useful phone numbers etc. for po-
lice, doctors surgeries, dentists, hospi-
tals, pharmacies, councils etc. This
would be useful to newcomers, students
and tourists.
2. Wherever possible give a contact
phone number for those who do not have
access to the internet. When you find
something that you are really interested
in or there is a close closing deadline,
having just an e-mail address or a web
site path can be almost as frustrating as
using dial-up.
I wish all the team the best of luck
with the Grapevine project.
Dinah Clark MBE
Cellan
Thanks Dinah. We’ll take up your first
suggestion; and we will encourage all
advertisers to supply a phone number.
co-op car park controversy continues
Dear Grapevine
I totally agree with the letters about
parking at the Co-op – why are we sup-
plying a remote company in the south of
England with an income from so-called
fines obtained by bully boy tactics and
empty threats of court proceedings?
What happened to the feeling of collec-
tive solidarity which the Co-op purports
to engender? Parking Eye? Slice of pie
more like! Occupy the Co-op car park I
say and see what they do when no-one
pays up!
Lynne Denman
Lampeter
As a matter of balance, the Grapevine
invites the Co-op to reply in these pages
to the barrage of criticism it has re-
ceived on this matter. (see GV #1)
sing out!
Dear Editor
What ever happened to singing in Lam-
peter? Lampeter has no choir, but lots of
people who like to sing. I have recently
been to the Annual Street Choir festival
with my Aberystwyth based choir, Cor
Gobaith (Choir of Hope). We met in
Bury by Manchester this year, and there
were 32 choirs and about 700 singers
enjoying a weekend of sharing songs,
workshops and concerts.
Next year’s Street Choir Festival, the
30th, is going to be held in Aberystwyth!
It is so exciting, but it will also require
masses of work and planning from the
relatively few members of the choir. We
are always looking for recruits and
would welcome new members, but de-
spite the fact that a similar choir in Lam-
peter would reduce the the numbers of
possible recruits for Cor Gobaith, I
would rather see a Lampeter-based
choir. We could always join up for spe-
cial occasions.
As a street choir we sing in the street
once a month in Aberystwyth. We sing
for causes we believe in and support
charity events. So what about a Cor
Llambed for active people who like to
sing and spread the word of the im-
portant things in life like PEACE, SO-
CIAL JUSTICE AND ENVIRONMEN-
TAL ISSUES? We could be based in
Victoria Hall, support Transition
Llambed and create another reason to be
proud of being Lampeterians.
Personally I am immensely proud of
being member of a Transition town and
can’t wait for the whole area to show
signs of thinking and working locally
with local produce, local efforts and
maybe even a local choir!
Gro-Mette Gulbrandsen
Cellan
6
‘Hey Auntie Annie, Got a rope, about fifty
feet – Gessamuch!’ Said the Ani ben d’od
man proudly. Small intensely blue eyes
looked up at me. They were young eyes in a
small, nut brown face.
‘Pound!’ he said throwing out his chest
proudly and waving his hands. He had enor-
mous hands. Like a fiddler crab. He was the
Ani ben d’od man. Together with his associ-
ate and friend, they collected quantities of
metal items and turned them into cash.
Farms recount their history in their col-
lections of old bits of scrap iron: rusty
barbed wire, perforated aluminium tanks,
picturesque and ancient iron wheels from
long defunct farm implements, broken down
hurdles and old caravans. This pile of rusting
and tangled leftovers from a more leisurely
time would be taken to the Ani ben d’od
man’s yard where it would wait until it could
be sold.
These days farms are required to be anti-
septic with no hint of Ani ben d’od. inspec-
tors come to see if you are complying with
the rules so that the various grants that farm-
ers get can be paid. Grants that enable the
rest of the populace to buy cheap food and a
countryside to play in. Some of the rules are
absurd, some aren’t; you take the daft with
the sane to get the money and get on with the
job. We’re supposed to be an unprincipled
bunch on the whole and farmers have been
subsidised since after the war according to
Geoff, who is my authority on things agri-
cultural, and we’ve got used to factoring that
into our cash flow calculations. We have
been subsidised to produce certain types of
food in certain of quantities. During the war
they could take away your farm if you didn’t
do what you were told. Today they refuse to
pay your subsidy if you do not fulfil your
obligations.. The nation pays us farmers to
produce food. In New Zealand they do not. It
was a cold turkey affair. Perhaps it encour-
aged entrepreneurial thinking; or the destitu-
tion of small farmers. It’s an old story.
Mind you I am not sure what some farm-
ers might do with the countryside if left to
themselves. Emotions run high when it
comes to environmental matters and private
freedoms. There is no-one more private than
the farmer. He has to work alone and take
the responsibility of many lives. His deci-
sions are life and death ones and any farmer
worth his or her salt will tell you that his
animals’ lives mean more than their mone-
tary value.
Up here in the hills of Carmarthen and
Ceredigion farming is still an occupation on
the edge. Perhaps it doesn’t pose the most
crucial question – where is the next meal
coming from? – but many hill farmers are
considerably poorer than their lowland coun-
terparts. It is frugal hereabouts, although less
so than it was. During the Great Depression
it was said that no coin came into the hill
farm houses for over a year. Everything was
done by barter. ‘Never ask a neighbour for
money’, the saying goes; he will do anything
for you, give you unlimited time and re-
sources, but never money. Things have
hanged a lot; we think in money terms now
and not in community terms. However, that
is still largely the rule among farmers up
here in the hills to this day. Admittedly down
in the valley they’ve got used to soft ways.
