Death of Ron Shoesmith

 I was sad to see the article in the Hereford Times this week with the title "'Doyen of history' dies".

Ron Shoesmith was 89, and he had retired to Brittany, where he died.

His career, though, was as an archaeologist - he was the Cathedral archaeologist  for Hereford Cathedral for 14 years.  There's even a gargoyle in his image, on the outer wall of the cathedral nave.  It was put up there in 2009.  Before his work for the Cathedral, he was the director of the City of Hereford Archaeology Unit, so he knew just about everything about archaeology in the city.  He wrote several books, to share this knowledge.

One of the tributes to him in the Hereford Times comes from Mark Haslam, of Herefordshire CAMRA - because he also wrote books about the history of local pubs. 

Blustery Fungi Weekend

 Storm Amy is causing problems for the Fungi Town weekend - the Saturday Market has been cancelled because it's too blustery to put the stalls up.  Only the Buttermarket has stalls today, because it's more sheltered.  Several of the shops have put up fungus themed window displays, but not many people are lingering outside to see them.

Lots of people were up at the Castle when I went in, though - and there is a magnificent array of fungi for them to look at.  I was pleased to find that I recognised about half of them (my ex-husband used to lead Fungus Forays for the Brecknock Wildlife Trust, and I picked up a bit of knowledge while I was trailing round after him!).  There are also talks and activities throughout the weekend.

They're hoping for better weather tomorrow! 

Bus Routes to Hereford

 There are road works in Dorstone at the moment, and that means that the entire Golden Valley is pretty much cut off - there's no way to detour around the road works and stay in the Golden Valley.

I needed to go to Hereford, so I turned up at the bus stop this morning and hoped for the best.

Francoise and Pierre were out there, one at each bus stop, to assist passengers, because nobody was sure which bus stop the bus to Hereford would leave from.

The bus arrived, and turned round in the car park, so that it was picking up passengers from the Brecon bus stop, so everyone at the Hereford bus stop scuttled across the road.

From there, the bus went down the hill and crossed Hay Bridge to Clyro, and took the road on that side of the river to Hereford, going through Whitney and Winforton and past Oakchurch farm shop, finally coming into Hereford by Whitecross Road.

I stayed on the bus all the way to the railway station because I needed to buy a new Senior Railcard, which was very quick and easy.

I also needed some specialist advice - my mum is getting pretty deaf now, so I said I'd get her a speaker phone, but I needed someone to talk me through the different types there are.  There's so much choice online, and I have no idea which ones will be suitable.  There's an office of a charity on Widemarsh Street, next to the Dogs' Trust charity shop, called Action Deafness.  They are a Deaf-led charity, so they understand the problems first hand.  Unfortunately, the lady who knows about phones is only there on a Monday, so the helpful chap who deals with the vision-loss side of the charity took my details, and someone will phone me with the advice.

Passing by the Cathedral later, I noticed that the electronic signboard by the bus stop there showed a time for the X44 to arrive at that bus stop.  I didn't want to leave anything to chance, though, so I went back to the railway station to get the bus home - and it was a good job I did.  The bus did pick up passengers from the back of Maylord Orchards, but after that, it went straight down Whitecross Road without passing the Cathedral.  So if anyone was waiting to catch the bus there, they're probably still waiting. 

Fungi Themed Post Box Topper

 

Ungrievable Lives

 There's a new art work installed in Hay Castle at the moment, put in to coincide with the Hay Music Festival, where the theme of the weekend was Exiles and Emigres.

Ungrievable Lives is by Caroline Burraway, and was created to represent refugee children.  Small dresses have been made out of discarded life jackets left behind by refugees on the island of Levbos,  one for each one million child refugees.  There are thirteen of them.  Each dress is hung from a weighing scale, to represent Justice with her scales, and to ask what is the value of a refugee child's life, compared to a person living in the West?  Under the dresses is a line of sand, to represent borders, which are continually changing over time.

It's a very thoughtful and powerful display, and it can be seen at the Castle until 29th September. 

Fungi Town

 Hay Castle is celebrating everything to do with mushrooms, toadstools, lichen, moulds and yeasts on the weekend of 3rd to 5th October.  This coincides with UK Fungus Day, and is the first celebration of its kind in the country.

The event brings together local mushroom growers, experts, artists and local businesses for a varied programme of talks, workshops, films, exhibitions and more - and the whole town is getting involved.

There'll be fungus forays around Hay and at Queenswood on the edge of Hereford, to see what's growing locally, cocktails from Hay Distillery, and even the open mic at the Globe will be fungus themed.

The Saturday market will have stalls selling mushrooms, foraging baskets made locally, as well as cheeses, wine and cider.

It sounds like a lot of fun! 

Raffle for Refugees

 I bought a raffle ticket at a stall in the market yesterday, which was  being manned by members of the Hay, Brecon and Talgarth Sanctuary for Refugees charity.

There are Big Prizes!

Top prize is a pair of tickets for the Wales v All Blacks game at the Principality Stadium, Cardiff on Saturday 22nd November at 3.10pm.  The chap walking round with the signboard listing the prizes announced "Last chance this year to see Wales beat the All Blacks!.... Why does everyone always laugh when I say that?"

There's also a holiday at Fishguard Bay Resort, and lunch for two at the Felinfach Griffin.

Tickets are £1 each or £5 per book, and the stall will be on the market for the following two Thursdays.

The raffle will be drawn on Wednesday 8th October at 6pm in Llangors Youth and Community Centre.