NEWS
NEWSLETTER
The latest edition of the newsletter is now out, with glorious colour images. If you didn't make the
July meeting, some will be available in August.
AUGUST MEETING
The 4th August meeting includes a bring and buy book sale, a coffee morning,
some discussion, entertainment and hopefully a quiz based on the wide range of our groups' activities. Don't
forget to bring your unwanted books!
TEA & COFFEE AT MAIN MEETINGS
There have been some murmurings about the necessity of providing teas and coffees at each meeting,
as it is a bit of a hassle. Would members please think about this and be ready to discuss it at the
August meeting, when we have no speaker.
ENTERTAINMENT
The Committee has agreed to set up a sub-committee to arranged some entertainment at our August meeting.
If you wish to be involved, please contact Silvia Bestwick
Forthcoming U3A events in 2010:
- Whitchurch U3A is holding an Arts & Crafts Awayday on 23rd October
- The annual national Science, Technology and Society seminar is in Abergavenny 9-12 August
- A national Travel Writing Competition is being held - entries by 20th August
INTEREST GROUPS
Following the quick meeting of available Group Leaders on June 2nd, there is now likely to be a lunch meeting
later in the summer, preceded by a short presentation/workshop or similar.
New groups in the process
of forming are Gardening and Theatre Trips. Liz Mathieson has taken over the leadership of the French Group.
The Tai Chi and Welsh Groups are no longer in existence.
WEBSITE NEWS
If you have suggestions for other specialist links, please let David Geldart know. Also, he will construct a web page for any group that wants one.
RECENT MONTHLY MEETINGS
JULY 2010 - AMNADA MUNDAY: THE HARP
Not many of our guest speakers could get their U3A audience singing a simple kids' song, but Amanda Munday was simply showing us how she teaches harp playing to young children, and we responded! Amanda has a harp 'business', which includes teaching and playing, and selling any type of harp you may wish to buy. She brought some samples with her, including a couple made in Seattle and one made locally. We learned a bit of history - the harp is the oldest known musical instrument and may go back to our bow-and-arrow days when some artisitc ancestor tried to pluck a few notes from his bow. Practically every culture and country has its own version of the harp, and we were shown how the very simple mechanics of the instrument work. Amanda played us a short and beautiful Scottish tune on one of the instruments, and recordings demonstrating the wide range of music which the harp can handle, whether accompanied or solo. She ended up allowing us to try a harp for ourselves, and it was not long before a lot of 'plink-plinking' could be heard in the hall! A fascinating and insipring morning. You should have been there!
JUNE 2010 - BARRY TURNER: THE MIDDLE EAST AFTER 2001
Retired Colonel Barry Turner has made a study of the Middle East over many, many years during his long retirement and gave us an insight into the material he has collected about it during that time. He told us that he saw the troubles in the Middle East being rooted in a struggle for power, which the West had perhaps made worse by its various interventions.
In one vivid illustration of what it may be to live in one of the troubled areas, he asked us to imagine what it would be like if there was a wall along the border between England and Wales controlled by the English and restricting the movements of the Welsh. He also thought that the toppling of Saddam Hussein had destroyed one of the more stable and advanced countries in the region.
His subject was one on which people hold quite strong opinions, so some controversy was inevitable (please note understatement) but it certainly provide fuel for discussion after the meeting!
MAY 2010 - DR DAVID STEPHENSON: MEDIAEVAL POWYS
David Stephenson is Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Bangor who specialises in the history of Wales, especially the 12th and 13th Centuries. His talk was centred on Powys in those times and he started by asking 'where is, or was, Powys, exactly?' Well, Powys was never 'exactly' - in the very early mediaeval period it may have included most of Shropshire with a capital at Shrewsbury, but later covered the area from just south of Chester to just south west of Llangurig. The area of Powys changed several times, depending on military activity (often against the people of Gwynedd) and on how the sons of kings split up their inheritance.
Because the River Severn provided an easy route into Wales, the people of Powys had to contend with 'invaders' from the east, like the English, which led to their leaders having to do a political balancing act, sometimes, in their disputes with Gwynedd and others, siding with the English and sometimes fighting them.
There was, of course, much more detail in the talk than can be related here: if you missed it, you missed a fascinating morning, and you missed getting a copy of a mediaeval map of Britain.