A photo essay of this year’s spring Cardiff Bay 10k. Well done to all you runners! All photos by photojournalist Kerry Elsworth.
***
Sounds like a Roald Dahl novel, right? Unfortunately no. Hev Winter has lived on Caerphilly Road in Cardiff since 1994. She’s here to tell us about the plight of the residents and their ongoing battle against the Carry on Cardiff Council roadworks that have been carried out there. In brief, all their trees have been cut down and not replaced, accidents at the junction are at an all time high, wing mirrors are constantly swiped off cars, there is a bus lane that no bus can fit in – and the bill for all the work is now at £2.2 million … and rising!
Read on for the plight of the Caerphilly Road residents … and how they’ve been taking action.
The Great Caerphilly Road Fiasco (A469 Cardiff)
You may recently have seen a number of features in the local news regarding Caerphilly Road in the Birchgrove/Heath area of Cardiff.
Caerphilly Road, (A469), runs from the Gabalfa Flyover and heads north towards Caerphilly, stopping outside Morrisons in Llanishen where the A469 continues over Caerphilly Mountain.
I have lived here since 1994 and am responsible for the ‘Caerphilly Road Concerns’ Facebook page which was set up in December 2015. I thought you may be interested to see what’s happening from a resident’s point of view.
This was Caerphilly Road in April 2015
Until a year ago, the stretch of road from the Birchgrove pub to Lidl had 31 roadside trees, nine were flowering cherries which produced beautiful white blossom in early spring. Seven of the trees towered above the houses and we think they were probably planted around the time the houses were built in 1935. They were a defining feature of the road; when the wind blew, the falling blossom was like a snowstorm. Under the trees was a grass verge and a two lane road with parking down one side and restricted parking on the other.
As it was – no problems – traffic flowed smoothly.
In the run up to Christmas 2015 the council announced they were going to start work on the Birchgrove regeneration plan. They planned to re-pave the area by the shops, putting in a flowerpot or two, adding a bit of parking and a few other changes to bring more business to the area. This part was good and nobody had any issues with it. The problems arose further up the road where they wanted to create new parking for residents and put in a bus lane. They were going to cut down most of the trees for parking spaces and re-paint the existing two lane road in order to squeeze in a bus lane as well.
Anyone with a scrap of common sense could see a bus lane wouldn’t fit, however, the council ‘experts’ were adamant it would.
The sad day they cut this tree down March 2016 – you can see the old layout – this road was to be repainted with a bus lane without widening the road at all.
The reason the bus lane had to go in was that the funding for the works was awarded by an EEC grant which was only given on the proviso that public transport links (i.e. a new bus lane) was a part of the plans.
The council told residents they’d have parking bays, although they already had parking on the road. The residents were then allowed to park on the grass verges under the trees as a temporary measure until the work was done. This predictably trashed up all the grass and left a muddy mess. The residents didn’t like the mess and some were therefore eager for the work to begin. Sneaky!
The council changed the plans many times and finally unveiled them at a public meeting one Thursday afternoon when most people were at work. The residents who attended were very upset and there were a lot of raised voices from the residents towards the councillors and planners. There were no trees or grass on the new plans and the residents firmly believed the bus lane would be a disaster. The planners and construction company who were there to show the plans were clearly overwhelmed by the level of anger of some of the residents.
Residents protested and set up a petition against the works which reached 1659 signatures. With the help from the local Women’s Institute they dressed the trees in knitted and colourful scarves and jumpers to bring attention to the proposals. There was a lot of media coverage.
The council ignored all of it and started work although they did promise the residents replacement trees and grass, providing when they dug up the road they didn’t find anything which would prevent new trees being planted. They said the new trees would have special root ball systems to ensure they too didn’t grow too big in the future and cause the pavement to lift.
The residents had a sit down protest under the old trees.
The residents set up a Facebook page ‘Caerphilly Road Concerns’ to keep people informed and so residents could have their comments logged in one place.
We explained ourselves over and over to anyone who wanted to listen, and many who didn’t. Anyone with half a brain could see a bus lane would not fit properly onto the road.
Once the bus lane was put in and each lane was made narrower there’d be no room for cars to filter around any car waiting to turn right, causing huge tailbacks. Cars turning right would be at risk as they wouldn’t see anything in the bus lane if there was a line of waiting cars on the opposite side of the road.
Ambulances from the University Hospital of Wales further down the road, would be delayed as traffic would have no room to pull over. Cars coming out of side roads would sometimes have to pull into the opposite lane in order to turn. Also the trees drank lots of the rainwater – where would it go if the trees weren’t there? Would the removal of the trees cause damage to the adjacent houses?
We went to the monthly council meeting in the City Hall in February 2016 to ask a public question. What would happen if two HGVs and a bus should pass on the same stretch of road? The council’s reply was, ‘All necessary measurements and assessments have been done.’ Hmmm.
