Tag Archives: Whitchurch

Today’s Treasures – Lake Bala – Llyn Tegid

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Today’s Treasures – Lake Bala – Llyn Tegid

The largest natural lake in Wales, fed by the River Dee (Afon Dyfrdwy) which has its source on the slopes of Dduallt (Black Hill) in the mountains of Snowdonia.

It is thought that the lake was once much larger and extended much further north (over Bala town) and south to Llanuwchllyn – and probably previously flowed west into Cardigan Bay, whereas now the River Dee flows north east through it, then along the Welsh border, around Chester and eventually into the Irish Sea at Liverpool Bay.

Formed by glaciers, the lake is home to a rare whitefish called the Gwyniad, a relic of the last Ice Age, and a very rare mollusc Myxas Glutinosa – the Glutinous snail.  In the summer it’s calm surface and shallow edges are ideal for watersports and kayaks, canoes and paddleboards pepper the surface.

The Bala Railway, built on a section of the former Ruabon to Barmouth GWR route (closed in 1965) runs along the south east shore from Bala to Llanuwchllyn (the village above the lake).   The railway has 3 steam locomotives, 2 of which were rescued from Welsh slate quarries.  The 2 ft narrow gauge steam trains trundle along the tracks providing stunning views of the lake and glimpses of the surrounding mountains – Arenig Fawr, Aran Benllyn and Aran Fawddwy.

Llyn Tegid translates as ‘Lake of Serenity’ and it certainly lives up to its name.  Even in winter, when the lake overflows appropriating the car park and lakeside pathways, the scenery is stunningly beautiful, with windblown waves caressing the trees and bushes at the edges of the lake.

According to legend, the lake has its own monster – ‘Teggie’ haunts the underwater palaces of King Tegid and his wife, the white witch, Ceridwen, legendary mother of the famous Welsh bard Taliesin who was Celtic mythology’s ‘Chief of Bards’. He served in the court of several mythic kings including King Arthur where his powers of poetry and prophecy were highly regarded. Sometimes, on moonlight nights, it is said that the towers and turrets of King Tegid’s castle can be glimpsed beneath the waves.

lake Bala

Published in the February edition of the Whitchurch Gossip

Today’s Treasures – Planet Earth

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Today’s Treasures – Planet Earth

The world is a cornucopia,
People scurrying like ants,
A kaleidoscope of colours,
Leaving everything to chance.

No paintbrush guides creation
We multiply like flies,
We desolate our planet,
Pollution fills our skies.

We ignore the population,
Expanding uncontrolled,
Exhausting natural resources,
Minerals, trees and oil.

If we believed in reincarnation,
Would we still destroy future needs,
Food and water running out,
Plastics fill our seas.

Seed banks full of species,
Nowhere for them to grow,
Hundreds of extinct animals,
With no jungles or plains to roam.

Future generations need us,
To treat the world with care,
Our children need a planet,
Free from polluted air.

Reusing, recycling, saving,
Using wind, water and sun,
Convert to sustainable sources,
Before coal and oil are gone.

Carbon is our life blood,
We waste it at our peril,
Every person has a duty,
To conserve the world together.

Aluminium is fully recyclable,
Use instead of plastic,
Buy local – less food miles,
Eat all the food, don’t waste it.

Crisis What Crisis?

Grow your own food,
East less meat,
Wear more clothes,
Turn down the heat.

Walk or ride instead of drive,
Repair instead of replacing,
Reduce, reuse, recycle,
There’s still time for us to change things.

Published in the Janary 2023 edition of the Whitchurch Gossip

rowan berries

Today’s Treasures – Autumn

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Today’s Treasures – Autumn

‘Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’ that inspired Keats to write his poem ‘To Autumn’.

autumn tree

Leaves turning from green to gold to auburn, watery sunshine filtering through gnarled branches with crooked fingers, stretching towards the light; eiderdown clouds in quilted patterns sending sunbeams spotlighting acorns underfoot.

King Quercus, standing tall, golden oak leaves fluttering down, alongside the copper beech, Queen Fagus, in all her autumn glory; bright red rowan berries adorning the mountain ash eagerly sought after by the birds that remain with us when their cousins fly south for the winter.  The robin, perched at the top of the hawthorn tree, resplendent in his winter red breasted waistcoat sings songs of summers to come.
rowan berries
The red berries of arum lilies and strings of bryony beads decorate hedgerows fluffy with aptly named old man’s beard.

bryony berries

Toadstools love the damp autumn days and often appear overnight like magic, inspiring stories of fairies and elves tiptoeing at tea parties and dancing in fairy rings.