People go shopping in Carmarthen or
Swansea on a Saturday or better still Cardiff
where you can get a little black Karen Millen
dress or designer shoes if you want.
We hadn’t any money to speak of when
we came to Panteg. But we ate and were
warm and gradually we got back on our feet.
What more could you ask for? But we’ve
never lost that carefulness. You see once
you’ve lost everything you become cautious.
That’s if you’ve any sense. It’s not that bad
being a bit threadbare. We managed pretty
well. Once he recovered his health, Geoff
went to work at a timber yard with such non-
existent safety measures that they almost
sawed him in half. I cleaned houses and
taught media studies and drama to boys with
educational and behavioural problems. It
was well paid and I was able to continue my
studies while I worked. Or do I mean I was
able to work while I continue my studies?
There is something different about this
part of Wales. It was a good place to return
to when we needed to lick our wounds and
get back on our feet. We knew we’d find
friends here. Of course, predictably we were
dropped by the fickle ones. It scarcely mat-
ters now.
It’s almost a life out of life here. Those
of us who have managed to stay are people
who fell in love with Wales. For the huge
majority of us it has been worth it. For many
of us it has been a hard journey. The phrase
Failed in Wales is not an empty one.
Geoff and I failed and then, we re-
grouped.
They all thought we were mad to want to
farm for a living. We were, at the time, liv-
ing in a caravan having lost everything in the
recession of 1989. Well, not quite every-
thing. Everything except some furniture and
an old Renault 4 with grass growing in the
back and a sheepdog called Jet.
P.Y. Betts, along with everyone else,
said we were mad; Betts said it because she
didn’t mince her words, especially if they
ruffled your feathers. And the rest because
we asked them and they told us. When we
decided on highland cattle as the mainstay of
the farm even Betts was speechless with
disbelief. At the time highland cattle were a
decoration, a rich man’s hobby, not the basis
of a farming career for a couple of middle
aged bankrupts.
However, it was Betts who discovered
Panteg for us. As a hermit woman with the
most extensive information network in
Ceredigion; she had the resources. MI5
would have envied her in the matter of inter-
rogation. She was over 60 when I first met
her and 96 and largely paralysed when she
died; her mind still razor sharp and her wit
still malicious. Visits to Betts resulted in an
uneasy feeling that she had found out too
many secrets and, like any writer worth her
salt, might use them if she thought it enter-
taining. One day Geoff was on the way back
through her fields after gathering cattle for
Arwyn Llanfair Fawr when she met him on
the path by a convenient stone. She carried a
bottle of wine. She invited him to sit and
drink and he, the foolish fellow, accepted.
He said afterwards that the conversation
seemed quite ordinary; it was only after-
wards that he remembered that she only had
one glass with her when she greeted him and
that she had extracted news and information
with ruthless efficiency. He didn’t like her
and she thought he was a bumptious, opin-
ionated ruffian, but she wasn’t about to let
mere dislike get in the way of gathering in-
formation with such efficient ruthlessness.
On the whole I enjoyed her company;
she made me laugh with her wonderfully
absurd and clever childish humour; and she
also made me very cross, but she never
bored me. We would lunch on home cured
ham, boiled new potatoes and a home grown
salad with some olives in the vinaigrette.
During our long lunches, softened up with
strong, dry cider, I had an occasional uneasy
feeling that I might have told her almost
everything about myself except my hat size.
Then the conversation would take another
turn and I forgot. If she liked me it was be-
cause she was a snob and thought I was
posh; my foreignness seemed to intrigue her.
P.Y. hated people to be in pain so it both-
ered her when we became destitute. With
refreshing directness she said it was because
it made her uncomfortable and so to ease
herself she was compelled to help them. She
liked to have a hand in people’s lives when
she could. One of her protégés, currently
decorating her house, was about to leave
Wales to go and live in Yorkshire. The little
smallholding that he and his family had rent-
ed for eleven years was up for rent. We ar-
ranged go and have a look at it.
From a window
From my bedroom window at Gilfachwen
you can see the story of hill farming. It’s
November and the trees are black; the fields
are already tired and the ruined dry stone
from the bottom
continuing annie may’s vivid tale of coming to farm in west wales
PART 2: TOWN AND COUNTRY
7
walls of the ancient handling pens look like
rotting teeth. It is a cheerless month; stock
need checking more often as the grass stops
growing and the damp creeps under the
skin; the ewes are come home from summer
grazing in early October, fat and ready for
tupping. Their rumps now glowing with
red, blue, green and yellow raddle from the
ram’s attentions. There’s the usual routine
maintenance to be carried out on the farm;
mending fences, servicing the tractor, cop-
picing and hedging. Working outside you
get soaked to the skin more often than not.
This is West Wales, after all.
Up here in the hills the dogs and I walk
to the drovers’ village shrouded in mist. It
used to be hidden amongst the pine forest,
but now the trees have been cut down and it
has a bare, slightly self-conscious look as if
it feels vulnerable without its clothing of
pine trees. The ruins attest to a life of com-
munity and toil with narrow lanes, little
gardens and gegin hearths. And yet we have
been told that the village itself was only
inhabited when the drovers came through.
