The Chiltern District Welsh Society Summer Lunch is always something to approach with eager anticipation but also with a degree of trepidation.
Will it rain or won’t it?
Will all the pieces of the gazebos be there?
Will there be a quiz?!
15th June started as usual with the ultimate male bonding exercise – forget rugby matches, days at the cricket or stag weekends: erecting the gazebos beats them hands down! It sounds easy enough, but there’s always a pole missing at a crucial moment, or poles spring out of connectors unexpectedly; until, that is, the covering goes on, when all seems to bind magically together. This year our dedicated group of chaps managed the feat in only a little over an hour, which is, I think, probably a record.
Many thanks to all who participated, and also to the ladies who provided our table decorations.
We had our usual luck with the weather. It didn’t rain, and while it certainly wasn’t particularly sunny or warm, the temperature was probably more tolerable than last year’s blazing sunshine. Jean and Gwyn’s beautiful garden provided an idyllic setting. The Summer Lunch is one of our main purely social events, and it was hard for me to persuade our 51 attendees to tear themselves away from chatting and/or exploring the garden and admiring the fruit and vegetables on display. Nevertheless, we managed to eat our way through a delicious buffet lunch, without a quiz to distract us this year!
The food was provided by the ever reliable Ann Tennant. This year she had an unexpected assistant in the form of a very cheeky Robin with designs on the croutons!
Apart from this, nothing very much happened – it was just one of those days when everyone seemed to enjoy each other’s company.
I must thank Gwyn and Jean Owen for being the perfect hosts. The Society’s first ever Summer Lunch took place in their garden 14 years ago. I found myself wondering why we had not returned sooner!
Jonathan Pegler
This year’s St David’s Day dinner was the best attended yet, and what an enjoyable evening!
The meal included a really delicious Welsh lamb steak, preceded by a prawn tart and finished off with a good old fashioned sponge pudding with custard.
A wonderful operatic soprano, Rhiannon will this year be the guest soloist for the London Welsh Festival of Male Choirs at the Royal Albert Hall. She gave a charming and captivating performance covering a varied programme, ranging from Puccini’s La Boheme to Gershwin’s Summertime. I think that most of the men in the audience liked the pieces where she played the ‘vamp’ and teased various gentlemen in the room singing amorously at them (soprano/lap dancer she says in a recent tweet).
Jonathan Pegler thanked the pair, Rhiannon was presented with a bouquet of flowers, and Peter with a bottle of wine.
This can’t be the place!
We were conducted around the Castle by a lovely Scottish Lady who pointed out architectural detail, an open Guard robe complete with seated man and sound effects (!!), and the significance of the Castle to protect the South from an advancing army of Llywelyn ap Grufydd, which threat was removed in 1282 when he was killed. Not even with the assistance of men in the party could the massive leaning tower be pushed back into a vertical position!!
A relaxing start to the next day at 9:30 am saw us in the Market Town of Y Bont-faen (Cowbridge), again in great weather, to enjoy the picturesque buildings, the fine Physic Garden with its herbs and medicinal plants, and antique memorabilia.
Had we had a best hat parade I would have given my gents vote to Bob Ford’s – what style! The ladies too had brought hats but most carried them in so I didn’t see too many being worn, but Pam Britton wore hers with grace. We mingled over drinks to catch up on gossip, using “ein hiaith” where we could, whilst Jean Owen and Muriel Knight distributed small posies of flowers which they’d brought along to brighten up the tables. 
Janet John had brought along a bubble making machine which created a party spirit as the bubbles danced their way through the tents until their all too brief existence came to an end as they drifted into more solid things.
Irene Powell said one can get square bubbles these days! What good are the corners?
And good he is too! Watch out John Breese and Jonathan Pegler, there’s competition about. 
So we had a few songs to finish with. Colin led the singing with laser-like precision on the top notes, whilst Jonathan – recently returned from an operatic course in Italy – provided the harmony.
Liz Seely showed us how to fold the cloths and tents to perfection.
The famous Wildflower Meadow Garden started with a seed mix nicknamed the ‘Gloucestershire Farmers’ Nightmare’.
