Friday 4th March
It was so lovely to see everyone in the flesh again! All those Zoom meetings that we’ve had since St David’s Day 2020 were a good way to stay in touch, but not like the real thing, and what a turnout! – There were 79 of us in total and it was lovely to see new members and guests as well as old friends. We had all been warned beforehand, that due to Covid we should all have had Lateral Flow Tests before we went.
This year our St David’s Day Dinner returned to Gerrards Cross Golf Club. The club house has had a real face lift since we were last there – the interior has been renovated and it looks very smart. The bar and the dining room were festooned with Welsh flags. People started arriving at 6:30 and were greeted with a drink, giving people time to circulate around the bar, meet old friends and catch up.
Martin Hillary, the GX Manager was very helpful in making suggestions and putting up all the flags.
By 7:15 people were ushered into the dining room, where a table plan assigned them to their places. The tables were decorated with lovely floral displays of daffodils created by the ladies of the committee. Barrie Reece had printed the place names at the table to include the menu choices that people had made – just in case we’d forgotten – and had produced a programme for the evening.
When we had all found our allocated places our Chairman, Colin Picton, welcomed us to the evening and Gwyndaf John said grace.
Then the food started to arrive. For starters we had made the choice between tomato and garlic soup, smoked salmon mousse or asparagus with poached egg. I had the asparagus and was pleasantly surprised that the poached egg was just right with a really runny yolk, which was quite an achievement when catering for so many people.
Main course was a choice of seabass, lamb shank, or a traditional Welsh cawl. My lamb shank was substantial and very tasty. While we were at the tables, Barrie Reece was touring the room with his camera taking lots of pictures (see more photos here).
Dessert choices were spiced oranges with orange sorbet, chocolate torte with fresh raspberries or a selection of Welsh Cheeses. I went for the cheese option and the cheeses were excellent and so generous that I could not finish them, though I had heard that the spiced oranges disappointed.
After coffee, Colin introduced our guest singer for the evening, Angharad Rowlands a Welsh Mezzo Soprano, accompanied by Iain Ledingham.
Angharad is at the Royal Academy of Music, studying on scholarship for a Master of Arts in Performance. A native Welsh speaker, Angharad grew up singing in the Welsh folk tradition, competing regularly in the National Eisteddfod of Wales. She made her debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in 2019, and this year Angharad will join Royal Academy Opera.
Iain Ledingham is a familiar figure to many of us, a professor in the piano, vocal and opera faculties at the Royal Academy of Music, and founder of the Amersham Festival of Music. We are very grateful to Iain as the source of so many of the very talented musicians who have performed for us over the years.
Angharad spoke quite softly, but that all changed when she started singing and she could really produce some power to her voice.
Angharad’s repertoire included a number of traditional songs with arrangements by Benjamin Britten, followed by works by Mozart, Bizet and Handel. The music then turned to a Welsh theme with Mae Hiraeth yn y Môr and Gwynfyd, and lastly Calon Lân, for which everyone joined in.
Jonathan Pegler then took to the keyboard and played the National Anthem, led by Angharad.
Colin thanked our performers and Ann Evans presented Angharad with a bouquet, while Iain received a bottle of wine from Jonathan.
Due to Covid restrictions, the committee decided not to finish with our traditional singing, but turned to our friends to say goodbye. Hopefully we shall have another opportunity for singing in the near future!
Thanks to all those involved in the planning and execution of our St David’s Day Dinner!
Barrie Reece took a lot of pictures at the event – see more of them here
No-one was absolutely sure whether our 2021 drinks party would go ahead, due to rising numbers of Covid.
Bright blue matching chairs and, cheerful garden flowers adorned the crisp white tablecloths. At this juncture, our thanks to the ‘flower girls’ as they were referred to. The guests had come laden with their own wine, fruit juice, beer and fizzy water and people on the tables introduced themselves. I maintain that Welsh is my first language and, was fortunate enough to be educated through the medium of Welsh from the age of 3 to 21. I was especially pleased to catch up with a few people who spoke Welsh and spent a while chatting to Bill Jones about the delights of Amlwch and Anglesey in particular!
Table by table, we were invited to the serving area, where the To Dine For ladies had set up a veritable spread. Our food had been pre-ordered, I had salmon, others had chicken and there was a vegetarian option, all adorned by a variety of salads, I have to say it was very tasty. We had olive and chilli bread, which you could wash down with the drink of your choice. Extra food was available if you wanted a top up. Chatter, covering a multiple of varied subjects, was constant. David Powell managed to pop round each group to photograph everybody deep in conversation. For dessert there was fruit salad, tiramisu, chocolate tart with lashings of cream, should you want it. To round off the meal tea and coffee were served with some lovely chocolate mints. All in all, I would say the afternoon was a massive success, everybody was pleased to catch up, after such a long time of being at home.
I would like to give a special mention to Ernest Morris, whose delightful garden we enjoyed and for the loan of the gazebos by Alan Longshaw. Thanks too to David, Gwyndaf, Alan, Peter Johnston and Colin Thomas for erecting these and, getting the furniture in situ; hopefully it was dismantled a bit quicker than it went up. Thank you very much to Kay for her organisational skills and making the afternoon such a success, we all know that these events, don’t ‘just’ happen.
A fine selection of able-bodied chaps gathered at Peter & Beth’s home on Saturday morning to put up the gazebos for Sunday’s Summer Lunch. The garden looked like a team of gardeners had been at work, but Beth assured us that they did all the work themselves.
discussion about positioning of the gazebos in the garden. It didn’t take too long, and by midday, we were able to sit under the canvas to enjoy a well-earned drink and biscuit.
Colin thanked David for his chairmanship over the past 3 years and went on to introduce our speaker – Neil Rees, an IT professional who is also a keen amateur historian and writes for the Bucks Free Press and has some fascinating facts about Aneurin Bevan.
The old farmhouse came with just over 50 acres, plus farm buildings, and 2 cottages. The farm manager and cowman were kept on, together with the herd of Guernsey cows and 60 hens. Nye became an enthusiastic farmer. He built up the herd to 60 cattle, and also started to keep pigs. 
On Thursday 29th April Gwyndaf and Janet John organized a Spring Walk around the woods at Hedgerley.
The plan was to meet at the pond in Hedgerley at 10:30, book our meals at the pub and then set off covering very similar walks but at different times and in different directions. However, when parking the cars, people were so pleased to see each other again, that in true CDWS fashion, they stopped to chat and soon it was 11:00.