The women used to keep it going but it was
home to no-one; just those who passed with
their cattle on the long trek east. They
would maybe stay for a week, maybe a day
getting ready for the long haul over the
Brecon Beacons; drinking in the Half Way
pub, and when they left with their beasts
strung out on the skyline, they could look
down to their right at the Panteg valley and
see the three little farmsteads joined by the
old road that ran all the way down to Cellan
and the great, lush Teifi valley. In those
days, when the drovers took the cattle all
the way to Smithfield, the Drovers’ village
was busy with fires in the gegins; vegeta-
bles for the pot grew in the gardens and the
Half Way pub was just down the lane. Half
Way was a thriving pub until just after the
Second World War. On market day the
farmer who farmed Panteg, docile and
drunk, would be led by a little child, sent to
fetch him down the hill to the farm in the
valley that gave it its name. I’ve never
found out why the pub was called Half
Way. Half way to where? Llandovery?
Brecon? The next pub? Today it’s a pile of
stones.
From my bathroom window at Panteg
the view was of the mountain that curled
stout arms round the house. In the winter
and spring there would be our cattle not five
feet from me as I sat in the bath. Pant-teg,
as it should be spelt, is a fair valley. It is
one of the most peaceful and protected plac-
es I know. There’s a valley on the other side
of the mountain From up there, just past
Half Way on the mountain road, you can
look down on a delightful place where you
can pick elderberries and brambles and
whinberries in summer. more next month
Canolfan Gadwraeth Fferm
Denmark
Denmark Farm Conservation
Centre
Courses Autumn 2012
Make Your Own Pole Lathe Sat 15–Sun 16 Sept: 2 places left. An intensive, practical, hands-on, weekend course taking you through the basics of constructing a pole lathe. Tony Eames will guide you using the sensitive re-sponse of hand tools and rule of eye. You will be learning a variety of carpentry skills to produce a valued piece of equip-ment that has been in use for over 3000 years. During the weekend you will be using age old tools such as brace and bits, draw knives, spoke shaves, and hand saws. Patchwork Quilts – 3 part course
Wed 26 Sept & 31 Oct & 28 Nov 10am–2pm: A three part workshop covering all aspects of patchwork quilting and provid-ing the support to complete a beautiful and unique quilt by the end of the course. 3 monthly 4 hours sessions allowing par-ticipants time to complete tasks in be-tween sessions. Come along and make the ultimate personal Christmas present for someone who you care for. Feel Like Felt? – Learn the basics in a day Sat 13 Oct: First you will make a flat sheet of felt using just soap, water and fleece, mixing lovely wool colours and creating beautiful patterns. Next you will learn how to use the same technique with a resist to create a purse, mobile phone cover, passport holder or glasses case – no sewing required. Soft Shoe Shuffle – Felt to Fit Slip-pers Sun 14 Oct: We will consider the British
wool breeds most suitable for the wear & tear of footwear. You will learn how to cut a resist to the correct size and adjust the shape to achieve a variety of slipper styles from bootie to mule or maybe a curly toed pixie shoe. You will also learn how to make a matching – or complementary – pair. Up-Cycled Textiles Sat 20 Oct: Recycled clothes are all the rage and can cost a lot to buy... but there is another way to get your hands on the latest fashions: you can make your own instead. Simply by picking up a needle and thread you can turn out fabulous clothing which fits your size, shape and personal style perfectly, any way you want. Carys Hedd’s mission is to provide you with the inspiration and know how to make your very own ravishing recycled creations.
Betws Bledrws, Lampeter SA48 8PB
01570 493358
www.denmarkfarm.org.uk
Hanes Llambed programme september–november 2012
Meetings start at 7.30pm in the Old Hall of the Uni-
versity. (See article on Hanes llambed on page 14)
Tuesday 18 September Steve Dubé: ‘My Failings & Imperfections’ (the 1860–62 diary of Rees Thomas, Dôl-llan, Llan-
dysul)
Tuesday 16 October Gwyn Griffiths: Henry Richard of Tregaron,
Apostle of Peace
Tuesday 20 November
Selwyn Walters: From Lampeter to Salonika: Nurse Ella Richards VAD (1887–1918)
LAMPETER YOUTH
THEATRE and
STAGE SCHOOL
Forthcoming events
Stage School registration. 7 September, 4.30–5.30,
Victoria Hall. Children who wish to enrol with the
LYTss stage school are invited to come and register
with us.
Auditions for the Christmas production of ‘A
Christmas Carol’. 13 September, 3.30–5.30, Victoria
Hall small meeting room. Candidates are invited to au-
dition for singing and dancing roles.
Stage School term begins. 14 September, 4.30–5.30,
Victoria Hall.
8
MUSIC
unchained minibar five star soundproofing in the tropics
Spring 2010: Downtown Colombo is a couple of hours drive
from the airport along the Negombo Road, through a shanty-
scape of feverish commerce, feverish transportation and feverish
poverty, constantly punctuated by a rapid succession of vast and
lavishly enshrined roadside idols, mostly Buddhas and Catholic
Saints exuding other-worldly calm and wealth amongst all the
dirt and desire and ambition. My ten-year-old daughter was
fresh out of Europe and gazed rigidly out of the minibus win-
dow, appalled at the intensity of it all. Then the evening mon-
soon hit, potholes turned to splashpools and the traffic grew
even thicker and wilder. Night had come by the time we reached
Colombo. My kid was in a mild state of shock until someone
told her we were at the Cinnamon Lake, and she looked up and
felt safe again.
