Blackthorn Ritualistic Folk

 I was going to just huddle at home after I'd been to see the Craftland talk at the church - but I had noticed that there were free music events in between the Festival talks up at the Castle.  One of them was the Blackthorn Ritualistic Folk.

Anyway, early in the afternoon I decided to listen to a podcast.  Next on my list was Druidcast - and Damh the Bard was interviewing his friend Phil, who is one of the Blackthorn Ritualistic Folk group.  It was such an interesting interview that I had to go and see them in action after that.

They are influenced by Border Morris - the sort where they bang sticks together - but they put together their own dances. They wear black tatters, and each dancer has an individual hat or head dress, sometimes based on the dancer's totem animal (there was a girl with a brilliant fox mask).

I saw three dances (there was another session later that night that I didn't go out for).

They started as a choir, singing a Pagan song about the changing seasons.  Then they performed a dance based on the Skirrid Inn, where a horse skull was found under the floor (no-one knows why it was put there).  They have their own, blue, horse skull, which is not a Mari Llwyd, but an English variant - I can't remember the name.

The second dance was based on the Anemone, the Flower of Death, and the third was a solo Irish jig in honour of the Black Hairstreak moth, which only lives in hedgerows where blackthorn grows.

There wasn't a lot of room in the Castle Great Hall - the group has about fifty members, so they were only able to do a cut down version of their usual performances, but it was great fun, and a good taste of the sort of thing that they do.

At the end of the performance Nino, a stray Shantyman, passed by.  The friend I was standing with said that the Hay Shantymen's performance had been packed out, earlier in the afternoon. 

Craftland

 Yesterday evening I was at St Mary's Church to see James Fox talk to Kate Humble.

He's an art historian, but for his latest book he has turned his attention to lost and vanishing crafts around the UK.  Some crafts are critically endangered, meaning that only one person is carrying the craft on - and without apprentices to learn the craft, it will die out.  Five crafts went extinct while he was writing the book.  There is only one man in the UK, at the only bell foundry left in the UK (in Loughborough), who has the specialist skills to accurately tune a bell when it has been newly made, for example.

But it's not all doom and gloom - other crafts have been brought back from the brink of extinction and have a much brighter future.

We're very fortunate in Hay to have a wide variety of craftspeople - Christina Watson, who has painted shop signs around the town for many years (and more recently trained as an icon writer), was in the audience, and she said that the various craftspeople help each other out with work.  Walking round the market earlier in the day, there were basket weavers, and potters and spinners and dyers, knitted and crocheted goods, wooden spoons and knives and bowls, and more.  The sponsor of the event was Shepherds, the ice cream makers - that counts too, and so does cheese making and brewing. 

In the past, people in Hay made straw hats, or cut wood for the soles of clogs, and there were tailors and dressmakers and cobblers, blacksmiths and carpenters.  Some of those still survive, but one of the things James Fox talked about was how hard it is to learn those traditional skills now.  My sister learned dressmaking at City and Guilds evening classes, for instance - those no longer exist.  Technical colleges are much fewer in number, and no longer offer the same sort of courses in engineering as they once did. This is all part of government policy over many years, seeing these things as unimportant, and easy to cut funding for.  I remember a friend seeing a government retraining scheme advertised a few years ago, so she applied in order to learn how to mend saddles - there's a need for that in this area.  But they were only offering computer courses.

However, there are charities across the UK (James Fox works for one of them) that support craftspeople to train up new apprentices, and to provide workshops and tools for them.

And kids want to make things!  James Fox was talking about his own kids, but I saw exactly the same thing when I was a Viking re-enactor going into schools to teach kids a simple form of weaving.  There was a real hunger to do something with their hands, and there was no time in the curriculum for anything but academic work.

The other thing about crafts is that they last.  Shops are full of plastic rubbish that has been brought half way around the world, and it's cheap - but it doesn't last.  A craftsman-made mug can last a lifetime, but will be more expensive to buy.  James Fox treated himself to a pair of Sheffield steel scissors - they cost £100, but they will last his lifetime, and far longer than 10 pairs of £10 scissors would last.

In Japan, skilled craftspeople are honoured as National Treasures, and encouraged to pass on their knowledge.  In France, Notre Dame was rebuilt so quickly after the fire because there were trained young craftspeople available to do the work.  We desperately need something similar in the UK. 