In March 2016 they started chopping down the trees. On the day our campaign tree was cut down they sent about thirty police officers to make sure residents behaved. We had no plans to tie ourselves to the trees it was pretty pointless by this stage. When they finished, only three of the 31 original trees remained.
The residents had a protest
For a whole year the road was a total nightmare with roadworks, digging, mud, barriers, holes in the ground, piles of builders rubbish, temporary lights and general havoc.
Finally the work was complete and they planted little sticks which were our ‘replacement’ trees.
Since the work was ‘finished’ most of it has been either completely re-done within a few months or patched up. A total of £2.2m so far and every day they’re fiddling around with something – extending the width in one part, replacing the paving at another, shuffling a kerbstone. Some residents have unplanned water features in their front gardens because the new tarmac was laid over the drainage holes for their gardens. There were reports of a resident having a window shatter when workmen began drilling outside her house.
One day they cemented 61 street-sign poles into the pavement every twenty metres or so along the whole stretch of road, nobody knew why, not even the workmen who said they were merely following orders. It looked like some form of carnival preparation. Two days later all the poles were cut down again and the holes cemented over – apparently someone had put them in at the minimum spacing rather than the maximum.
Next, bollards went up at the corner of each side street and were cut down after six days with new ones put in a metre to the left. Nobody knew why.
Finally the new bus lane was painted in and looked every bit as bad as anticipated. We watched the first bus try to drive in it. To nobody’s shock and horror – it didn’t fit! Residents considered investing in shares for a replacement wing-mirror company.
Then this happened over and over, – cars turning right hit by taxis which were using the bus lane.
Within weeks there had been a few cars written off exactly as we had predicted. There was a sudden increase in stationary traffic because again, as predicted, cars couldn’t filter around others waiting to turn right. Bus drivers themselves admitted they didn’t like driving in the bus lane. If a lorry was on the road they were as good as stuck. People in the roads nearby started to complain about increased traffic trying to avoid the main road.
Pedestrians got soaked as cars drove through the huge puddles on the porous tarmac. The pavements look like patchwork quilts my nan would be proud of. The bill so far is over £2.2 million and rising. The council are considering stopping right hand turns or introducing a 20mph limit because of the accidents. Who knows, is this the most ridiculous road layout in Cardiff? Please feel free to visit our page and give us a like if you can!
For more information: Caerphilly Road Concerns Facebook page
Hev Ward was born in Cardiff ‘a fair few years ago’ and attended Cardiff High School. She moved to Caerphilly Road in 1994 where she has lived ever since. A mother of three children aged 13, 11 and 11 (twins), she is also a passionate skier, bear maker, local volunteer for St John Ambulance and advanced motorcyclist. She loves writing and is a published author. In December 2015 she set up the ‘Caerphilly Road Concerns’ Facebook page with a neighbour. The page was a place where locals could get together to jointly fight for what was right for the road they lived on. The plans had already gone through consultation and been passed and the page was an attempt to ‘do something’ to avoid the disaster they believed was imminent. Since then the page has had a growing number of readers and is regularly updated.
***
It’s International Women’s Day on Wednesday 8 March! In case you’re wondering, IWD is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.
You might think that gender equality isn’t an issue in a developed country like Wales, but recent research from the National Assembly for Wales (yep- I admit, written by me), demonstrates that while women outnumber men in the Welsh population, they are healthier, live longer, and are better educated, they still earn less, are more likely to be economically inactive, and are far less likely to be in the top positions in politics and business.
You can see the full dataset at the end of this post, but here’s a little round-up of the events going on in Cardiff to celebrate IWD 2017 this week (let us know in the comments if we’ve missed anything):
Women’s Equality Network and Fizzi Events presents International Women’s Day 2017 – Sunday 12 March, Wales Millennium Centre, 3-10pm
This event sounds super exciting. Loads of inspirational people will be sharing their stories and taking part in the exciting programme, including: BBC all round hero Bethan Elfyn, Young Person’s Laureate for Wales Sophie McKeand, musicians Della Lupa and Swansea’s Sanctuary of Song, spoken word artists Hanan Issa and Durre Shahwar, young circus performers, comedians, athletes, firefighters, youth drama and school groups.
It includes Bethan Elfyn’s pocket guide to music, radio and blogging, which sounds bloody GREAT.
Audiences will be asked to pay a suggested £10 ticket fee or Pay What You Can towards the event. Bethan’s pocket guide is £5. You can find more info here and here.
EMBRACE the documentary – Thursday 9 March, 6.45pm, Odeon Cardiff
When body image activist Taryn Brumfitt posted an unconventional before-and-after photograph in 2013, it was seen by more than 100 million worldwide and sparked an international media frenzy.
In her forceful debut, Brumfitt continues her crusade exploring the global issue of body loathing. She travels the world to interview an impressive range of women about their attitudes to their bodies, including: Mia Freedman, the youngest ever editor of the Australian edition of Cosmopolitan; Adelaide researcher Professor Marika Tiggemann; UK talk show host/photographer Amanda de Cadenet; body image blogger Jess Baker (a.k.a. The Militant Baker); and motivational speaker Turia Pitt. More info here.