I didn’t quite feel one hundred per cent safe. Perhaps be-
cause there was a machine gunner squatting on the roof of the
Cinnamon Lake: it was election time in Sri Lanka, and there
were big cheeses passing through and rooming here. The current
ruling party looked set to do well. The war with the Tamil Ti-
gers had been over for a year. There were messages of unity and
renewal on the billboards but it was a guarded peace: a state of
emergency still held, and military checkpoints and roadblocks
abounded.
Yet whatever might be squatting on our roof, inside we were
insulated and becalmed. The hotel was like a temple. People
carry themselves differently in these kinds
of places. They’re designed to be other-
worldly. There’s a trance-like quality to the
movements of guests and staff.
I don’t generally do luxury hotels. Now I
had a string of them lined up. It was a senti-
mental journey organized by others of the
family on behalf of an ageing uncle. A sight-
seeing trip with minibus and tour guide and
of course elephants, and jewelry, and sam-
bol. Bring it on.
I was bored. I had watched Crazy Heart
back-to-back three times on the plane and
wanted fresher diversions. In the lobby a
guy with a Lionel Ritchie mullet was key-
boarding backing tracks while a soberly
dressed girl brought a song to a close. At
first I felt a kindred sympathy when the
handful of guests slumped in big armchairs
let this go without even polite applause, but
this sympathy soon dissolved when Spanish
Eyes entered somewhat mechanically, fol-
lowed by a lumbering Strangers In The
Night, an unconvincing Sealed With A Kiss,
and Country Roads in need of some repair. So this was five star
entertainment. Back in my room, I discovered, dungareed, five
guys not named Mo (I checked) busy changing a lightbulb.
Whatever little thing you need in this country – a lightbulb, a
packet of tea, a box of matches, a door opened – five guys not
named Mo will fix it for you. How many guys does it take to
change a lightbulb? – How many would you like, sir, they all
speak fluent Cricket.
Two evenings later music – in the form of plaintive flute
riffs delivered by a becloaked, hobbit-like character who sat
atop a high timber platform beneath a little straw hut that resem-
bled a dog kennel – greeted us as we checked into an expansive
hill country hotel near Dambullah. Here a sylvan landscape dot-
ted with ‘eco-lodges’ led down to a lake backgrounded by steep
mountain peaks. Playing the dining room that evening was a
little combo of tablas, harmonium, sitar and vocalist. All was
vernacular until about halfway though dinner, when after an
interestingly pentatonic version of Happy Birthday To You for
the benefit of a guest, the band launched into My Way and never
looked back. Suddenly we were at a old folks’ dinner dance in
the Catskills with every standard in the book coming at us, so it
was only a matter of time before we witnessed a brave but ulti-
mately kamikaze version of Neil Diamond’s I Am, I Said. This
was quite unsustainable so I retired to our ‘eco’ chalet, with its
suspect heating, lighting and airconditioning systems. ‘Eco’ in
this case seems to mean ‘has thatched roof’.
I began to suspect that I might be in for a couple more weeks
of badly organized sound, in this case the western MOR canon.
It didn’t look good. We moved on shortly to kultural Kandy. By
this time the dinner music had become more interesting than the
dinner menu. The first evening an elderly woman in a sari sat
down at the old barroom piano and delivered a nice run of jazz
and western classical stuff that mingled with one or two Asian
modalities until you could hear new stuff begin to happen. But
after she’d taken a break the bubble burst, and in trooped the
shades of Neil, Frank, Jim, Tom, Deano and Englebert. Jazz
police! Nobody leaves the room!
The next night a trio of young dudes wearing green ponchos
embroidered in gold with the name ‘Los Kandyos’, shuffled on
with their guitars and congas and once more the canon was
rolled out. Nothing about their act was South American. If
they’d had a lama on bass it still wouldn’t have worked. As for
the obligatory mountain-high climax to Unchained Melody, this
always sorts the men from the boys and these boys never got in
sight of the summit. When we later descended to the bar we saw
with horror that the ponchos had followed us down and were
now performing table-to-table torture. Their persistence brought
to mind the tag line (seen on bumper stickers and t-shirts) of the
country’s armed forces: ‘Motivated, Dedicated, Lethal’.
Then they were towering over us as we lay in our low-slung,
inescapable chairs like helpless dental patients. First they hit us
hard with a sawn-off I Am, I Said. Now that we were softened
up, they demanded that we request a song. They knew nothing
of a selection of alt. country hits that I ran past them, or Wheels
on the Bus, but they’d sloshed their way through Bridge Over
jazz police: an unfortunate sax player is searched for illicit blue notes at a down-
town colombo checkpoint
9
Troubled Water earlier so maybe they’d have a go at The Box-
er? They were happy to give it an airbrushing. I waited and wait-
ed for those Seventh Avenue girls but they never showed.
We did get to mingle with some street life before leaving
Kandy, when we slipped our guide and went around the market
stalls and got to buy ordinary stuff like umbrellas and saris and
BOP tea. Was a change from the usual expensive emporia we
were used to being shepherded to and from. ‘The trouble is they
think we’re rich’, said one of the family outside one of these
upmarket places, as a truck bearing the family name flashed past
a billboard advertising one of the family businesses.
The Tamil northeast wasn’t quite open for business just yet.
