APRIL MEETING UPDATE

April's meeting was held on the 9th April and out guest speaker was Mr Lyndon Lloyd who

gave us a very interesting talk about Age Cymru and how the seeds were sown by D O Evans, a Liberal MP from Llanbarth Farm, Penbryn Beach. He was a colleague of David Lloyd George and it was D O Evans who drew up plans for the Pension scheme.
The 'Old Peoples Welfare Committee for Wales' was set up in 1947 as part of the National Council of Social Services, with the aim of supporting older people in Wales. This organisation was later to become Age Concern Cymru.
The Old Peoples Welfare Committee provided grants to help the aged and changed its name to 'Care for the Elderly in Wales' in

1962. In 1969 it changed its name again to the 'National Council for the Care of the Elderly in Wales' and in 1973 'Help the Aged' became an independent charity.
 During the 1970s they developed a range of pioneering projects including 'good neighbour' schemes. Due to increasing loneliness and isolation of the elderly, Day Centres were established and lunch clubs were set up. There is also a cleaning service available, as keeping the house clean makes a happier elderly person. There is also a service called 'Dial a Ride' for transportation help and also a Trade Persons register. They also help with form filling and checking benefit eligibility. Also a new scheme is on the way to help those with dementia - offering respite to those who care for people with dementia. Age Cymru will also look into claims of elderly abuse and one of their prime goals is PAL - Prolong Active Life.

Refreshments were provided by Melda and Margaret V.

Mr Lloyd won the raffle prize and Audrey won the competition for 'Most interesting walking stick'.

APRIL'S MEETING

April's meeting will be held in Llanarth Village Hall on Tuesday 9th April at 7:30pm.

This months guest speaker will be LYNDON LLOYD from Age Cymru, the largest charity working for older people in

Wales. It's also the Welsh division of Age UK, which formed from the merger of Age Concern and Help the Aged. We look forward to finding out more about their vital work and support they offer.

 The competition this month will be the most interesting/unusual walking stick - bring a walking stick along to the meeting to see if you can win.

If you'd like to know more about Llanarth WI or would like to join, please send us an email - email link can be found on the right hand side of this page. More contact details can be found on our posters in Llanarth Village notice board at the school or in the shop window of 'Awsome Pork' butchers.

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.

MARCH TRIP

March's trip will be on the 12th March, meeting at Llanarth school car park at 5:45pm. 

We will be visiting the NATIONAL CORACLE CENTRE in CENARTH. We will be having a guided tour which will show the history of the coracle and it's association to the river Teifi, the international collection of coracles, some from Vietnam and Tibet and also the coracle workshop. The tour will also include a visit to the 17th century flour mill, which is also part of the centre.

After the guided tour we will move onto the FFROSTRASOL ARMS to have a cawl supper. This month's competition is to make a sentence either in English or Welsh based on the Welsh word CORACL. 

A warm welcome is extented to all new members. If you'd like to learn more about Llanarth WI please send us an email using the link in the right hand panel.

February meeting update

February 12th 2013

The meeting started with a welcome from Isabel our President to Dorothy Cox Regional Coordinator, who came to advise us on the forthcoming Group Meeting, which this year is being held in Llanarth.
 A congratulations card is to be sent to Ann Jones who has been elected to the position of Chair of the Federations of Wales.
Four members were absent from the meeting - Audrey, Joy, Margaret V and Wynne - we wish them all a speedy recovery. We were all pleased to see Margaret W join us after having recovered from her recent operation. 
An invitation was received from Cross Inn WI to join then on Monday 11th March for a 'Welsh Tea'. Four members will attend this event. Knowing the abilities of Cross Inn for holding events, we are in for a very enjoyable evening.

A warm welcome was given to Melda Grantham, Ceredigion County Council Registrar. Melda gave an interesting and amusing talk on her work as a Registrar.  She began with the registration of births and told us about the odd names given to children back in the 1970s.  We didn't realise that parents can pick any surname they like and it does not have to be the family name. Registrars prefer to see the mother registering the baby, as the father tends to get things wrong and the names cannot be changed once the baby has been registered.
Melda then explained the complications that can arise when registering a death, sometimes causing great distress. Ending her talk with marriage, we didn't realise how expensive it has become to get married. Those of us married in the 1960s were only worth 7s/6d (or 37 1/2 pence), whereas now it's in the hundreds of pounds. The most unusual place she has issued a licence to was a sheep shed, which became an enchanting venue for a wedding. 

Denise thanked Melda for her amusing talk. Refreshments were provided by Betty and Linda. The competition "Old Book" was won by Betty and the raffle was won by Linda.
Mydroilyn Young Farmers were using the main part of the hall to rehearse a short comedy sketch and they invited us to view their performance after our meeting. It was very amusing sketch and a great ending to a very enjoyable evening.