Winter Festival

 I was going to do a lot more than I've been able to manage over this weekend, having been totally wiped out by a bad cold for a few days.

So I didn't get to the talk about the future of books at the Globe, and I only got to the Quantum Revolution because I'd spent £15 on the ticket and didn't want to waste it.

The foyer of the tent at the Castle this year was quite small - just the Festival Bookshop and gift shop, and a stall selling coffees.

Paul Davies, of the University of Arizona, and Vlatko Vedral from Oxford University, are both physicists, and both have books available.

It's 100 years since quantum theory began, with Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, and we're at an exciting time for the future of quantum science.  To set up what they were talking about, they explained the many worlds/variable state theory, in which atoms can be seen to be in several different places at the same time, or they can teleport.  There are disagreements about whether this means full-on parallel universes (like Mirror, Mirror in Star Trek) or whether it is one universe in several different quantum states at the same time.  They're also hoping that recent developments mean that they will be able to work on the problem of how quantum science and General Relativity fit together.  At the moment, quantum works for very, very small things, and General Relativity works for big things, but nobody's quite sure how they fit together, or even if it's possible for them to fit together.

There's a race between the world powers to develop a working quantum computer - and fears of a quantum apocalypse,  in which the quantum computers could break any current method of cryptography - so bank details, spying, and anything that had been encrypted could be made public.

Hopefully, before that happens, there's potential for a medical revolution, where molecules can be individually tailored to repair cells or block receptors so diseases can't spread.  They even talked about the potential for a helmet like something out of a 1960s superhero comic - processes inside the brain cause magnetic fields which can be detected outside the brain, so a helmet that could pick up those fields could literally read your mind!  They were thinking more along the lines of people being able to control robots, or prosthetic limbs, though.

There was a digression about geckos - their feet have hairs so fine they extend into the quantum realm, and that's how they can walk across ceilings!

In the questions at the end, they were asked what science fiction they read, and Paul Davies mentioned The Black Cloud by Fred Hoyle - partly because Fred Hoyle gave him his first job!  (Watching him on stage, I got the feeling that he would have enjoyed the company of Brian Aldiss).  Vlatko Vedral said it was very difficult to go to the movies as a physicist - what was portrayed in Interstellar, for example, doesn't work like that!

Another question was on ethics - is there an ethics department working alongside the physicists to maybe say "Well, you could do this - but should you?" 

They obviously do take ethical considerations into account - but knowledge of quantum science is worldwide, and maybe everyone wouldn't be quite so careful.

By the time I got out of the marquee, the Christmas Lights had been turned on, but the square was still full of people - and traction engines, and a fire engine. 

Hay Talks at the Globe

 The Winter Festival starts this Thursday, with lots of interesting talks over the weekend, plus the traditional Turning on of the Christmas Lights, and Father Richard playing the organ accompaniment to a silent film (Faust, this time).

There's also a talk going on at the Globe, which is not part of the Festival programme.  The title is "Do Books Still Have Power in the Digital Age?"

(I'm going to say YES to that one, obviously!)

This will be a panel discussion, and could be very interesting.

It's on Thursday 27th November at 7.30pm at the Globe 

Getting Home from Holiday

 I had an absolutely wonderful time in Manchester, and by Wednesday lunchtime I'd done all the things that I had on my list - the John Rylands Library, the Museum of Science and Industry, Castlefield Roman fort, Afflecks (three floors of quirky little shops), Forbidden Planet, the Art Gallery, Books and Friends bookshop and cafe, drinking at Peveril of the Peak (Victorian green-tiled pub) and the Victoria Tap at Victoria Railway Station, eating at Richmond Tea Rooms and the Molly House, and the cafes at Afflecks and the Central Library.

I'd got about on the free Bee Network buses and the trams - Zone One, for the city centre, costs £2.70 for a one day travelcard, and I was able to hop on and off all day. 

I'd allowed myself until 4.30pm before I got the last train back, which would connect with the last bus home from Hereford at 18.53, but I'd run out of steam. 

The X44 timetable online says that there are buses from Hereford train station to Hay at 15.22 and 17.22  so I confidently boarded an earlier train.

At Hereford, I waited.  And waited.  

Finally I checked the bus timetable at the bus stop, and it had the letters "VS" next to the 15.22 bus and the 17.22 bus.  At the bottom of the timetable, this was explained as "Saturdays and school holidays only".

Here I was on Wednesday on a school day, and there was no bus back to Hay between 13.22 and 18.53.