After a sojourn in the hill country and a string of ruined citadels,
bands of macaques on the make, ancient temples, elephant rides
and skyscraping buddhas (I recall a huge one gracing the court-
yard of an infantry barracks), we headed southwest for a final
few days R&R at a big, low-rise five star beachside number with
a meandering pool and a palm tre’ed lawns. It oozed piped mu-
sic from every pore and was peopled with punters who walked
and talked and lounged and ate and swam in that now-familiar
trance, with its hint of the convent and the monastery. As each
afternoon drew to a close I would pass by the dining area and
witness, like a prisoner being shown the tools of torture, the
instruments laid out for that evening – the stark, threatening
shapes of amps, keyboards, mike stands and cables.
Bad turned to worse. The Icelandic ash cloud grounded all
flights to Europe and left us stranded for the forseeable future. It
was decided to ‘tough it out’ at the hotel, and hope the funds
held out. Days of uncertainty, of Stranger On The Shore, Green
Green Grass Of Home, and Please Release Me followed with
ever-mesmerising intensity. At dinner I was a rabbit trapped by
headlamps until the regular late-on rendition of Unchained Mel-
ody sent me reeling roomwards to unchain the minibar and
check out the ash cloud updates. A week stuck in a transit
lounge began to seem attractive by comparison.
Suddenly one evening, a band with no backing tracks, that of
Sam the Man, whose combo rattled out the canon as usual, but
Sax player Sam with his dapper suit and his Bengali style beard
is a bit of a jazzer, and they give things a twist here and there.
He sniffed me out during the break. ‘I know, I know,’ he said,
‘but you have to tailor your product to your audience.’ He went
on to confess that the greatest moment of his life had been at an
international music fest in Berlin where he had once shared a
dining table with Louis Armstrong, Leonard Bernstein and Her-
bert von Karajan. ‘Where can you go after that?’ he asked me. I
didn’t know, but his second half was a definite improvement.
Eventually the Colomboside branch of the family lent us a
flat in the capital. And, ever-generous, most evenings they sent
two big black chauffeured SUVs to run us out to one high-tone
spot or another, which invariably meant running the gauntlet of
the Playlist From Hell while 20/20 cricket showed on TV
screens and my ten-year-old and her cousin frolicked in a pool
overlooked by steel-helmeted soldiers behind sandbags.
Famously, upmarket hotels and tours often work hard to in-
sulate their guests from the country at large, and music is part of
the soundproofing process. Preferred is a music instantly recog-
nized by international visitors: something global. Of the number
of world musics available today, the western canon of twentieth-
century pop standards is the obvious tool of choice. Processed as
elevator, ambient or lounge band music it’s familiar, becalming
and doesn’t excite, engage or elevate, unless you’re like most of
the many Russians on this circuit and wet yourself every even-
ing when Midnight In Moscow makes its usual midnight creep.
Beyond music, equally unengaging is the wide variety of
muzak’d – lets say ‘ambient’ – western dishes always available
in the five star dining room. And you could go on to describe the
entirety of these hotels – their build design, shops, staff, clien-
tele and activities – as exercises in socio-architectural easy lis-
tening, where everything and everyone aspires to the condition
of muzak™, and where the aim and effect is to de-emphasise the
local to a point where it’s almost accidental, and becomes cute
or niche in some cases, or plain embarassing in others (as when
a tour guide feels bound to shoo off those unkempt and inde-
pendent souvenir sellers who crowd around the bus wherever it
stops).
This logic also brings to mind the retail spaces and the oper-
ations of big western supermarkets, not least their famous effect
on local ways of life. It probably applies to other elite circuits of
the global economy. The locality of the Olympic Games, for
example, has become just an accident, a whim, an inoffensive
backdrop, while the sporting events themselves happen in an
insulated, ringfenced world of big global brands and rooftop
security, and are merely a small episode in a year-in, year-out
endless cycle of big deal negotiations held in five star hotels all
over the planet to the sound of busy cash registers and mediocre
music. As this wealthy travelling circus moves on it hasn’t been
noted for leaving localities any better than when it found them.
So long and thanks for all the backdrop.
It was another week before we were released. Meanwhile the
president’s party won the election, his socialist republic sailed
on, and talk turned to using the peace dividend to upgrade the
country’s infrastructure and tourism facilities. These facilities
will doubtless include many more five star experiences. As for
me, once aboard the plane I assumed a trance-like state and
watched Crazy Heart back-to-back all the way home. don van fleet
cardifest 31 august – 2 september
Goldie Lookin’ Chain, The Blims and Foun-
tainhead are headlining at what looks to be a
fun new music festival in Cardigan featuring
several other esteemed beat combos as well as
providing opportunities for local performers to
strut their stuff and attempt to jam their snake-
skin boots in the door of the hospitable and
caring world of the music industry. It all starts
on the Saturday at ten in the morning. Yes
that’s ten in the morning. Count me out for the
opening ceremony.
All the info: www.cardifest.co.uk
black and white lookin’ picture
10
BOOKS
borrowing wales
wild wales
by george borrow
first published 1862
A people sensitive to their language, and
wary of incoming English buying up
property and sending prices beyond the
reach of locals; a land of chapels and
boozers; and newsflashes from a contro-
versial war being pursued by Britain in
the Near East – that’s what George Bor-
row found when in 1854 he visited the
more remote parts of Wales, and if he
had come along today he would have
found things, eerily, much the same. He’s
best known for his reports of his wander-
ings amongst Gypsies, but Wild Wales is
his only book to have remained in print
to this day. It’s informed and it’s funny
too, much of the humour being at the
author’s expense, for Borrow was a Nor-
folk man, and as the reader will soon
realise, something of a cross between
Alan Partridge and Stephen Fry.