This year is a ‘mast year’ for acorns – every few years some species of trees and shrubs produce a bumper crop of seeds or nuts – guaranteeing that there will be some left over after the badgers, squirrels, mice and birds have eaten their fill – to germinate and grow into baby trees.  Smaller crops in other years give the tree chance to recover energy and also regulate the population of the animals and birds that feed on the nuts.

autumn treesPublished in the December 2022 edition of the Whitchurch Gossip

Today’s Treasures – Blackberry Fair 2022

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Today’s Treasures – Blackberry Fair 2022

The magic is back – Blackberry Fair was amazing again – wonderful people, incredible music – and so many smiles – it was like we had all been saving them up for 3 years – since the last street festival here.

This living, breathing celebration of music, song, dance, poetry and street theatre, stretched from Green End to the Bull Ring, and on – up to the Black Bear and beyond – and attracted more visitors than ever – enjoying local food, real ale, mouth-watering sweets, freshly-baked cakes, and real sausages and beef burgers – all accompanied by street music wherever you went in this normally tranquil, market town.

Whitchurch’s unique street carnival inspires, fires the imagination, screams innovation, young and old are all captivated, drawn into the spirit of creativity and sustainability – all shared by bands from far and near – the Old Time Sailors, Cosmic Rays, The Odd Bods, music from every genre – including the hypnotic, mesmerising music from Zuma – with its exotic, tantalising, foot-tapping beats.

The crew, and all the volunteers were dressed up alongside the musicians and Morris dancers – there were magicians and wizards, mad hatters and giants – and plenty of pirates – Theodora the Witch and Harbinder the elephant, and all the characters that followed the raven and the unicorn as the Carnival of Hope wound its way through the town, gathering at St. Alkmund’s church at the end of the afternoon.

Thank you Steve and your army of volunteers for another amazing festival of music and mayhem, light and laughter, sunshine and smiles and all the characters, singers, dancers, artists and musicians who made the day so special.

Published in the November edition of the Whitchurch Gossip

morris dancers

John Golder

Today’s Treasures – John Golder’s 90th Birthday Skydive

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Today’s Treasures – John Golder’s 90th Birthday Skydive – a lovely story

John Golder

John had been caring for his partner, Iris, who was suffering from dementia, and one afternoon she fell whilst trying to get out of bed. He phoned for help but, after waiting two hours for an ambulance that didn’t arrive, he picked her up himself and put her back in bed.  About two hours later, he developed chest pains so he phoned for a carer to look after Iris and then another ambulance, which turned up in about ten minutes.

Whilst John was in hospital, Iris couldn’t understand where he had gone and spent the next three days searching the house for him night and day, and the poor lady who had been given the job of caring for her had no sleep at all. So, it was decided to take Iris into care and, after several days recovering in hospital, John arrived home to an empty house.

John realised he could no longer care for iris but was very upset, so when Julie, his PA, arrived she was very concerned about him and thought that going out for lunch might cheer him up – she suggested the Sky Dive Café on Prees Airfield.

John had been thinking about raising some money for the RAFA who had taken great care of his son who is an ex RAF Halton apprentice and it occurred to him that a ninety-year-old doing a tandem sky dive should raise a bit of cash.

John and Julie duly arrived at the Sky Dive Café. Julie ordered the food – and John signed up for a sky dive! He then discovered that, because of his age, he had to have a doctor’s certificate. So, he took the certificate to his doctor – who would not sign it. As it turned out, he was quite right as within another couple of days John had another heart attack. This one was serious and involved a dash to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital through red lights with a lot of siren wailing and blue flashing lights.  John was then taken to the Cardiac Hospital in Stoke, where, after several x-rays and various scans, the Surgeon said: “You have a serious heart problem, we can treat you with medication or we can operate.  If we operate, there’s a 50:50 chance you will not survive.”

John’s reply was: “Operate – I will survive because you will see I do.” The surgeon’s response was: “I wish I was as confident as you.”  As the surgeon left, one of the nurses came up to John and asked if he was OK and John said:  “I’m just a bit fed up because I had planned to do a tandem sky dive and that will not now be possible.”  When John explained what it was for and why, the nurse said: “That’s OK, I will do it for you”.  Her name is Julie Symms.  As they chatted, two more nurses joined them and, on learning what Julie had said, they both volunteered to jump as well. They are nurses Victoria Williams and Katie Newbon.

John says:  “Obviously someone thought I was not going to survive the operation as they sent a Padre to talk to me. This gentleman was The Rev Nimilote Rokotoro (Roko). He had served ten years in the Royal Engineers, having served in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He did nothing to save my soul, but we did have a good laugh – and, when I told him about the nurses and what they had proposed, his immediate reaction was: ‘I will jump for you as well’. So now, I have three nurses and a reverend, all prepared to jump out of a perfectly good aircraft for the RAFA and RAF Benevolent Fund.”

