The past two months were very busy for our club, beginning with our November meeting when our guest speaker was Tim Kaye, whose subject was "Wildlife in my Garden." writes Jane White.

When Tim and his young family moved into their house they found an unusually-shaped garden, choked with convolvulus, and a shed inhabited by a toad and with a newt and a frog in a small pond. With three amphibians in such a small space Tim felt that it was his responsibility to discover and conserve as much wildlife as he could.

He took inspiration from Jennifer Owen's book, "Wildlife of a Garden". In her book she wrote about the 2,673 species she had discovered in her own garden and this set a challenge for Tim. After acquiring a nearby plot of land and clearing the debris, including a cooker and a pile of concrete, he dug a pond and adopted a pig to dig out the brambles and the invasive convolvulus. He gained a licence to handle a newt as one of the species he discovered on his land was the Great Crested Newt.

We were surprised to hear that there are 7,000 species of fly in Britain. While he has made huge strides in wildlife conservation , he admitted that there was a long way to go yet, but his love of the task was evident for us all to see.The competition, A Garden Creature (not alive) was won by Margaret Reardon, Followed by Jane Thompson and Jane White and Richard Vaughan's beautiful dahlia won Flower of the Month, followed by Jane Thompson's mahonia and Des Ruck's nerine.

December began with Christmas lunch at the Monmouthshire Golf Club, which was as delicious as usual. During the meal the overall winners of the monthly competitions for 2025 were presented with their trophies by our Chairperson, Wendy Hughes. The Flower of the Month trophy, won by Judith Vickery, was brand new and was hand-carved by Des Ruck, while Jane Thompson won the Monthly Competitions trophy.

A week later members enjoyed a coach trip, shared with Llantilio Pertholey WI, to Exeter Christmas Market. The weather was awful but the rain didn't dampen the enthusiasm, as the market, in the beautiful setting of Cathedral Close, was superb and there was the bonus of visiting the ancient cathedral and a good lunch out with friends.Our 2026 programme looks very interesting with Roger Evans launching an impressive list of speakers with his talk on Tulips.

The competition will be "A Tulip (any medium)" on January 19th. Do come and join us at the Mardy Hall, St. David's Road on Monday January 19 at 7pm and enjoy an interesting talk and good company. New members are always made very welcome.