Borrow was a walker above all else.
He tramped all over Europe, from Spain
to Russia, as well as the length and
breadth of Britain and Ireland. His other
books – The Bible in Spain, Romany Rye,
Lavengro – are rather tedious. There’s
some clever work in them, but barely a
page goes by without some Ian-Paisley
style anti-papal diatribe, or some etymo-
logical fantasy fetched from further than
Borrow ever walked. He knew a million
languages and walked a million miles,
and translated the Bible into Manchu
Chinese, but he doesn’t seem to have
ever got sufficient perspective on himself
that might relax his stance somewhat and
help him cook with gas.
But Borrow decided to take a walking
trip through north and west Wales in the
summer and autumn of the year 1854,
when he was fifty-one. He’d never been
in Wales before. But he did know Welsh,
and he wasn’t afraid to use it. He learned
it from books when he was a young solic-
itor’s clerk in Norwich, and fell in love
with the works of the medieval bard Da-
fydd ab Gwilym. He also learned some
Welsh conversation from his boss’s
groom, a Welshman who was suffering
the usual anti-Taffy barbs from the locals
until Borrow intervened.
The religious slant to Wild Wales is
interesting because of its context: Bor-
row’s Welsh trip takes place at the time
of a great religious and educational reviv-
al, these two tending to go hand-in-hand.
Calvinstic Methodism had become the
dominant belief system of the north and
west, and so Borrow’s religious repinings
and seige mentality are more to do with
his hostility to Welsh Nonconformity
rather than the pope (who was conspicu-
ous by his absence). And his sense of joy
and relief is palpable on his rare encoun-
ters with a customer of the church rather
than of the chapel.
And then there is the equally palpable
frisson our George constantly creates as a
Welsh-speaking Englishman. For all his
knocking about the open road Borrow
never lost his class-consciousness and
often comes across as a terrible stuffed
shirt, but this adds to the charm. This is
how he goes into a boozer near Llando-
very:
My entrance seemed at once to bring
everything to a dead stop; the smokers
ceased to smoke, the hand that was con-
veying the glass or the mug to the mouth
was arrested in air, the hurly-burly
ceased and every eye was turned upon
me with a strange inquiring stare. With-
out allowing myself to be disconcerted I
advanced to the fire, spread out my
hands before it for a minute, gave two or
three deep ‘ahs’ of comfort, and then
turning round said: ‘Rather a damp
night, gentlemen – fire cheering to one
who has come the whole way from Lland-
overy – Taking a bit of a walk in Wales,
to see the scenery and to observe the
manners and customs of the inhabitants –
Fine country, gentlemen, noble pro-
spects, hill and dale – Fine people too –
open-hearted and generous; no wonder!
descendants of the Ancient Britons –
Hope I don't intrude – other room rather
cold and smoking – If I do, will retire at
once – don't wish to interrupt any gentle-
man in their avocations or deliberations
– scorn to do anything ungenteel or cal-
culated to give offence – hope I know
how to behave myself – ought to do so –
learnt grammar at the High School at
Edinburgh.’
After this priceless comic monologue
and some small talk in English with the
locals, he is asked if can speak Welsh.
For a while he is evasive and toys with
his hosts’ suspicions, but eventually con-
fesses to it. Whereupon one old man tells
him plainly: ‘we don’t like to have
strangers among us who understand our
discourse, more especially if they be gen-
tlefolks.’
‘Especially if they be gentlefolks’:
this old man was as class conscious as
Borrow. But perhaps he really meant
‘Especially if they be acting like a total
prat.’
In memory of encounters like these –
and of many others where he doesn’t play
the fool – and to profit from them and
from this extraordinary and quirky book
and all the social history it conveys, per-
haps a George Borrow Trail needs to be
established. In west Wales it’s easy to
trace: from the Rheidol to Pontre-
fendighaid to Tregaron, Llanddewi Brefi,
Lampeter, Pumpsaint, Llanwrda and
Llandovery. Something for visiting walk-
ers to tramp along, from hostelry to hos-
telry, plenty of which still exist and are
easy to identify (there seem to have been
several all in a row up where Tafarn Jem
now stands). It might be the first tourist
trail to be dedicated to a tourist.
andy soutter
Mae’r Clwb Castenet a reolir gan y gymuned, yn cynnal digwyddiadau misol yn Neuadd Fictoria, gydag amrywiaeth
eang o gerddoriaeth, gan gynnwys jazz, gwerin, y felan a cherddoriaeth fyd. Mae rhaglen y clwb yn cynnwys bandiau ac
unigolion lleol a chenedlaethol. Y dyddiad nesaf yw 1 Medi, rydym yn
croesawi SMUDGER A’I FFRINDIAU.
The community run Castanet Club holds monthly events at Victoria Hall, featuring music from many genres, including Jazz, Folk, World and Blues. The programme will feature both local and national acts, the next date for your diary being 1 Sep-tember, when we welcome SMUDGER
AND FRIENDS.
does that shirt look stuffed?
11
THEATRE the tempest by william shakespeare
longwood players
long wood community woodlands, july 15
Outdoors happens a lot in Shakespeare, and if you’re going to
invoke the open air it it’s useful to have the real thing around. I
imagine playhouses of the Bard’s time like the Globe and the
Swan could have had all-covering roofs put on, but this would
have produced the Wimbledon centre court effect, which there
has killed for good the image of flannel whites, little brown
racquets, barley water and a small thatched pavilion in the
Home Counties, deep in an endless, oak-leaved Edwardian
summer, an image whose faint traces had lingered on that west
London lawn, sustained only by the genuine sky above in all its
genuine dazzle and propensity to produce passing showers.