International Women’s Day Concert, 8 March 2017 ,19:30 – 22:00, Wales Millennium Centre
Wales’ only national symphony orchestra performing at their home BBC Hoddinott Hall, at the Wales Millennium Centre. Tickets: £11.50 – £13.50 – more info here.
Women Business Owners: How to make it work for the long haul – March 31, 10-2pm
This is a collaborative event run by the Women’s Entrepreneurship Hub, University of South Wales with FSB Wales, Chwarae Teg and SFEDI/IOEE. The speakers who have extensive experience as women business owners themselves will address the question ‘How do women sustain their businesses over time?’
During roundtable discussion sessions, we’ll be looking at and dismantling popular myths and stereotypes about the nature of ‘business success’, we’ll ask the question of whether growth is the only way forward, we’ll consider the potential of sustainability as an alternative strategy and we’ll discuss how motivations, barriers and aspirations change over personal and business lifecycles.
And, we’ll be celebrating the achievements of women business owners across the globe! The event will be held from 10am to 2pm in a Central Cardiff hotel close to the railway station.
There is no charge for participation. For information or to book, please email Christine.atkinson@southwales.ac.uk.
Networking event and afternoon tea – Around the World Bar, Wood St, Cardiff CF10 1LA, 12-2.30pm
Join us on Wednesday 8th March to celebrate International Women’s Day by taking part in our networking afternoon tea in aid of homeless charity Llamau.
Wear bright colours and for those feeling even bolder take part in our 5 minute speaker session to share with others what you do. Network with like-minded women whilst enjoying bubbly and our afternoon tea treats.
£2.50 from each ticket goes to helping Llamau and there will also be a charity raffle as well as fashion and beauty stands for those who fancy some shopping too! Cost: £13.68 More info here.
A cocktail reception at Handsome Jack’s with networking group Sorelle and Breast Cancer Care – 8 March, Handsome Jack’s, St Mary Street.
Sorelle has teamed up with Cardiff’s newest bar Handsome Jack’s to bring you our 2nd annual International Women’s Day celebration. The event will support Breast Cancer Care Cymru with fantastic prizes to entice you throughout the night.
2 FOR 1 cocktails! To register please email Danielle: sorelle_team@outlook.com. If you would like to donate towards the raffle please email jay@cardifffinest.com or sorelle_team@outlook.com. More info here.
***
Photojournalist Lorna Cabble spent three months hanging out with her camera, after hours – photographing the city’s late night scene. Over to Lorna to explain more about her project.
During my second year as a student in Cardiff, there was a lot of publicity on the attacks that had happened to female students around the Cathays area, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it – the subject struck a chord with me. It was really in our faces, so I just kept thinking “I really need to do a project on this, or it’s going to bother me.”
Lorna Cabble is in her final year of Photojournalism at the University of South Wales. Her favourite area of photography is theatre and social documentary: she is obsessed with people and their stories. When she graduates, she would love to work in theatres and to do as much NGO work as she can. She’s the resident photographer for This is Kizomba, Cardiff.
Lorna’s Facebook page / Lorna’s Instagram
***
So, you guys. I’ve recently started a column for the wonderful Caught by the River website, based on my wanderings (and wonderings) around and about the lovely River Taff.
Read my first instalment here: Wandering the Taff: This is Rat Island
I know, can’t I write about anything other than Cardiff, amirite? Anyway, two weird things happened after the piece was published. Firstly, after living on the edge of south Cardiff on “Rat Island” for nearly seven years and having NEVER seen a rat down here, I saw TWO within the space of two days – one running across the car park in Morrisons and one scurrying around in the bushes on Dumballs Road.
Wait … there’s more … secondly, what I thought was just a little bit of basic desk research into what is essentially a fluff piece about the place I live got way more complex. It turned out to be the question that kept questioning, itself, other people, and me.
In the piece I wrote for Caught by the River, my conclusion was that no one really knows where Rat Island was exactly, but that we have a rough idea (based on all my research): it was the land that lay between the River Taff and the Glamorganshire Canal, to the south of where Clarence Road Bridge is now.
This is the conclusion I had come to from all the many things I’d read, personal accounts, articles on the BBC, Wales Online, modern history books, etc. Fine.
You can’t actually see Clarence Road Bridge in the map below – it hadn’t been built at this point (1879). But roughly halfway down the picture, you can see James Street on the right hand side – imagine that carrying on to the left (westwards) and going straight over the water into Grangetown. That’s the horizontal line we’re talking about, just above where it reads ‘Dumballs Marsh’.
(Map: Glamorgan XLVII (includes: Cardiff; Penarth; St Andrews Major – surveyed: 1878 to 1879, published: 1885)
But no, not fine. Writer, poet, historian, all-round good guy Peter Finch has done all of the due diligence with respect to Cardiff history when researching for his Real Cardiff books (recommended reading, students), and he responded to an email I’d sent him asking if he knew where the spot was with this: the general area was right – it was between the Taff and the canal, but rather than being south of where Clarence Road would eventually be built, it was actually north (up towards where the centre of town is): in between that bridge and the timber ponds, on an actual island created by the Taff, oxbowing its way down to the Severn and the sea beyond.
