The Aberwen Gazette
News, notices & the occasional sheep · Aberwen, Ceredigion
American Heir for Bryn Aur. Village Asks: Will She Stay?
Bryn Aur Farm, the late Alwyn Davies's stone farmhouse at the end of the lane, has passed to a relative from Georgia. That is Georgia in America, as the Gazette was asked to make clear, not the other one.
The new owner is understood to be a veterinarian, a Dr. Calhoun, and is expected in the village this week. The estate includes the farmhouse, its outbuildings, fourteen acres of hillside and twenty sheep, who have not been consulted.
Sources close to the post office report that the doctor has booked a return ticket and plans to sell. Sources close to the pub report that this means nothing, as everyone who comes to Aberwen books a return ticket.
Odds at the bar currently favour her staying. The Gazette takes no position. (The Gazette has a fiver on it.)
Overheard at the Post Office
The column everyone says they don't read.
Welsh cakes have been turning up on doorsteps again, still warm, with no note. Theories at the counter this week include a secret admirer, a guilty conscience and "someone with too much butter." Your columnist has her suspicions and is keeping them to herself, for now.
The chapel flower rota is in dispute once more. It concerns lilies. It is not resolved. Your columnist suggests everyone stand well back.
The post for Bryn Aur has been piling up on the shelf behind the counter. Your columnist has not held a single envelope up to the light. She would like that on the record.
To the person who asked whether Americans take milk in their tea: we will find out, and we will report back.
— Your Postmistress (who hears everything first)
Village Notices
- Chapel Coffee Morning, Thursday, 10 o'clock. Bara brith provided. Opinions about the lilies are not.
- Pub Quiz, Wednesday night. Teams of four. The new arrival is welcome to join a team, if she stays.
- Agricultural Show Bake-Off: entries now open for the Welsh Cake class. Last year's result is not to be discussed. The judges' decision is final.
- Sheep on the B4343: drivers are reminded the sheep have right of way. They know it, too.
Lost & Found
- Lost: reading glasses, tortoiseshell, last seen on the bench outside the chapel. Owner can't see well enough to look for them.
- Found: one small wheel, possibly from a rolling suitcase, in a hedge off the coast road. Please call in at the post office.
Welsh Word of the Week
Paned
(PAN-ed)
A cup of tea, or more properly, a sit-down with one. "Dewch am baned" means "come for a cuppa," and it is how most of the news in this paper starts.
Last week: Croeso, welcome. Next week: Hiraeth, a longing for home, the kind that has no English word.
Classifieds
- Wanted: someone to teach a satnav how to say Llangurig. All six letters after the LL. Apply within.
- For Sale: Aga, cream, temperamental. Buyer collects. Seller will not be explaining the noise.
- Free to a good home: rhubarb. So much rhubarb.
Whoever is leaving those Welsh cakes isn't sharing the recipe, but Pippa is.
Get the Welsh cakes recipe →The rest of the paper…
Subscribe to read the gossip
Pages 2–4 are for subscribers: the Postmistress's column, village notices, Lost & Found and the Welsh word of the week. Join Pippa's newsletter to read them, and get Poinsettia and Peril free.
Already a subscriber? Pop your email in anyway. You won't be signed up twice.
Diolch! (Thank you.) Your gift from Pippa: get Poinsettia and Peril free →