Down on the Elizabethan riverside their patch of breeze and
sky could lend a fair bit of cred to all those spectacular exteri-
ors Willy the Shake and the rest were apt to come up with.
They were quite right to leave it that way, and besides with a
roof on it might have have turned somewhat pestilent in there if
all those stories about Bankside’s personal and environmental
hygiene are true. It wasn’t fully open air, but there was enough
of this available to drench the groundlings if it chose – the
stage and the circle were roofed – and enough to lend some
realistically putrid odour to a battle scene via the grubby
Thames or despatch a romantic zephyr to tousle Juliet’s tresses.
But if you’re really right outdoors, then you’ve got a prob-
lem with sound. Not the distant whine of an approaching agri-
cultural machine like some conjuration of Sycorax sent to mess
with Prospero’s plans, which we heard that Sunday afternoon
from the bleachers in the Long Wood, but with a team of rela-
tively low-horsepower thespian vocal chords.
Two years ago when the LW players were last here the
sound-deadening qualities of the venue – a forest floor thick
with loose soil and rotting leaves, a canopy of beech tops too
thin to trap noise from below, and a steep rake of front-on seat-
ing made of earth and logs guaranteed to swallow up most of
your lines like a sponge – were unchecked. This year that prob-
lem was solved twice over, first by a simple p.a., and second by
a series of awnings, overlapping from the stage area all the way
up to the back seats, whose sail-like shapes resembled the kind
of acoustic ceiling found in concert halls, and which functioned
in the same way to bounce the Shake’s words all the way up to
the back row. This was made evident whenever the actors
spoke off-mike by accident or design; in fact they could have
done without the p.a.
The blessed clarity of the sound matched the picture book
quality of the production, with performers and props in strong
colours framed by and restricted to the tight confines of the
little stage. It worked perfectly and we enjoyed it all. The awn-
ings I guess were probably to keep the rain off but I kind of
wish it had rained, though: first for a bit of real atmospherics
for the magician’s storm, and second because at one point two
of them didn’t overlap properly, which meant that in the event
of a downpour an entire row of spectators would have been
drenched. I think they would have appreciated this eventually.
a. p. laws
At her regular stall at the People’s Market Lea
Wakeman sells a variety of hand-made crafts using a
mixture of media including fleece, feathers and wool.
She makes and sells pictures and jewellery as well as
producing her own guided meditation CDs.
Kate Wilkinson, who lives in Ffarmers, has been in-
terested in making things with wool or on paper
from an early age. ‘All my creations are one off, indi-
vidual, mostly random designs,’ says Kate, ‘from hats
to rugs and shawls all using 100 per cent natural fi-
bres. I am also willing to share my knowledge of peg
loom weaving, using whole fleece to make your own
rug/mat. Or if you wish I can make one for you.’ For
further information you should contact
people’s market people
there’s more than just good
looking fruit and veg for sale at
victoria hall’s twice-a-month
saturday morning market...
here’s proof from just two of the
many stallholders offering
wonderful examples of fine craft
work
12
13
SUSTAINABLE TOURISM something’s rotting in the state of denmark
The folk down at Denmark Farm are holding an open day
on Sunday 23 September to showcase the latest develop-
ments at the Conservation Centre close to Lampeter. Jewel
in the crown is the new ‘eco-accomodation’ building for self
-catering guests, currently under construction. Anyone in-
volved with tourism and hospitality would be wise to go see
what they’re up to with respect to canny installations such as
such as biomass heating, rainwater-supplied toilet facilities,
solar-generated electricty, responsibly sourced timber,
sheeps’ wool insulation and other cost-efficient and environ-
mentally friendly approaches.
The Denmark farmers are particularly excited about their
new sewage treatment system, aptly titled WET.
‘The capacity of natural processes to renew and clean
water is amazing’, says the Centre’s Tamara Morris. ‘Soil
filters water on its way to wells and springs. Plants and mi-
croorganisms act as a biological purifier. At Denmark Farm
we are harnessing these natural attributes to create a Wet-
land Ecosystem Treatment (WET) system, in anticipation of
increased sewerage loads when our new guest accommoda-
tion is completed.
‘A WET system has specially designed and constructed
ponds and earth banks, densely planted with wetland trees
and marginal plants. As wastewater flows through, it is both
purified by microbiological action and transpired by grow-
ing plants. In the process a beautiful, species-rich wildlife
habitat is created, including a willow resource that can be
used for basketry, hurdles, garden features or fuel, depend-
ing on the coppice cycle.
‘Furthermore, WET requires minimal imports of re-
sources – the site’s soil (rather than quarried gravel) filters
the wastewater, fossil fuels are only consumed during con-
struction and there is no ongoing electricity use. In fact, the
whole process increases in efficiency over time, as new soil
builds up and root systems extend – both of which also in-
crease carbon dioxide storage as biomass, whereas conven-
tional treatment systems need regular maintenance and ener-
gy inputs.’
