Sunday 7 December 2025

For many years our final meeting before Christmas has been a Christmas service, followed by a vestry tea, giving an opportunity both to sing and blether. This year we welcomed Llinos Jones and her friends, so there were young people playing around, to our delight.

The service, led by Margaret Brandie, incorporated the making and lighting of Christingles. This Moravian tradition combines an orange, representing the world, a candle representing Jesus Christ as Light of the World, a red ribbon wrapped around the orange, representing the blood of Christ, and dried fruit skewered on cocktail sticks, representing the fruits of the earth and the four seasons.

Six years previously, we’d all been allowed to try our hand at making these visual aids … this year, the children showed us how it should be done! And of course there was the Welsh version of the Christingle hymn (read the words at this link), sung to the tune The Holly and the Ivy.

The five readings, in a mixture of Welsh and English, were helpfully accompanied by a service sheet giving the text in both languages and interleaved with hymns for the season to well-known tunes. We did our best with the singing … and it was fortunate that we weren’t asked to sing after the plentiful tea that followed.

Grateful thanks to those who took part, especially to Margaret Brandie for devising the service and marshalling the props. Thanks also to Huw Thomas for leading from the piano for both the hymns and the children’s games, to Jennifer Welsher, who organised the presents for the children, and to Lilian John who took charge of the refreshments.

Friday 28 November 2025

At the end of each November it’s been our custom to celebrate the Patron Saint of our host nation by sharing haggis, neeps and tatties and enjoying a mix of blether, quiz-type activities and singing. This year a number of “the usual suspects” were away, but our members very much enjoyed the evening.

David introduced Saint Andrew, and the plentiful food was then devoured at speed despite a high level of conversation. After Huw had reminded us why we here, Jennifer tested our short-term memories with Kim’s Game – thankfully a team effort, with both tables scoring 18/20 – and introduced us to two old friends who had lurked beneath the red dragons. Pamela then circulated a cryptic quiz, based on the names of garments, that caused much scratching of heads. Finally, David led our singing (“Flower of Scotland”; “Calon Lân”; “The Skye Boat Song”; “Sosban Fach”) before we sang “Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau” and headed home.

Grateful thanks to Lilian and her team for their catering efforts, to Priestfield Parish Church for the use of their premises and equipment, and to those who kept us informed and entertained.

Sunday 9 March 2025

As on several recent occasions, Huw and Janet Thomas rose nobly to the challenge of building a programme of hymns in an interesting and informative way. This year we were taken on round a map of Wales, seeking places that had given their names to hymn tunes. We didn’t always take the most direct route, but thankfully for the planet our virtual meander had zero carbon footprint!

As Huw played and we sang, and Janet gave us breathing space by sharing personal memories and giving some background from her researches, seeking to make “Cymru Connections”.

Stop 1: Warrington (“Hwn ydyw’r dydd o ras ein Duw”) – take a lead from the Romans and Oliver Cromwell!

Stop 2: Bryn Calfaria (“Wele wrth y drws yn curo”) – named after a lost-closed chapel in Caernarfon … probably, though disputed by our President!

Stop 3: Rhosymedre (“O! nefol addfwyn Oen”) – a village south-west of Wrexham, “home of Welsh football”

Stop 4: Builth (“Rhagluniaeth fawr y nef”) – Builth Wells is now the permanent home of the Royal Welsh Show.

Stop 5: Cwm Rhondda (“Wele’n sefyll rhwng y myrtwydd”) – a beautiful valley landscape, but a history of coal mining that had led to enormous population growth.

Stop 6: Saron (“Dy law sydd arnom, O! ein Duw”) – of three options, Janet chose to take the M4 to the Saron just outside Ammanford, formerly Cross Inn, and told the story of the 1925 Anthracite Strike.

Stop 7: Blaenwern (“Tyred, Iesu, i’r anialwch”) – named after the farm near Tufton where the composer had convalesced in his youth, brought back memories of their 1987 walk along the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path (35,000 feet of ascent!) from Poppit to Newgale.

Stop 8: Pantyfedwen  (“Tydi a wnaeth y wyrth, O Grist, Fab Duw”) – a tune that secured Morris Eddie Evans lasting fame, and a prize of £300 at the Rhys Thomas James Eisteddfod in Lampeter in 1968. This was one of the eisteddfodau supported by the DJ James Pantyfedwen Foundation, named after his family home in Cardiganshire.

Stop 9: Aberystwyth (“Iesu, Cyfaill f’enaid i”) – Do you remember the harbour? or the seaside resort in its railway heyday? or connect with its university, or its large number of pubs?

Our travels round the map reached their inevitable conclusion, “Stop 10” being the tea-trolley! Grateful thanks to everyone involved.

Friday 7 March 2025

The 2025 St David’s Day dinner attracted 32 members and friends, and was held, as has become usual, at Mortonhall Golf Club. Our President, David Hughes, welcomed members, and we raised a glass in memory of Eirwen Stillie, a long-standing EWS member, who had died very recently, before Margaret Brandie said Grace.

After an excellent dinner, those present gave a round of applause to Rhya and the Mortonhall team before the President introduced our guest speakers, Idwal and Bethanne Williams. Their connections went back to David’s time at Ysgol Syr Huw Owen in Caernarfon where Idwal arrived as a new rugby-playing maths teacher!

Idwal is also the brother of our member Hywel, and he spoke of their father’s appointment as Chief Electrical Engineer at the power station at Hawick, and of the family having been “marooned” there by a reorganisation in 1949! The illustrated life stories that followed were of rugby, university politics and a few years spent in Nigeria following his maths degree.

Unusually, many of Bethanne and Idwal’s memories could be brought together in one photograph – of their cottage fireplace, one of only two made of Dinorwig slate to a very unusual design. The items on or around the fireplace were many and varied:

• A chair brought back as a peace offering by Bethan’s great-grandfather after a bibulous time away with his brass band
• A wooden singing bird from Nigeria
• Horn sculptures
• Sculptures from Thailand
• “Gaudy Welsh” pottery

The stories these evoked were interspersed with tales of encounters with Siân Phillips and Peter O’Toole, dancing in Poland and a trip to Goa, and concluded with a video clip of a North Wales “House Hunt” programme in which they had both appeared, reminding us that our guests had previously treated us to a talk and demonstration of traditional Welsh Dance back in February 2017!

The applause that greeted their talk was followed by a Vote of Thanks by Cledwyn Thomas, freshly flown-in from Italy, who shared with our guests stories of Nigeria and misadventures with a Triumph Herald.

Our President then thanked a number of people for their contribution to EWS life, especially our Secretary, before Huw Thomas led us in singing. The fare included “Ar lan y môr”, “Calon lân” and the Llanelli-inevitable “Sosban Fach”, before we concluded with “Hen Wlad fy Nhadau” and headed off after having spent a splendid evening together.

Friday 7 February 2025

Our Chinese evening was everything we hoped for and more. The banquet as organised by Lilian was generous and varied, and there were boxes of goodies to take away too. Following the meal our guests Han Yilin and Yao Siqi demonstrated their traditional tea ceremony and calligraphy. It is the year of the snake and our inky attempts reflected that, with varying degrees of accuracy. We rounded off the evening with community singing.