Sunday 5 March 2023

Our Secretary writes:

“Our festival of hymns rounded off our patron saint’s day celebrations. Margaret Brandie introduced the hymns and Myra Tarr accompanied our singing on the piano. Lilian John treated us to her always welcome bara brith and made the tea. Many thanks to all three.”

If you didn’t come, you missed singing:

#474 Tyred, Arglwydd, i’r anialwch (Blaenwern)

#413 Rho im yr hedd, na ŵyr y byd amdano (Rhys)

#829 Nid wy’n gofyn bywyd moethus (Calon lân)

#635 Rhagluniaeth fawr y nef (Builth)

#830 I bob un sydd ffyddlon (Rachie)

#429 Glân geriwbiaid a seraffiaid (Sanctus)

#838 O! Fy Iesu bendigedig (Dim ond Iesu)

#476 Mewn anialwch ’r wyf yn trigo (Hyfrydol)

#411 Arglwydd, dyro yr eneiniad (Edinburgh)

#837 O! na bawn yn fwy tebyg (O! na bawn i fel efe)

Friday 3 March 2023

Our Secretary writes:

“Our annual St David’s Day dinner was a great success. The six tables were laid out beautifully and Ruby and staff of Mortonhall GC were welcoming and the meal delicious. Our Gwr Gwadd, Paul Lunn, gave us an insight into his friendship with our President, David, from student high jinx to the present day. He spoke of the lighter side of life as a vet, and touched on more serious issues too.

“David called upon Huw John to give the vote of thanks to our guest.

“David then thanked the staff of Mortonhall GC, the committee members and many others who have contributed to the success of the society. He thanked Margaret Brandie for hosting the Zoom meetings, and a special thank you to Martin Tarr for all his work distributing the EWSNEWS and keeping the society webpage to such a very high standard. Please remember to look at it from time to time.

“He went on to make a presentation of flowers, champagne, and exquisite gifts (a dragon brooch and celtic necklace from the Committee), and a card signed by all those present – to yours truly. It was a complete surprise, quite overwhelming, and I am everso grateful. And no – it was made very clear it was not to mark my retirement as Hon. Sec. – so here I am hugely honoured and typing on …

“Our evening was rounded off with community singing ably led by Jim Hughes.”

Friday 27 January 2023

Our Secretary writes:

“Lilian and Huw once again came up trumps with a scrumptious Chinese banquet. This was followed by a very interesting quiz, devised by Pamela Williams, with Hywel officiating as quizmaster. There were four teams of six and the results were close. I can’t quite remember which table won (it wasn’t mine, hence the memory fade) but it was jolly good fun. We rounded off the evening with community singing led ably by Huw Thomas. Thanks to Janet for producing new song sheets. A splendid evening, much enjoyed by all.”

Friday 25 November 2022

We met for a St Andrew’s Evening in the wonderfully warm surroundings of Priestfield Parish Hall, and enjoyed tucking in to haggis, neeps and tatties, followed by cranachan – many even managed seconds!

After what seemed all too short a time chatting over the coffee, we turned our attention to a session of “Call My Bluff”, which many of those present remembered watching in their youth! Our President was the “electronic display”, and our indefatigable secretary had picked out three of our number to be the celebrity panel – Cledwyn Thomas, Janet Thomas and Walter Whitelaw – and we were delighted with the performances of her “victims”. Helped in some cases by the BYOB we all joined in enthusiastically, and are pleased to report that we weren’t fooled all the time by Jennifer’s alternative definitions.

Then it was time for Jim Hughes to lead a spot of community singing to round off the evening, with a selection of mostly secular songs that were partly remembered by many, but proved a bit of a challenge to sing, before we reached the safer ground of Rachie, Calon lân and “Mae hen wlad fy nhadau”.

Thank you so much, Jennifer, for organising the evening, and thanks to all who contributed to its success, especially our catering team.

Friday 30 September 2022

There was an unusually large number of apologies for our Creoso at the Mortonhall Golf Club, but the twenty who attended (including some welcome new faces) enjoyed both another very generous meal and our Secretary’s entertainment! For this, the audience were presented with a map of Wales and encouraged to put a favourite spot on the map – if they wished, they could talk about the significance of the place to them. This led to some great stories …

• Jennifer Welsher remembered a pre-University summer holiday working behind the counter at Woolworths in Porthcawl, and “oiling the salamis”
• Myra Tarr recalled 1940s holidays near Lake Bala (Lllyn Tegid) and “Ceri’s eggs”
• Jim Hughes put his pin in Llandudno, leaving his exploits there to our imaginations!
• Margaret Brandie took the “Jones bus” from Cribyn (near Lampeter) to Aberaeron to taste the fish and chips and honey ice-cream, and enjoy the August Bank Holiday Carnival atmosphere.
• Hywel Williams earned his tourist guide badge by taking us round the beaches of the Llŷn Peninsula to his mother’s home near Abersoch, calling in on the way on two past presidents living at Morfa Nefin.
• Lisa Poulter told how the cries of seagulls always reminded her of holidays at Saundersfoot.
• Nigel Lindsay told of his holidays on a smallholding at Govilan (near Abergavenny) and trips to the “fleshpots of Barry Island” funded by collecting empty bottles.
• Steven Griffin has links with Merthyr Tydfil and Ogmore-by-Sea, but put his pin in Anglesey, marking the pub (“somewhere between Llangefni and Holyhead”) where he had had his first really positive experience in striking up a conversation with someone whose first language was Welsh.

By the end of the evening, the map was sufficiently populated for Jennifer to be able to call on Jim Hughes to lead the community singing, ending with “Mae hen wlad fy nhadau”.

Thank you so much, Jennifer.