Peter, wonderfully poetic even when answering inane questions from Cardiff bloggers, wrote me this:
The Taff has always moved about. Thrashed about perhaps, as it traverses its delta. Rat Island, as I understood it, was a section of Taff’s bank made an island by the river ox bowing itself. This was upstream of Clarence Road Bridge near The Dumballs. It was formed, according to Mary Gillham, following one of the periodic floods that plagues the Taff. Gulls and other birds nested there. Rats invaded along a revealed at low tide causeway in order to steal their eggs. The land became rat infested. The name followed.
That was Peter’s first email. Isn’t he a gem? Being in a mad rush, as I always am, I misread the ‘upstream’ part and thought he meant downstream …
But there’s a reason for that. All of the folks I asked – people who used to live here, and had the story handed down from parents or grandparents – had heard the area was called Rat Island because of the rats that were disturbed either when the HMS Hamadryad first to the area (in 1866), or when she was finally dragged away to be destroyed in 1905.
Even once the initial piece was published, I had some tweets also corroborating this theory:
It makes sense, but the area being referred to is south of the Clarence Road Bridge: quite a lot further south … and adding to the confusion, I had read somewhere else the area was already called Rat Island, long before the ship came to Cardiff in 1866.
So how does it all fit together?
The discrepancy between the locations – north of the Clarence Road Bridge, versus south?
I raised the possibility of the name referring to an area north of the bridge with the Cardiff Docks Remembered Facebook (where people share memories of the area and discuss such matters) and it was pretty much universally poo-pooed. No way, said people who had grown up around here. Their truth was in the tales from their parents and grandparents, and they had been definitively told. Rat Island was south, the area next to the Sea Lock, that would eventually turn into Hamadryad Park.
We aren’t debating the European Convention of Human Rights or anything here guys. I am well aware this is a long gone name for an area that bears no resemblance to the marshy hinterland that inspired it – but that doesn’t stop me wanting to know WHY, does it??
There is, I think, anyway, a solution to this, that includes all of these seemingly conflicting perspectives and accounts: an ultimate answer that I – Helia Phoenix, non-historian, non-expert, super-nosey local person – will put forward as the only conclusion to this burning issue … this imperative question … that literally no-one – apart from me – is asking …
Where was Rat Island?
Here’s my theory. The entire area that fringes the main urbanised docklands – from the Bute Ironworks all the way to the south and east, where you can see the HMS Hamadryad hospital ship – would have been a muddy, marshy wasteland at that time – its only purpose really to keep people with infectious diseases away from the overcrowded docks and Tiger Bay. There was very little of interest on any of that land – either north of the future Clarence Road Bridge, or south of it.
So … it’s possible that the one spot was originally named ‘Rat Island’ – the small island next to the Ironworks, as pointed to by Peter Finch – but the name spread down (or was re-used) in the south, once the HMS Hamadryad showed up (or was hauled away), spreading its ratty citizens across the undergrowth that is now Hamadryad Park.
I won’t hold out for my Nobel Prize. But I did feel like I might have actually sort of solved something that’s been bugging me for ages.
I emailed Peter asking if he thought this might be possible. He agreed – that there were two things that were getting confused here …
Rat Island, the geographic island, i.e. a piece of land with water on all sides is the place you’ve spotted on your map. This is the one Mary Gillham suggests had birds nesting on it whose eggs were stolen by rats. Then there’s the local name for the whole district. Bill Barrett who died in 2013 and who was writing his piece on Rat Island for the Cardiff Book #3 (Stewart Williams Publishers) in 1977 suggests that all the land between the canal and the Taff was known as Rat Island. He suggests that this went as far north as the Timber Ponds. These were where the Iron Works are shown on your map … it does seem to be probable that the whole slab of land took on the name of the island.
So, Bill Barrett (RIP) might have got there before me. I wasn’t able to find a copy of his book anywhere (I’m on the lookout – please tell me if anyone finds one), but I’m happy enough with the result.
I did a lot of research for the initial piece (though it might remain inconclusive…), so if you’re interested in further reading:
Canal Park and Sea Lock Pond (Stuart Herbert)
The Hamadryad Hospital Ship (BBC Wales History Blogs / Phil Carradice)
#towerlives: Rise of towers and fall of Tiger Bay (BBC)
The Cardiff Coal Boom: The Chronicle Radio show (featuring Ian Hill from Save the Coal Exchange, author / historian Neil Sinclair, Juliet Lewis – Senior Lecturer at the Welsh School of Architecture), broadcast February 2017
Not really relevant for this piece, but lovely to follow if you’re on Twitter: @OldCardiffPics
Big thanks also to Peter Finch for indulging me. His latest book, The Roots Of Rock From Cardiff To Mississippi And Back, is available from Seren now, priced £9.99. View Peter Finch’s archive.
