Lampeter Grapevine Issue 2 September 2012

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contact us: lampetergrapevine@gmail.com

FREE

september 2012

GRAPEVINE ddim

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

GRAPEVINE no. 2, September 2012 Victoria Hall, Bryn Road, Lampeter, Ceredigion, SA48 7EE email: lampetergrapevine@gmail.com 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 lampetergrapevine@gmail.com 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 September. 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 lampetergrapevine@gmail.com

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. Friday 7 Sept., Cellan Millennium Hall.

Doors open 7.15, programme 7.45. Admission 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 September. All the info: www.cardifest.co.uk The Castanet Club welcomes Smudger & Friends featuring Jester Band. 1 September from 7pm, Victoria Hall, Lampeter. 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 Lancaster. Tuesdays 7..30pm till 8.30pm, Victoria Hall, Bryn Road, Lampeter. Info 01570 470542 Zumba keep fit session with Louise Evans. 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.

TRANSITION LLAMBED’S BIG GATHERING VICTORIA HALL 3rd THURSDAY OF EVERY MONTH ALL WELCOME COME ALONG AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Boxersize. Body conditioning and toning keep fit session with Andy Jacques. Saturdays 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 2

Tai Chi , Tuesdays 6–8pm, Cellan Millennium 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. Sunday September 2nd, 16th, 23rd (10am– 2), 30th (10am–4) Course Fee: £180, includes handouts and 3 CDs. £140 low income £100 benefits. Booking is essential. More info from Dr Colette Power.

Phone or text 07890 835 873. email:colette@mindfulnesscourse.co.uk www.mindfulnesscourse.co.uk

sport Clwb Rasio Harnais Llambed / Lampeter Harness Racing Club. The big fixture: the last of this summer’s Ceredrotian meetings. Children’s entertainment, bar and catering facilities, bookmakers. Admission: adults £7, children under 16 free; group discounts.

2pm, Saturday 1 September, Pentre Farm, Llanfair Clydogau, SA48 8LE .

More info: www.ceredrotian.com

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 every month

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, Cymraeg).

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 Sunday Service: 2.00pm (blingual or Cymraeg).

St Mary’s Church, Maestir. Main Sunday 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 Service at 10am: the location will be published 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 bookings 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 September, 12.00–1.30pm. There is no fixed fee for this two course lunch but all donations received go to the Christian Aid Food Project. A warm welcome to all.

Seventh Day Adventists meet fortnightly 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 .

CELLAN MILLENNIUM HALL CLASSES AND GROUPS

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 vegetarian lunch and all activities More details: 01570 423167 / 01545 590391

Lampeter Farmers Market Market Street, Lampeter 9.00am – 2.00pm alternateFridays

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 September) 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

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 3

serious about slugs

means that they can speed up the process of composting beyond many a wildest dream.

Like any creature, they need boundaries to stop them overreproducing 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-frompredatory-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’.

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 defeated 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 damage retrieval could be close at hand. There is something you can do.

Creating a slug sanctuary, in the form of a well-sealed, in-fullsun compost container where these slow movers can be safely rehoused, 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 happily 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

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 interested 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 4

LETTERS letters, grapevine, victoria hall, bryn road, lampeter SA48 7EE email: lampetergrapevine@gmail.com 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 Talbot 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, especially 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 somewhere 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 safety checks for those intending to hitch a ride, or indeed for those with noble intentions, 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 everyday existence? Why a safety check?

Hitchers & travellers in control of a vehicle, whether you call them a driver or otherwise, should always err on the side of caution, of course, but we should never 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 broadband 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 encouraged 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 police, doctors surgeries, dentists, hospitals, 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.

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co-op car park controversy continues Dear Grapevine I totally agree with the letters about parking at the Co-op – why are we supplying 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 collective 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 received on this matter. (see GV #1) sing out!

Dear Editor What ever happened to singing in Lampeter? 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 despite the fact that a similar choir in Lampeter 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 special 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 important things in life like PEACE, SOCIAL JUSTICE AND ENVIRONMENTAL 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

from the bottom continuing annie may’s vivid tale of coming to farm in west wales PART 2: TOWN AND COUNTRY ‘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 enormous hands. Like a fiddler crab. He was the Ani ben d’od man. Together with his associate and friend, they collected quantities of metal items and turned them into cash.

