As I sit down to write this, it is Sunday September 12th. After a scenic ride from Amersham to home in Maidenhead, there’s no time like the present to write a report of my splendid afternoon with the Chiltern Welsh Society.  I think most of us ladies had an eye on the weather that morning. We had ferreted around in our wardrobes for a special summer dress to wear; after all there have not been many opportunities over the last 12 months to dress up. This was only my second physical event with the Society, having joined a year ago. I did enjoy meeting people on Zoom. However, there is nothing like a real life experience!

I had given myself plenty of time to explore the streets of Amersham and locate a parking spot. I walked down to number 16, to find Kay Day waiting at the gate to greet me. She said, ‘You must be Ruth, as you are the only person I don’t recognise from the list.’ As we chatted, Sue Jones and Rose Alkins arrived and kindly invited me to join their table; it’s always important to feel wanted on your first or second event with a different group of people. There was lots of catching up to do before the formal part of the afternoon. We were a group of 30 on tables of five, all sheltered under gazebos. In fact, I was really impressed when I turned up and saw the garden laid out in front of me.

      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.

Along with several other people I talked to, we are all looking forward to the next diarised activity, Christmas drinks. In the meantime, enjoy the autumn sunshine, while it lasts.

Ruth Huckle