Images in this piece: both taken on the section of the Taff that runs through the now disappeared Rat Island: Instagram malayabbasi and heatherpatterson.
***
Have you been to one of Cardiff’s seemingly endless array of vegan festivals yet? We sent student Maika Wagner along to Viva Vegan to dish the dirt. Not literally. The food actually sounds totes delish there.
There have been many vegan festivals going on in Cardiff throughout the last year, this most recent one looked like it might be the biggest one yet: The Viva Vegan Festival.
Having been held at the City Hall this Saturday, the Viva Vegan Festival attracted quite a few people who were interested in veganism or were already vegan. The entry fee of two pounds seemed reasonable enough for passers-by to give it a go. Being held in City Hall gave it a more official feeling than other vegan festivals in the city that I had been to. For £14 pounds, you could even have booked a VIP ticket in advance and get a goody-bag and also, most importantly, jump the queue.
If you didn’t fancy splashing out, there were some food trucks outside City Hall so you could have a taste of what was inside.
The stalls featured at the festival were very diverse, ranging from different foods, over bath accessories, skin care, makeup, clothing, art etc, all the way to animal rights activists. Most of the stall-holders were not Cardiff based, but can be found online.
My personal favourites were Solkiki, Bohemian Chic Minerals, chaaboo and Flavour Fusion. However, the all-time favourites with the masses are Mr Nice Pie and The Vegan Bakery.
Solikiki is the most amazing raw chocolate (my favourites are his white chocolate salted peanut and white chocolate hazelnut). The chocolates are Fairtrade and it is ensured that a large amount of the profit goes directly to the farmers.
Bohemian Chic Minerals makes mineral makeup for extremely sensitive skin. Every product is hyper-pigmented, so a even though the tubs are small, they will stretch for quite a while.
Chaaboo makes amazing, cold-pressed, hand-made soaps. There are different scents and two different sizes, which allows one to buy a small hamper of test-soaps as a cute, cruelty-free gift. My favourite scent is the green-tea soap. Many people don’t realise that soap is often made from animal fat and it is nice to have an alternative without having to check the label.
Flavour Fusion is a sort of ‘vegan parmesan’, made from almonds and spices. You can either sprinkle it on top of food or mix it with some olive oil for a dip or pesto, for some amazing flavour.
Apart from the stalls, there were also a variety of vegan talks and vegan cooking-demonstrations going on throughout the day, such as Jane Easton’s baking demonstration. She is the author of the Viva vegan cookbook and gave some great tips on baking, while also doing some myth-busting along the way.
I was born in Cambridge, but raised in Hamburg, Germany. Hamburg was probably one of the first cities to have a completely vegan supermarket. A lot of the vegan foods found in the UK are currently being imported from either the US or Germany, so it’s funny to be in a store here and start reading out german labels. There’s a district in Hamburg called Schanze. It’s the hip, young district and has a ton of vegan options, including a vegan ice-cream shop, which is amazing. But you’ll usually find vegan stuff even in normal supermarkets, although more limited than a health-food store. Also, many of my close friends in Germany are vegetarian or vegan, so it’s really easy when going out or going round each other’s houses.
Hey you guys. So I meant to do this post an actual month ago, but the last six months have just taken it all out of me. Let’s not dwell on crazy world events that we have seemingly no control over though, right? Have a flick through this lovely list for some of our favourite stories of 2016.
The wonderful Ellie Philpotts ruminates on rugby, lushness, the warm Welsh welcome, and why we gotta stick a dragon on everything.
Newtown (or “Little Ireland”) sprung up in the early 1830s to house the multitudes of Irish immigrants who had come over to work on the docks. When the estate was demolished in the 1970s, the inhabitants were scattered across the city.
Yes. Yes you should.
It has since been resurfaced! A tiny win, in the face of global doom.
A photo-essay on the best costumes of this year’s race.
The Pantry opens its second location, turning Cardiff Indoor Market into a foodie destination.
Talking music, entrepreneurship and everything in between with local legend Lucy Squire.
Ben Newman heads down to Cardiff’s Printhaus to explore the alternative arts scene.
We joined forces with I Loves The Diff to put together a city guide for the lovely Creative Cardiff project. Co-working, education, coffee shops, architecture – we cover it all!
***
Culture vulture Catrin Greaves rounds up Cardiff’s art gallery highlights for February. Take it away, Catrin!
The museum hosts a stunning display of traditional Chinese bird and flower paintings, the first time this collection has been seen in the UK. Nature’s Song traces the development of this art form from the late Ming dynasty (late 16th century) to contemporary interpretations from recent decades. Bird and flower paintings showcase the talents of poets and calligraphers, as well as painters, and the exhibition emphasises the symbolic and spiritual meaning of bird and flower motifs.In the exhibition, you can learn about different techniques used by painters and calligraphers to create these stunning artworks. This is an exciting opportunity to sustain links between Wales and China: the exhibition has been created in collaboration with China Three Gorges Museum in Chongqing. On until 23 April.