Tamara points out that this ecosystem approach fits Den-
mark Farm’s philosophy of working with, rather than
against nature. And the beauty of it is that they have fewer
costs and many benefits. So why aren’t these systems more
common? One hurdle may be lack of familiarity, which is
where the Conservation Centre comes in. Their WET system
is the first in Ceredigion and so far one of only a few in
Wales. As a demonstration site, statutory bodies, trainees
and visitors can be shown the potential for farms and other
industries that have liquid organic waste. With biodiversity
benefiting too, the future looks bright for wetland wildlife.
Check it all out on September 23.
Canolfan Gadwraeth Fferm Denmark
Denmark Farm Conservation Centre
Betws Bledrws
Lampeter
SA48 8PB
01570 493358
www.denmarkfarm.org.uk
Wildlife Where You Live: https://www.facebook.com/pages/
Wildlife-Where-You-Live/154223344670641
ecosy accomodation in progress – but what will
happen to the waste?
the wet system before planting...
... and afterwards: beautiful sewage plants!
14
HANES LLAMBED penny david, hanes llambed programme secretary,
writes: Hanes Llambed, Lampeter’s History Society, has been running for
the best part of ten years. Between September and May we meet at
7.30pm on the third Tuesday of the month in the Old Hall of the
University to hear a talk on some subject of local interest, often by
a local speaker. Each season one of the talks is given in Welsh with
simultaneous English translation.
Individual members pursue various strands of research, includ-
ing the lives of local characters, the history of Lampeter’s High
Street and the evolution of the Falcondale estate. We have also
launched a project to record local field names, and welcome contri-
butions on this subject.
There’s a day’s outing sometime in the summer months. In June
2012 our bus trip took us to the National Wool Museum at Drefach
-Felindre, following a fascinating talk by Keith Rees of the Muse-
um in May. En route we visited the Italian Prisoner-of-War Church
at Henllan (see picture), where Jon Meirion Jones and Jim Thom-
son were our informative guides. Their tales of the PoWs, both in
their original confinement and in more recent encounters, were
both illuminating and deeply moving.
The first event of the 2012–13 programme is on Tuesday 18
September when Steve Dubé’s talk (entitled ‘My Failings and Im-
perfections’) features the somewhat racy 19th-century diary of
Rees Thomas of Dôl-llan, Llandysul, which he has recently edited
and published.
Do come along! Membership is a mere £5 annually, and occa-
sional visitors pay just a pound to attend a single meeting. To find
out more about this thriving and sociable Lampeter society, contact
secretary Cecilia Barton on 01570 422347.
hanes llambed at the italian p.o.w. church, henllan, June 2012
photo: Ray Williams
harness racing:
llanfair to host big
event
Harness racing is a long standing tradition
in Ceredigion and throughout the summer
we have enjoyed meetings across the coun-
ty. Now we are building up to September
1st and the turn of Lampeter Harness Rac-
ing Club.
Lampeter HRC is the youngest of the
Ceredrotian clubs and was only established
in 2009, but has already experienced plenty
of action and great success. Now in its
fourth year, this race fixture is shaping up to
be better than ever, especially with the
move to its new location at Pentre Farm,
Llanfair Clydogau.
This is the last of the Ceredrotian fix-
tures so there will be many close finishes at
this meeting with owners, trainers and driv-
ers all wanting to ensure that they get a few
more wins under their belt before the end of
the season, especially with the introduction
of the Ceredrotian championships this year.
Owners, trainers, drivers and horses have
been accumulating points at Ceredigion
meetings throughout the season and it will
be a battle to the line to see who comes out
on top.
Whilst all grades of racing are catered
for at Lampeter Races, the highlights of the
meeting are the Lloyd’s Chip Shop Lam-
peter Final and the Clwb Cardigan Bay
Members’ Race. Lampeter Races is the last
opportunity of the season for Clwb Cardi-
gan Bay members to do battle in their own
members’ race. Plenty of Ceredigion con-
nections will be bidding for glory in this.
The day all builds up to the grand finale.
Heats are held at the start of the day to try
and secure the horses’ place in the final.
These horses will then compete against
each other for the esteemed prize. The pace
is fast, the competition fierce and the at-
mosphere electric.
Admission for adults is £7, with chil-
dren under 16 free. There is also children’s
entertainment, bar and catering facilities,
and bookmakers in attendance. Fancy a trip
to the races? You can get together with
friends to take advantage of the group dis-
counts and make it a day out to remember.
Get down to Llanfair Clydogau at 2pm on
Saturday 1st September for Lampeter Har-
ness Racing club’s fabulous fixture.
more info: www.ceredrotian.com
15
01570 422595
North Road, Lampeter [email protected] www.pontsteffandentists.co.uk
Now accepting new patients
Fluent welsh speaking dentist,
Dr Eleri Marks BDS Hons (Cardiff)
is joining the practice in August.
Contact us to receive your new patient information pack.
Modern, up-to-date practice
Preventative approach to dentistry
Low cost monthly dental plans from £4.50 – £15.50,
depending on dental status
Dental Hygienist and Dental Therapist
Free children's check-ups *
Open Saturday and evenings
*Subject to terms and conditions
16
T H E
People’s Market at Victoria Hall, Lampeter
every 2nd & 4th Saturday of the month, 10.00am – 1.00pm
cacennau cartref, cyffaith a
bwyddyd sawrus
ffrwythau tymhorol cartref
llysiau a phlanhigion
cig a gynhyrchir yn lleol a
dewisiad o waith llaw crefft
te a choffi
homemade cakes, preserves
and savouries
home grown seasonal fruit,
vegetables and plants
locally produced meat
and a selection of handmade
craft
teas and coffees