John’s target is to raise £100,000, to be split between the two charities.  Anything over that will go to dementia research.  https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/john-golders-skydive

Published in the August edition of the Whitchurch Gossip

bee on comfrey

Today’s Treasures – Bees

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Today’s Treasures – Bees

bee on comfrey

Some interesting facts about bees:

  • There are over 25,000 species of bees.
  • Honeybees live in a colony, but many bees are solitary and nest alone – but often near to other bees.
  • Most bees live for about 6 weeks, but some bees live for years.
  • In one day, a foraging honeybee can visit up to 2000 flowers.
  • It takes around 12,000 bee hours to make a 1.5 kg jar of honey.

beehive

Male bees do not sting, and their job is to mate with the queen.  The worker honeybees are female and do sting – but only when it’s really necessary as they are damaged in the process and die afterwards.

Turning nectar into honey is a two-stage process involving chemically changing the sugars in the nectar from complex to simple sugars and reducing the water content. When complete, the honeybees seal the honeycomb with a white wax cap. This keeps the honey fresh in a natural airtight container for the winter.

If natural, raw, unfiltered honey is stored properly in sealed containers it can last virtually forever – the bees’ honey-making process combined with the high sugar content and low pH prevent organisms from damaging it.

beekeeper

Bees love my herb garden, sage and thyme, lavender and chives – and, later in the year, hyssop, rosemary and marjoram – and they love the wild flowers – especially comfrey and foxgloves.  I’ve spent many relaxing hours watching them popping into foxglove bells and cleaning the pollen off the fairy shoes – as Enid Blyton so elegantly described the stamens.

Wild flowers are generally much better for bees – cultivated forms are often hybrids propagated by cuttings and they have evolved without need for pollinators so most produce little nectar or pollen.  So, plant old-fashioned varieties of hellebore, salvia, rudbeckia, cosmos, sedum and verbena – and snowdrop and crocus for early spring when there are very few flowers – they provide a much-needed source of pollen for our bees.

Some businesses have planted wild flowers around their car parks and installed beehives – like Midcounties Co-operative – who now have a head beekeeper, Lee Franklin, at their head office in Warwick.

www.midcounties.coop

Published in the July edition of the Whitchurch Gossip

2 canal boats

Today’s Treasures – Canals – accessible green spaces for everyone

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Today’s Treasures – Canals – accessible green spaces for everyone2 canal boats

In North Shropshire we are very fortunate to have the Llangollen branch of the Shropshire Union canal providing a wildlife corridor connecting our quaint market towns and our beautiful meres and mosses.

From Whitchurch, the canal vaguely follows the Welsh border, travels through Whixall Moss, borders the lake at Colemere, then meanders along past Whitemere and Blake Mere to Ellesmere.  At Lower Frankton, the Llangollen branch goes west to the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and the Montgomery canal heads south to Freestone Lock near Newtown.  Initially named the Montgomeryshire Canal – and now fondly known as ‘the Monty’ it does not – and never did – go to the town of Montgomery.

The Montgomery Canal was built in the early 19th century, primarily to transport lime for agricultural purposes and it was the landowners that were granted permission by Parliament in 1794:  “An act for making a navigable Canal from or near Porthywain Lime Rocks in the parish of Llanyblodwell, in the county of Salop, to or near Newtown, in the county of Montgomery”.

Over the last 40 years more than half of the 34 mile long canal has been restored to navigation.  The Canal and River Trust are currently working with Friends of the Montgomery Canal to restore ‘The Monty’ and all its locks and bridges, connecting, along its route, market towns, heritage railways, ancient footpaths, earthworks and castles. www.restorethemontgomerycanal.org.uk

The Canal and River Trust looks after 2,000 miles of waterways making a significant contribution to improving the wellbeing of millions of people, providing accessible green and blue spaces everywhere – even in cities.  It works with communities and volunteers across England and Wales to transform canals and rivers into spaces that support wildlife and make people feel better. www.canalrivertrust.org.uk

canal barge

Published in the June edition of the Whitchurch Gossip

musicians

Today’s Treasures – Live Music

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Today’s Treasures – Live Folk Music

North Shropshire Folk are back – with live music at Whitchurch Leisure Centre.  It was so lovely to meet people again, enjoy listening to the music – and watching the musicians play.

musicians

Live music is always magical to me – I love music but I don’t play any instruments myself and it constantly amazes me how musicians can weave intricate patterns with their fingers and create tunes that harmonise, watching and listening sends me into another world, totally enraptured with the music.

The Jeremiahs opened a new season of folk nights – an Irish folk band of four musicians who clearly really enjoy performing the folk tunes they have composed.

‘The Wild Barrow Road’ was written in the back seat of a car on a summer journey through Cumbria – and completed for a gig they were playing that night:  “Ireland is the only nation in the world where procrastination takes on a sense of urgency”.