Farms recount their history in their collections 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 antiseptic with no hint of Ani ben d’od. inspectors come to see if you are complying with the rules so that the various grants that farmers 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 agricultural, 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 encouraged entrepreneurial thinking; or the destitution of small farmers. It’s an old story.

Mind you I am not sure what some farmers 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 decisions are life and death ones and any farmer worth his or her salt will tell you that his animals’ lives mean more than their monetary 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 counterparts. 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 resources, 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 nonexistent 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 matters 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 regrouped.

They all thought we were mad to want to farm for a living. We were, at the time, living in a caravan having lost everything in the recession of 1989. Well, not quite everything. 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

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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 interrogation. 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 entertaining. 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 afterwards 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, opinionated ruffian, but she wasn’t about to let mere dislike get in the way of gathering information 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 because 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 bothered 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 rented for eleven years was up for rent. We arranged 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

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, coppicing 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 community 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; vegetables 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

Hanes Llambed Meetings start at 7.30pm in the Old Hall of the University. (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, Llandysul) 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)

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 response of hand tools and rule of eye. You will be learning a variety of carpentry skills to produce a valued piece of equipment 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

more next month

LAMPETER YOUTH THEATRE and STAGE SCHOOL

programme september–november 2012

Canolfan Gadwraeth Fferm Denmark Denmark Farm Conservation Centre

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 places 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.

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 audition for singing and dancing roles.

Stage School term begins. 14 September, 4.30–5.30, Victoria Hall.

Wed 26 Sept & 31 Oct & 28 Nov 10am– 2pm: A three part workshop covering all aspects of patchwork quilting and providing the support to complete a beautiful and unique quilt by the end of the course.

3 monthly 4 hours sessions allowing participants time to complete tasks in between 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 Slippers Sun 14 Oct: We will consider the British

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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

MUSIC

hill country hotel near Dambullah. Here a sylvan landscape dotted 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 ultimately 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

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 shantyscape 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 window, appalled at the intensity of it all. Then the evening monsoon 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 because 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 Tigers 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 otherworldly. 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 sentimental journey organized by others of the family on behalf of an ageing uncle. A sightseeing trip with minibus and tour guide and of course elephants, and jewelry, and sambol. 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 keyboarding 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- jazz police: an unfortunate sax player is searched for illicit blue notes at a downlowed by a lumbering Strangers In The town colombo checkpoint Night, an unconvincing Sealed With A Kiss, always sorts the men from the boys and these boys never got in and Country Roads in need of some repair. So this was five star sight of the summit. When we later descended to the bar we saw entertainment. Back in my room, I discovered, dungareed, five with horror that the ponchos had followed us down and were guys not named Mo (I checked) busy changing a lightbulb. now performing table-to-table torture. Their persistence brought Whatever little thing you need in this country – a lightbulb, a to mind the tag line (seen on bumper stickers and t-shirts) of the packet of tea, a box of matches, a door opened – five guys not country’s armed forces: ‘Motivated, Dedicated, Lethal’. named Mo will fix it for you. How many guys does it take to Then they were towering over us as we lay in our low-slung, change a lightbulb? – How many would you like, sir, they all inescapable chairs like helpless dental patients. First they hit us speak fluent Cricket. hard with a sawn-off I Am, I Said. Now that we were softened Two evenings later music – in the form of plaintive flute up, they demanded that we request a song. They knew nothing riffs delivered by a becloaked, hobbit-like character who sat of a selection of alt. country hits that I ran past them, or Wheels atop a high timber platform beneath a little straw hut that resemon the Bus, but they’d sloshed their way through Bridge Over bled a dog kennel – greeted us as we checked into an expansive 8

Troubled Water earlier so maybe they’d have a go at The Boxer? They were happy to give it an airbrushing. I waited and waited 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 courtyard 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 music 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 Melody 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 Herbert 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 insulate their guests from the country at large, and music is part of the soundproofing process. Preferred is a music instantly recognized by international visitors: something global. Of the number of world musics available today, the western canon of twentiethcentury 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 evening 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, clientele and activities – as exercises in socio-architectural easy listening, 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 independent souvenir sellers who crowd around the bus wherever it stops).