Nature’s Song: Chinese Bird and Flower Paintings
Anna Noel is inspired by how animals accompany humans throughout our lives. Based in the Gower, Anna takes inspiration from the animals she grew up with: From fairy-tale figures and imaginary friends to trusty companions and beloved pets. Noel creates charming ceramic figures, set to populate the Craft in the Bay from 21. January 2017 – Sun, 5. March.
The artist group X-10 present the outcome of two years of collaboration, where they examined the closure and decommissioning of Wylfa on Anglesey, the last nuclear power station in Wales.Through video, photography, sound, sculpture, and installation, the artists respond to this event and question the future of nuclear power and attached environmental concerns. Merging art, science and technology, the show adds new questions and thoughts to the nuclear debate. On from 18 Feb – 17 March 2017.
Participating artists include, – Ant Dickinson, Bridget Kennedy, Jessica Lloyd-Jones, Chris Oakley, Teresa Paiva, Tim Skinner, Robin Tarbet, Alana Tyson, Annie Grove-White, Helen Grove-White.
Artes Mundi 7
Don’t miss the Artes Mundi exhibition at the National Museum of Wales and at Chapter, which finishes on February 26. Cardiff-based organisation Artes Mundi is best known for its biannual exhibition and prize, and emphasises how art reflects what it means to be human in contemporary society – it is the largest cash prize awarded for the arts in the UK and one of the most significant in the world.
This year’s exhibition brings together the work of shortlisted artists from Lebanon, Angola, Algeria, the USA, Ghana and Wales. It showcases work in a variety of media, including film, installation and performance art. Pop into the galleries for a free guided tour (2pm daily at the museum, and on request at Chapter), and keep an eye out for free family drop-in activities over February half term, which will examine themes inspired by the artists’ work, including costume, storytelling and gardens.
***
Catrin Greaves works as a tour guide and workshop facilitator at the National Museum of Wales. She moved to Cardiff after studying Anthropology in Belfast, and enjoys singing ina choir and doing embroidery
Ab-Fab Vegan Fayres have been running for a while now, going from strength to strength. In a way, it has become a bastion for the growing vegan community in Wales and Cardiff – it is events like this that keep alternative culture alive. Ab-Fab is more than a lifeline for the vegan community, it is representative of a growing movement in Wales and Britain. The food, crafts and cosmetics on offer, too, were creative and – food-wise – incredibly scrumptious.
Plasnewydd Community Centre proved to be an appropriate space for the Fayre. The space was small, but properly utilised by the highly-varied stalls that filled up the community centre. The room was bursting with conversation, laughs and well-timed “mmms” when someone took a bite of something. The atmosphere was one that was welcoming and inclusive for vegans and non-vegans alike. The stalls were incredibly varied (although cake-heavy, which isn’t so much a problem as it is a solution to a lot of life’s problems) at affordable prices. We didn’t get a chance to try everything, but what we did try gave further evidence that vegan food can be creative and satisfying to the palette.
Vegan Pizza Co. were our first stop. The Cardiff-based pizza slappers have been gaining a strong reputation in Cardiff and for good reason. The pizzas ranged from £6 to £8 which was great value for the quality of the pizza. The pizza crust was strong, the pizzas were well-topped and the vegan cheese was nothing short of a miracle – the cheese, truly, was indistinguishable from its curdled milk cousin. Cardiff Pizza Co. truly are doing great things with pizza and we’re praying that – eventually – they move from pop-up to establishment.
The next stop was The Welshman’s Lunch who had a variety of vegan cakes, chutneys and tea on offer. We sampled (and bought without hesitation) their avocado chocolate cupcake which was – again – a work of vegan magic. The flavour was strong, sweet, unique and dangerously moreish. We then stopped by Peace & Bake who sold a variety of sweet loaves, brownies and cakes (you can see a theme emerging here). A brownie and a banana bread was on the menu and these, too, were dangerously moreish
Mr. Nice Pie and Jack Bakes were next and offered enough savoury pie goodness to end your pie cravings forever. Mr. Nice Pie’s Thai green curry pie was immense and unlike anything we’ve tried before. Jack Bakes spinach tartlet, too, struck a fine balance to satisfy the palette.
The true unsung hero of the fayre was Global Fusion Creole Vegan Bakery. A variety of sweet loafs were on offer, £2 for a slice and £4 for a loaf. There were some truly original loaves on offer, but we settled for the mango bread (something we’d never seen before) and were not let down by the sweetness of the bread for our breakfast the next day.
In addition to the above, there were stalls offering crafts, make-up and cosmetics, along with food stalls we had to miss out on due to full stomachs. We’ll provide a list to all the stalls on offer below, so be sure to check them out as they were all so passionate about their food and crafts.
