Due to rather wild and stormy weather, we are cancelling today’s volunteer workday. It’s a much better day to stay home warm and cosy!
Look out for future workday dates coming soon
The annual Carmarthen Seedy Saturday event is fast approaching. We’ll have a stall with information about what we’ll be up to in the year ahead, as well as selling scythes and home grown Shetland yarn.
We’ll also be swapping seeds, stocking up on tools from Tools for Self reliance, meeting old friends and new faces, talking about scythes, permaculture, hand-farming and what ever else of interest comes up. I’m looking forward to it already!
A great way to share skills and work off some of the Christmas feasting in good company…oh and enjoy a bit more feasting over a bring-and-share lunch!
Mae’n ffordd wych o rannu sgiliau a gweithio rhywfaint ar wledda’r Nadolig mewn cwmni da … o a mwynhau ychydig mwy o wledda dros ginio dod â a rhannu!
Our first two workdays for 2020 will be on Saturday 11th January and Sunday 9th February.
Bydd ein dau ddiwrnod gwaith cyntaf ar gyfer 2020 ar ddydd Sadwrn 11eg Ionawr a dydd Sul 9fed Chwefror.
Tasks we have lined up include further work on the lovely Roundhouse, creating a firewood stack ready for spring and summer events and putting in a length of fencing on one of the Trust’s new fields, using sustainable Chestnut posts.
Ymhlith y tasgau mae gwaith ar y Tŷ Crwn hyfryd, creu pentwr coed tân yn barod ar gyfer digwyddiadau’r gwanwyn a’r haf, a gosod ffens ar un o gaeau newydd y Trust, gan ddefnyddio pyst castanwydden cynaliadwy
The Jubilee Waxcap was only recognized as a separate species in 2013. There are very few records of it in Wales, so it was very exciting to find it here on the Trust.
I found this specimen on the Trust’s Cae Top on 16th November 2019. Using iRecord, I reported this find, where it will add to the important bank of knowledge the Welsh wildlife recording centers are building about wildlife in Wales.
Have a look at the website Aderyn. Here you can search and find out what species have been seen near your house, school or workplace.
*”Fy Milltir Sgwar” – welsh, lit. “my square mile”, referring to your patch or stamping ground.
We will not be holding a volunteer workday in December. Please look out for 2020 dates, coming soon!
Join me for an informal walk around Penboyr Churchyard on Sunday 27th October to look at the amazing waxcaps, coral fungi, spindles, earth tongues and caterpillar clubs.
No guarantees about what we’ll find (or that I’ll be able to name them all!)…but that is part of the fun 🙂
Meet in the churchyard at 11am
The event is organized by The National Woollen Museum to commemorate 100 years since the fire in Cambrian Mills.
Emily Laurens will be making a lantern to form the centerpiece of the parade. If you want to help make the lantern, there is a workshop at the Woollen Museum on 29th October.
In September we had a fantastic weekend putting all the “layers” onto the Roundhouse roof (see pictures below).
In November, we will be installing a French drain around the Roundhouse.
A French Drain is a trench filled with gravel and a perforated pipe that will redirect surface water and runoff from the roof away from the Roundhouse. We’ll also have 100 Grape Hyacinth bulbs to plant into the green roof.
Plans are not fully fixed yet. We will probably be carrying out repairs on various fences and gateways. We will be using sustainably sourced Chestnut fence posts, as well as some Laburnum fence posts sourced from our own hedges.
Left is the team who assembled for our wind turbine building workshop.
Over 5 days, Jonathan Schreiber (center) led us through the process of building a Hugh Piggott designed 3F wind turbine.
There was excitement, learning, laughter, work, good food and finally, the satisfaction of seeing the turbine the group had built take to the wind.
We were not merely assembling a collection of ready made parts – we built the turbine from scratch. This was real hands-on engineering, and incredibly empowering!
Each part was made from basic materials, before being combined to create the working turbine. Planks of wood were sawn, chiseled and planed into turbine blades.
Copper wire and magnets made the stator and magnet rotors. Much careful thought and planning went into each stage to ensure that the component parts were put together correctly.
The stator and magnet rotors were cast in resin, then combined with a van rear-wheel hub to form the generator. The main body of the turbine was welded together from steel pipe and a tail cut from plywood.
On the last day the parts were painted, tested and carefully assembled before being taken out into the field for installation. A large frog hopped onto one of the blades for a quick look before all was ready for lifting up into the wind.
A wealth of information on Hugh Piggott turbines can be found on his website. Jonathan helps people build small wind turbines across Europe and beyond. More information can be found on his website.
More photos and videos of the build can be found on Instagram.
Many thanks to all the people who put time and energy into this project.
Here are some of the lovely grassland fungi I have found in the last few weeks.
If you want to know more about these gems of Autumn, Plantlife have produced this useful guide to Waxcap and allied fungi.