This logic also brings to mind the retail spaces and the operations 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 Fountainhead 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 snakeskin 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 9

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 controversial war being pursued by Britain in the Near East – that’s what George Borrow 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 wanderings 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 Norfolk 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 etymological 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 solicitor’s clerk in Norwich, and fell in love with the works of the medieval bard Dafydd 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: Borrow’s Welsh trip takes place at the time of a great religious and educational revival, 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 conspicuous by his absence). And his sense of joy and relief is palpable on his rare encounters 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

does that shirt look stuffed?

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 Llandovery: My entrance seemed at once to bring everything to a dead stop; the smokers ceased to smoke, the hand that was conveying 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. Without 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 Llandovery – 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 prospects, 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 gentleman in their avocations or deliberations – scorn to do anything ungenteel or calculated to give offence – hope I know 10

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 confesses 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 gentlefolks.’

‘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, perhaps a George Borrow Trail needs to be established. In west Wales it’s easy to trace: from the Rheidol to Pontrefendighaid to Tregaron, Llanddewi Brefi, Lampeter, Pumpsaint, Llanwrda and Llandovery. Something for visiting walkers to tramp along, from hostelry to hostelry, 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 September, when we welcome SMUDGER AND FRIENDS.

THEATRE

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 relatively 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 seating made of earth and logs guaranteed to swallow up most of your lines like a sponge – were unchecked. This year that problem 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 awnings 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.

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 exteriors 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 problem with sound. Not the distant whine of an approaching agri-

a. p. laws

le p o e p t e k r a m ’s people

Kate Wilkinson, who lives in Ffarmers, has been interested in making things with wool or on paper from an early age. ‘All my creations are one off, individual, mostly random designs,’ says Kate, ‘from hats to rugs and shawls all using 100 per cent natural fibres. 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 kraftykate@yahoo.co.uk

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

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. 11

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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 developments 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 involved 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 environmentally 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 microorganisms act as a biological purifier. At Denmark Farm we are harnessing these natural attributes to create a Wetland Ecosystem Treatment (WET) system, in anticipation of increased sewerage loads when our new guest accommodation 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 growing 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, depending on the coppice cycle.

‘Furthermore, WET requires minimal imports of resources – the site’s soil (rather than quarried gravel) filters the wastewater, fossil fuels are only consumed during construction 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 increase carbon dioxide storage as biomass, whereas conventional treatment systems need regular maintenance and energy inputs.’

Tamara points out that this ecosystem approach fits Denmark 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.

ecosy accomodation in progress – but what will happen to the waste?

the wet system before planting...

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

... and afterwards: beautiful sewage plants!

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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 county. Now we are building up to September 1st and the turn of Lampeter Harness Racing 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 fixtures so there will be many close finishes at this meeting with owners, trainers and drivers 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 Lampeter Final and the Clwb Cardigan Bay Members’ Race. Lampeter Races is the last opportunity of the season for Clwb Cardigan Bay members to do battle in their own members’ race. Plenty of Ceredigion con-

HANES LLAMBED

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 atmosphere electric.

Admission for adults is £7, with children 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 discounts and make it a day out to remember.

Get down to Llanfair Clydogau at 2pm on Saturday 1st September for Lampeter Harness Racing club’s fabulous fixture. more info: www.ceredrotian.com

and published.

Do come along! Membership is a mere £5 annually, and occasional 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.

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, including 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 contributions 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 Museum in May. En route we visited the Italian Prisoner-of-War Church at Henllan (see picture), where Jon Meirion Jones and Jim Thomson 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 Imperfections’) features the somewhat racy 19th-century diary of Rees Thomas of Dôl-llan, Llandysul, which he has recently edited

hanes llambed at the italian p.o.w. church, henllan, June 2012 photo: Ray Williams

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01570 422595 North Road, Lampeter info@pontsteffandentists.co.uk 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

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THE

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

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