What stuck out most as we left Ab-Fab in a glucose-induced high was the accommodating nature of it all. A false narrative that veganism is militant has been concocted in recent years, but the truth about veganism is that it is accommodating for all – this was simply a group of people who were trying to make good food without hurting animals. What is there to hate about that? The next fayre is on the 25th in Penarth, so please head on down there whatever your dietary description because this event – along with the lovely organiser Sue Thomas – deserve all the support they can get. You can follow their next event here on Facebook.
Food Stalls:
Babita’s Spice Deli-Indian & Asian Food
Global Fusion Creole Vegan Bakery
Angela Feane-Vegangela Rose Bakery (Sweet Potato mild curry pasties & fabulous vegan cakes)
The Welshman’s Lunch
Animal Rescue Stalls:
FAUNA-VIKKI FAUNA-Wildlife Rescue & Animal Rights
Gifts & Crafts:
Refreshments:
Skincare, Healthcare & Beauty:
Tropic Skincare & Makeup
To celebrate St Dwynwen’s Day on 25 January this week, we’ve invited Lia from Lia’s Kitchen to create a love inspired recipe for us …
Dwynwen is the Welsh patron saint of lovers, and to celebrate this very time of the year when love is in the air (if “love” means hanging out inside eating and drinking lovely things because it’s cold outside) we encourage you to follow this recipe for Greek chocolate-coated caramel almonds … excuse us while we wipe the drool off the floor …
Love is all you need! At these times when our world is going through global change on a large scale it is really important to celebrate love and all that is good around us. I hope a small, sweet treat will help you shift your mood to happy. This is my easy and delicious recipe for Greek chocolate and caramel coated almonds – a sweet something to help make it all better.
My excuse to celebrate love (and chocolate) is our own Welsh Lady patron of love, St Dwynwen. We have a lady for our love angel here people, how is that for woman power? Even though St Dwynwen’s story is a sad one (she never got the chance to be with the love of her life) she seems to have remained a beacon of hope and positivity. Her most famous saying is: ‘Nothing wins hearts like cheerfulness.’
So, I invite you to use St Dwynwen’s day (25 January) as an opportunity to think about all the things you love in this world and to show your love to all those important to you, as early as three weeks before Valentine’s day! Love your friends, your family, that special hunk or goddess in your life. Love your community, your environment, the good things in this world, like millions of people coming together to send messages of grounded positivity and strength to each other through the global marches in January 2017. And, of course love good sustainable food!
My recipe for chocolate and caramel salted almonds is an all-time Greek favourite. It is easy and quick to make as a token of love and appreciation to those you love (including yourself). You can have so much fun with this recipe by mixing various nuts and seeds, and even dried fruit together. You can use different specialty salts and spices to add your own bespoke flavour. And it is a healthy snack too (if not abused). Below is my basic recipe using almonds. Enjoy!
Ingredients (makes 12 chocolate almond bites)
Preparation (2 hours including chilling time)
To find out more about more about Greek food join one of Lia’s Kitchen intimate cooking classes on 3 and 10 February. Lia will be introducing participants to Greek Kitchen basics but will also be sharing Greek flavours and recipes that are not yet widely known in the UK. You can book online here or contact Lia for more information at lia@liaskitchen.com.
Lia Moutselou is a self-taught chef who has lived in the UK and abroad for the past twenty years. She runs Lia’s Kitchen and through it pop-up food events, cooking classes and social enterprise projects around the world. She inspired by Greek food, sustainability and world flavours, from her second home of Wales and places she has lived at and visited over the past two decades. For more information visit her Lia’s Kitchen website.
Meet Lia on social media: Lia’s Kitchen Facebook / @LiasKitchen / Lia’s Kitchen Instagram.
Want to find out more about St Dwynwen’s Day, including how to download this awesome card? Head for the Visit Wales website
***
Student journalist Ellie Philpotts writes a guide to Cardiff – for freshers!
Here at We Are Cardiff, it’s fair to say we’re fans of … Cardiff. Some might even say we are Cardiff. Not even just those of us writing away, although the name kind of suggests that. The beauty of Cardiff is that we are all Cardiff – the people make the city what it is. Whether you’re in your first term at Cardiff University, Uni of South Wales, Cardiff Met or the like, or have never strayed further than the Welsh capital in all your years, you’re sure to appreciate that Cardiff is full of friendly faces.
While lots of people come together in forming Cardiff, right now we’re focusing on one group of Cardiff’s people – new students. Now it’s November, you’ll have had a couple of months’ prime time to work your way around it, but it’s still early days compared to how long you’ll be here, so here are Ellie’s top tips on how to make the best of this exciting city.
Alliteration isn’t the only thing Cardiff and coffee have in common. They also happen to compliment each-other perfectly. So if you’re in urgent need of a generous dose of caffeine to tackle your 9am or are after a more leisurely location to whittle away a South Wales Sunday, you’ll have plenty to choose between.
The city centre may be the obvious hive of activity, and sure enough, there’s more than enough to satisfy shoppers, sightsee-ers, tourists or residents who double as coffee fans – think Milk & Sugar; The Plan; Coffee Barker; Pettigrew Tea Rooms; Garlands; Little Man …
But as impressive as each of these are, Cardiff’s coffee scene isn’t restricted to the centre. Walk a little further afield and you’ll stumble across these:
These are to name just a few!
