HELYG GROUP MEETING

Tuesday 19th March saw Llanarth WI host the Helyg Group Meeting in Llanarth Village Hall. Our President Isabel Jones opened proceedings by welcoming the other WIs in the group. Apologies for Penrhiwllan and Cwmcoi WIs were given by Dorothy Cox, Group Convenor. Congratulations to Ann Jones County Chair now to be Chair of the Federation

for Wales was given by Kathy Woods, Vice County Chair. Brenda Wright, County Treasurer stressed to the meeting the need to recruit new members. As Helyg group is a small group, letters have been sent to other larger groups to see if they wish to merge with Helyg Group.

Event organisers from each of the WIs within Helyg Group gave an account of their most interesting and entertaining evenings. There were some very interesting speakers mentioned. A list will be compiled and sent out to each WI within Helyg Group.

Isabel Jones introduced Denise Lavis, the evenings guest speaker, who is a member and Secretary of Llanarth WI. Her subject was 'Wales around the World'. She showed us the influence Wales has had around the world by picking three regions – America, Australia and Patagonia (Argentina). It was good to hear that America might have been named after the Welshman Richard Amerike (or Ameryk). We also learnt the 16 signatures of the Declaration of Independence were of Welsh descent. Wales has had a very high influence on the growth of America. There is a Welsh inscription on imported Welsh stone attached to the Washington Memorial - 'Fy iaith, Fy ngwlad, Fy nghenedl – Cymru am byth' donated by Welsh citizens of New York.

There were mining immigrants to Australia in the 1800's, with the prospect of hitting it rich in the gold mines being a big attraction. And we all remembered the 'Ten Pound Poms' – some of us had relatives that took up that scheme, set up to increase the population of Australia.

In the 19th century a colony was set up in Patagonia (Argentina) in order to keep alive the language and traditions of Wales. It was a hard struggle full of difficulties – very unlike the Promised Land the early settlers had been promised. But through the work of people like Rachel Jenkins, who used simple irrigation and water management systems, the colony was able to survive and flourish.

It was a very interesting talk and gave us all an insight on how Wales and her people have influenced the world – good on us!

A sumptuous spread was laid out of many varieties of sandwiches, sausage rolls, cheese/sausage/onions on sticks, pate and bread, sponges, cupcakes, bara brith, whiskey soaked tea cake, scones and a beautiful arrangement of fruit in a pineapple, all washed down with tea and coffee.

Thanks was given by Delyth Esau. A good night was had by all.

MARCH TRIP UPDATE

The 12th March was our group's first trip out of Llanarth and we had already arranged in January with the National Coracle Centre in Cenarth for an out of season guided tour of the centre and flour mill. Sadly our evening at the National Coracle Centre did not turn out as expected, as there was nobody there to greet us. There was a message on the Centre's door advising visitors to knock at the house, which we did, only to be told that there was nobody there to take us on the tour as Mr Fowler had gone away due to a family illness. Unfortunately Mr Fowler had not had the decency to telephone our events secretary, whose number he had, in order to cancel the visit. Also, as is customary, the events secretary had been attempting to contact the Centre to confirm the booking for a week, by telephone and by email - these contact details being from the Centre's website - the telephone was never answered and did not have an answering service and all emails were returned 'undelivered' for both email addresses.
Whilst we all feel very sorry about the family illness, we should have been contacted about the cancellation and feel that this is no way to conduct a business for what was once a popular attraction. We will be writing to the Centre to express our disappointment with the situation.
 
Thankfully after that disappointment, the second half of our trip was far more enjoyable as we had booked a 'Cawl' supper at the Ffrostrasol Arms. Before we had our meal we held our meeting and discussed various matters in a lively happy atmosphere. The Ffrostraol Arms did us proud with our supper - a big bowl of 'Cawl' with  crusty bread, butter and loads of cheese. We were then offered a choice of deserts with lashings of cream and the evening ended on a good note with tea and coffee.
 



What could have been a disastrous evening thankfully turned out to be a harmonious get together.
The raffle was won by Audrey - given by Linda. The competition, which was to make a sentence using the letters in the Welsh word CORACL, was won by Betty for a Welsh sentence and by Linda for an English sentence. 
 

WELSH TEA AT CROSS INN

Despite a very cold evening on March 11th, three members from Llanarth joined members from New Quay and Pontgarreg at the Cross Inn venue for their 'Welsh Tea' evening. A beautiful spread of a 'typical' Welsh tea awaited us - plenty of bread and butter, jam, cheese, Welsh cakes, scones, pikelets and bara brith, with lots of hot tea to wash it all down with.

After we had our fill, we all sang 'Jerusalem' and then the Cross Inn choir entertained us with songs both in Welsh and English to which we all joined in. They then enacted a sketch of the local character known as 'Shani bob man' which was hilarious. The evening ended with us all singing 'Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau'.

Many thanks to Cross Inn WI for a most enjoyable evening.