Autumn Half Term events were successful and well attended. The week began with an Autumn Fayre consisting of an array of interesting stalls ranging from sustainability books, luxery sheepskin rugs, vintage goods, recycled festival wellies to a local Health Food shop selling tempting festive treats! The day was very successfully attended despite the anticipated gale force winds!

We had Bee Talks by Nikki Stonebridge whose passion for the plight of these hugely important insects is infectious with many people in attendance expressing an interest in attending a bee keeping course as a result.

Nikki hopes to become a Bee Consultant and has outlined some very exciting developmental proposals for keeping bees on the Teifi Marshes Reserve. This includes having weekly hive inspections, running courses for adults and educational workshops for children; even the prospect of WWC being able to sell it’s own brand of honey (only extracted in the case of excess) ! These plans also fit in really well with the prospective planting of an orchard on the WWC meadow area.

WWC arts n crafts showed our support for helping garden birds this winter by running a Fabulous Fat Balls and Feeders workshop recycling plastic bottles to make the feeders. Children also enjoyed putting their unique stamp on them with a variety of decoration. We will be repeating this activity on Saturday 23^rd November at 2pm.

We were very fortunate with the weather for our Black Cat Treasure Trail on Halloween Day. The children really enjoyed the excitement of having to find nine black cats hidden in a variety of places in our WWC play area. The prospect of finding chocolate pumpkins was a real motivator to explore the area and encourage a sense of adventure.

In the afternoon our Creepy Crawlies Ars N Crafts session proved to be extremely popular with the children who delighted in making spiders out egg cartons. The day ended with an experimental Halloween Fancy Dress Disco which was hosted by the very competent DJ Rikki from Swansea . He very skilfully facilitated a range of Halloween games and all who attended thoroughly enjoyed the experience with requests for more Disco evenings….

So…we are going to have a Family Christmas Disco Fundraiser on Saturday 21^st December from 6pm to 9pm. It will only cost £2 with all proceeds going to support The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales but there will be FREE entry for adults.

In addition, throughout the whole of December we will be having a local young gentleman Meilir Tomos playing Christmas carols on a keyboard to enhance the festive spirit whist customers enjoy their Christmas meals. Song sheets will also be available for anyone who wishes to join in and sing some carols! In addition we have Cilgerran Primary School visiting us to sing Christmas Carols on Wednesday 18^th December at 1pm. All members of the public will be most welcome to come along and support them!

We also welcome back Open Door Productions who will be putting on two Wildlife Puppet making workshop and show Christmas Specials for us on the 15^th and 22^nd December at 2pm.

The Welsh Wildlife Centre will then close at 4pm on Sunday 22^nd December until February 22^nd 2014. However, for the first time the Centre will open it’s doors to the public on New Year’s Day 2014 from 10.30am to 3pm. So why not start the New Year with a reviving walk around Teifi Marshes followed by a warming New Year’s day Meal or coffee and slice of cake!

Please don’t forget to do your Christmas Shopping with us. Come and see for yourself our fantastic gift range which includes, including the award winning Gift Of The Year 2013 Birdy Collection from Magpie; a stunning collection of plates, mugs, coasters, placemats and tea towels is available from as little as £8.99, and is even less with the 20% discount voucher you can collect when making a purchase at The Glasshouse Café. This will also entitle you to Win a 3 Day Trip to Skomer.

We are also offering a Pensioners Meal Deal every Thursday with a traditional home cooked one  course option at £4.95 & two course at £6.95. We are taking bookings for Christmas Meals which are available from 1^st December  to 22^nd December. (Menu attached) We can cater for parties for up to 60.

Looking to the New Year ahead…

We are looking for skilled individuals with a specialism within the field of Wildlife to be able deliver a course at The Welsh Wildlife Centre, Cilgerran . If you are interested in this opportunity then please contact Sharon Davies on 01239 621600 or email s.davies@welshwildlife.org . We are also looking for weekend volunteer cover for our Information Desk. For further information please contact Martin Jones or Sharon Davies on the aforementioned number.