Singer Joe Gibney is from County Dublin.  On fiddle, viola and vocals is County Cork’s Niamh Varian-Barry; French born Julien Bruneteau plays the flute and on Guitar is Dublin born James Ryan.

musicians

Ireland has inspired many artists – poets and writers as well as musicians – the Emerald Isle with its castles and rugged coastlines, folklore and fairy tales, has inspired many haunting melodies, passionate love songs, and poignant lyrics about leprechauns and love and loss.

Irish folk music is so diverse, from rousing sea shanties to traditional songs about villains and villages, poets and prisons, castles, courtship, sea life and sailors.  The Jeremiahs brought back memories of watching an Irish folk band playing in a bar in Ireland, a traditional Irish pub with a few pints of beer, clapping along to an Irish jig …

The next North Shropshire Folk night is on Saturday, 14th May at  8.00 pm featuring ‘The Outside Track’ – a band of 5 musicians hailing from Scotland, Ireland, and Cape Breton, who blend fiddle, accordion, harp, guitar, flute, whistle, step-dance and vocals with amazing dexterity.

For more information, future events and to book tickets visit www.northshropshirefolk.com

@northshropshirefolk @northshropfolk

@thejeremiahsmusic @thejeremiahsie

@outsidetrack

Published in the April edition of the Whitchurch Gossip

waves

Today’s Treasures – Meditation

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Today’s Treasures – Meditation

waves

It’s two years since a new virus reared its ugly head and the world, as we knew it, changed.  We had to adapt and learn to survive in a different way, in a very different world.

We couldn’t do some of the things we took for granted but we learned to appreciate the ones that were still available – like enjoying making and eating meals – and many of us learned new skills to help us adapt – like meditation.

Many more people found that meditation helps with lots of stress related conditions like headaches, insomnia, IBS, indigestion and phobias.  Sleeping and eating are a vital part of every day and our bodies need a regular balance of both or they start to complain.  A regular routine for sleeping and eating helps balance the rhythms of our body and meditation can help establish this routine and will enhance the beneficial effects.

You don’t need anything special in order to meditate and you can start with just a few minutes a day – as you reap the benefits you will most likely want to meditate more but just a few moments enjoying watching a butterfly on a flower will be beneficial.

butterfly

You can sit on the floor or in a chair – or lie down – it really doesn’t matter.  The best meditation I have ever experienced was sitting on a deserted beach feeling the sand touching my feet and hands – being a part of the ground beneath me, watching the waves cascading onto the beach – nothing else existed, just me and the sand and the waves.  A magical experience but you can recreate a taste of that by just standing still and really listening to the birds singing, closing your eyes and enjoying the fragile scent of a primrose, or concentrating on the brilliantly coloured patterns on the wings of a butterfly.  With meditation you just focus on something totally and shut everything else out.

Meditation music can really help, try some of the tracks on

https://www.youtube.com/c/MeditationalState/featured

This whispering music enhances the senses, creating metaphysical sensations of silvery sparkes which release negative energy and the vibrations emanate a tranquil feeling of wellbeing.

meditation

Published in the March edition of the Whitchurch Gossip

a painted pebble

Today’s Treasures – Serendipity – A lucky find, an unplanned fortunate discovery

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Today’s Treasures – Serendipity – A lucky find, an unplanned fortunate discovery

a painted pebble

This beautifully painted pebble was found recently in Prees.  It’s such a lovely idea, and it really cheered me up.  So I looked up ‘Love on the rocks uk’ on Facebook and found the page which says:

“Paint a rock, write ‘Facebook love on the rocks uk’ on the back, take a photo and let us know where you are hiding it, then make a stranger smile when they find it.  It’s so easy, spread the love.”

We’ve kept this pebble for a little while – it’s on the windowsill in the kitchen – but it will be hidden again somewhere new soon – to hopefully make someone else smile.

a pebble with words 'love on the rocks'Arigatou gozalmasu
(Thank you in Japanese )
Fb:  Love on the Rocks uk
Share your find,
then keep me,
or rehide me,
enjoy,
PPN x

Anyone can join in, you just need a pebble and some acrylic paints and you can share on ‘Love on the rocks uk (hiding rocks – making smiles)’

I wish I had found this pebble during the first lockdown as I would have painted lots of pebbles and hidden them all over North Shropshire once I could go out again – we all needed a lot of cheering up by then as many of us had only seen smiles on screens!

Serendipity can mean a lot of things – have you ever been in a bookshop and found yourself drawn to a particular book which you then had to buy – and somehow the story held a message that was relevant to your life at that time

Or woken up with a song in your head, turned the radio on and that same song was playing?

Or wished for something and seen a shooting star?

Today’s Treasures are things that have extraordinary meanings in people’s lives – serendipity.