FEATURES TOOLS FOR SELF RELIANCE Tools for Africa
Last month Pam featured the Haberdashery element of TFSR and many thanks to those who responded. We were very pleased to give Workaid four knitting machines as they have established workshops in Tanzania for a home industry. Many thanks to Mrs Noreen Williams for supplying these. Also in February we had a visit from Ian Limbrick who is deputy CEO at the Headquarters of TFSR near Southampton and Moritz who is a volunteer from Frankfurt. (There is accommodation at Netley Marsh for four students from other countries). Ian gave a report of the groups he had visited recently. They took away eight crates of refurbished tools. These were allocated kits for those who had completed training and business management, comprising the following trades, carpentry, building and blockmaking, metal fabrication, site maintenance and kits to establish cycle repairing workshops. All these for one of the world’s poorest countries. This shipment represents refurbishing work over a two month period and will be part of a forty foot container being shipped to Malawi in March. If anyone wants to volunteer on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons please ring John on 01656 786367. John Hanson Group Coordinator
PORTHCAWL U3A March will be an exceptionally busy month starting with our evening celebration of St David’s Day (Thursday 2nd, Hi-tide) with Welsh Folk dancing, 2 concerts (Cardiff Friday 3rd) and The Albert Hall on 16th. The monthly talk (Wed 8th) will tell how John Hughes of Merthyr affected Khruschev and Russian History, and the monthly outing (Wed 29th) is to Cyfarthfa Castle. Coming up soon are our AGM and a Dutch Holiday, but meanwhile all our 39 interest groups continue to keep members happy and busy here at home.
Seaside News | 34
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Y CEFN GWYRDD “If you want a job done well do it yourself” describes the Gwyrdd attitude at present to Waun Cimla (Bedford Park). Despite many discussions with the council concerning the future of this fascinating area BCBC, due to financial cutbacks, has failed to come up with a management plan for the Waun. Here we have an attractive naturally regenerated woodland which has developed on the site of a 1970’s rubbish tip, a busy community route which runs along the line of the Dyffryn Llynfi Porthcawl horse drawn tramroad, and numerous industrial relics to be seen surrounding an exceptional ironworks centerpiece. Car parks are often filled with cars, but also rubbish. So recently we started a campaign to clean up the Waun. Our band of pickers spent a morning collecting from this small area and we collected sixteen bags! If you are interested in joining us friends of the Waun in any of our practical activities contact John. Notice I use the local name - the Waun, rather than the council’s Bedford Park. Traditional names are a small but important part of our heritage. Cefn Hirgoed is another that has been lost forever replaced by the Pines! John Mason masoncj4@hotmail.com Facebook: Cefn Gwyrdd
SUPERMOONS The Moon is the brightest object in the night sky and shines by reflecting sunlight in the same way as the planets and artificial satellites. Most planets have moons orbiting them but Earth’s moon is particularly large compared to the size of our planet. It’s the fifth largest moon in the solar system and almost as big as the planet Mercury. No wonder we can see so much intricate detail if we look at it through binoculars or a small telescope. You can see giant craters caused by asteroid collisions, lava filled seas and mountain ranges that are 4.4 billion years old. From Earth, we can only see 59% of the lunar surface because, like most moons in our solar system, the Moon rotates just once during the time it takes to complete an orbit. In recent years there has been a lot of excitement about ‘supermoons’. A supermoon occurs every year - sometimes there are several of them in the same year when the moon’s orbit brings it slightly closer than usual to Earth. But the change in size and brightness is usually around 7% and the human eye simply cannot tell the difference! Clive Down Bridgend Astronomical Society
TY ELIS PORTHCAWL COUNSELLING SERVICES Friends of Ty Elis would like to give a huge thank you to the Jolly Sailor Newton and Quiz Master Joy Lott - who hosted the weekly Wednesday Quiz & Raffle throughout February. Also, thanks to all the locals and friends of Ty Elis who supported these evenings of memory recall and fun. Sue Marlow
Deadline date is always the 15th of the month