If you wish it was socially acceptable to place ‘Shopping’ in the ‘Interests’ section on LinkedIn, you’re in luck living in Cardiff. As with any city, the big names line the centre, most notably Queen Street; St Mary Street and Queen’s Arcade, but the Arcades trailing through the city are certainly unique to Cardiff. Bookworms, foodies, vintage lovers, fancy dress fans, bargain hunters or just those who fancy a good hair cut all unite. Other hidden gems include Jacob’s Antiques; Castle Emporium; and an array of quirky charity shops in areas such as Cowbridge Road East and Albany Road.
Studying is hungry work, but you don’t need to demolish your student loan to have a good lunch. The cheap and cheerful crème de la crème in the city centre span from New York Deli, High Street Arcade’s legendary take on the Big Apple (fruits don’t actually always feature in the Hoagies and bagels); The Real Italian Pizza Co (the authentic pizzeria recently set up camp on Church Street having expanded out of Bath); Nata & Co, a charming Portuguese bakery opposite the castle but also found in Splott and the Bay; and 29 Park Place, a colourful and fun welcome addition to Park Place, otherwise known as Cardiff University’s Student High Street.
Meanwhile, the Roath/Cathays border offers its fair share of good grub if you’re not up for venturing too far from student territory – highlights include The Pot’s quaint sister branch, Arty’s Kitchen; Anna-Loka, Cardiff’s first 100 per cent vegan cafe; and New York Diner, the new (York) kids on the City Road block who know how to serve up a mean burger and milkshake combo.
With something (or multiple events) on every night of the week, ‘bored’ soon becomes axed from the Cardiff student’s vocabulary. From Bump ‘n’ Grind at legendary bar Buffalo to the somewhat iconic Live Lounge and the chain of nationwide-recognisable clubs like Glam and Pryzm, there are plenty of opportunities to belt out some 90s classics, but on the quirkier end of the spectrum are Clwb Ifor Bach; Chapter; Dempsey’s and Millieu’s Spoken Word nights.
Not many cities can say they’re in such close proximity to what more resembles the middle of nowhere. And even if they could, we’re still going to praise Cardiff’s park culture. You’ve probably by now tracked down Cathays Park (right next to Cardiff University), just a stone’s throw from Bute Park, but did you know it’s not just under the shadow of the castle? One of the UK’s largest parks, it covers 130 landscaped acres, leading all the way towards Llandaff down the Taff Trail.
Meanwhile, Roath Lake is the heart of the community-centric suburb of Roath, with its stunning botanical gardens beautiful whatever the season. If you’re feeling brave enough in summer, rent a pedalo, or hibernate in Terra Nova cafe if the Cardiff rain is doing its usual thing.
Trek slightly further out though and you’ll find Canton’s Victoria Park; the grounds surrounding St Fagans Museum; or abandon the constraints of inner Cardiff altogether and reach Cosmeston Lakes to the south of attractive seaside town of Penarth; the Knap proving Barry is so much more than Gavin and Stacey; the Brecon Beacons’ peaks and waterfalls; or the Bay’s Barrage walk.
As rambling should be reserved to South Wales’ actual countryside, I’ll wrap it up now – but all in all rest assured that if you’re new to Cardiff you’ve made the best decision. With a thriving cultural scene; opportunities all round; the prime balance between nature and urbanisation and the chance to try your hand at skills you wouldn’t have ever thought of, Cardiff has it all.
Need any other inspiration? We Are Cardiff’s archive probably houses something worth reading…
***
Ellie Philpotts is a student at Cardiff University studying English Literature, Journalism and Media. She is a teenage-cancer survivor; is obsessed with travelling, and her favourite cities outside Cardiff are being Sydney, NYC, Nashville and Paris. Her ‘likes’ also include general Britishness, cups of tea, exploring, attempting to write songs, journalism, Italian food, finding new places, going out for dinner and taking photos – of everything. She is not a fan of maths, mashed potato, narrow minded people, her phone constantly running out of memory for photos, or people who are mean about Taylor Swift. Follow her blog or Instagram.
Today we’ve got a mini feature, around the work of photojournalist Aiyush Pachnanda. Aiyush is focusing on Cardiff and its vibrant night scene for a current project …
“I am from London but moved to Cardiff to study photojournalism at the University of South Wales,” says Aiyush. “I chose to study this because I want more than just a photo, I want to portray the story behind the photo.”
“My favourite thing about Cardiff has to be how compact everything is, coming from London everything is just so far away from each other and just having the ability to walk from one end of the city to the other is great. I also love the nightlife of course. I fell in love with night life culture, ever since I arrived and as photojournalism student I just wanted to document that, photograph what I see and the people I come across.”
To see more of Aiyush’s work, visit YoSnaps.
***
We Are Cardiff 