I didn't want to wait around in Hereford in the freezing cold for three hours, and fortunately I had some holiday money left.

I took a Blueline taxi.  It cost £60 and was totally worth it. 

The Secret Language of Trees

 The last part of the Tree event on Saturday was the film at 7pm, The Secret Language of Trees.

The Parish Hall was full, and the film was fascinating.

It talked about how trees can communicate with each other through their root systems, exchanging chemicals with other trees nearby to warn of predators so that the other trees could defend themselves more quickly, and about how the shared root system could keep stumps of felled trees alive.  The trees also share nutrients to help weaker trees, and can "decide" together when it's a good year to produce lots of acorns or beech mast or other seeds.  (This year has been a very good year for acorns locally - they were everywhere on the Offa's Dyke walk.)

They also talked about "mother trees", which are important to the health of a lot of other trees around them, and how plantation firs or other evergreens do better if there are birch trees in the mix.  They talked about using horses to pull the felled trees out of the woodlands rather than heavy machinery that compacts the soil, and lots more.

There were scientists and tree experts from Canada, including an indigenous woman who is also a scientist, who talked about the importance of indigenous knowledge of how their local forests grow, and a forester from Germany, talking about how German forests are managed.

After the film there was a Q and A session with four of the trustees of Botany and Other Stories, and the son of one of the trustees, who is also, I think, a soil scientist.

They spoke about the importance of sourcing local trees or seeds to replant woodlands - one of the problems of sourcing the cheapest trees from abroad is that they can import diseases, like Dutch Elm disease.  Also, they are less likely to be well adapted to the local conditions if they come from the other side of Europe.

In the Midlands, the National Forest scheme is trying to link together scattered patches of woodland, which will be good for biodiversity as animals, plants  and birds can move more freely between their habitats.

When talking about commercial forestry, they agreed that monocultures are a bad thing, and selective felling of mixed woodland is better, though they were doubtful of the possibility of scaling up horse power to commercially viable levels.

A Swedish lady who has recently moved to Hay talked about her time living in Scotland, where she had seen selective felling of trees targeting the trees described as "mother trees" in the film, which is very bad for the health of the woodland.

They talked about the need for long term planning, and for forestry and agriculture to work together - hedgerows are very important for biodiversity, for instance.  Leading on from the walk in the afternoon, they talked about the need for sensitive intervention in woodland - you can't just leave trees to do their thing, because woodlands in the UK have been subject to some form of management for centuries.  There is also the problem that about 75% of woodland in the UK is now privately owned - state owned woodland has quietly been sold off bit by bit.  So where once the Forestry Commission could implement a policy across the country, now there has to be a lot of negotiation with private owners of woodland.

And it's no good just planting a bunch of trees anywhere - around Birmingham there is a lot of heathland, a valuable habitat in its own right, which is destroyed when trees are planted on it, and it's not the best place to put the trees, either.

One of the trustees said she had been working in the sector since around 1978 - and things were improving, but there is still a long way to go!

So there was a lot to think about, coming out of the meeting, and a lot of expertise on the board of trustees of Botany and Other Stories.  It's quite reassuring that people with that expertise are getting together to do positive things. 

 

Tree Walk

 I'm back from a few days away (I had an awesome time in Manchester) and I still have a lot to say about the Tree event on Saturday (which seems like an awfully long time ago now!).

At 2pm, there was a tree walk down the Offa's Dyke path, starting from the Treehouse Cafe just over Hay Bridge.  The day was wet, and cold, and grey, but still about 20 people turned up.  There was some talk of doing an adult talk and a children's talk, but they decided to just go with the adult talk, and let the kids tag along.  If they got bored, there was plenty to do in the woods along the path, where there are a lot of outdoor games set up.

I'd been expecting a walk that pointed out the different types of trees, and one person had brought along a tree recognition booklet - but it wasn't really about that.

One of the trustees of Botany and Other Stories was there to talk about problems like ash die back - there are a lot of ash trees on that stretch of the riverbank.  One of the dying ash trees is right next to the cafe, covered in ivy, and they're trying to save as much of the tree as they can because the ivy is really good for biodiversity, nesting birds, insects and so on.

The owners of the land, who are actually doing the management of the woodland, were along for the walk, and they pointed out the strip of land that they can't touch to manage it because it is an SSSI.  Apparently, back when the UK was part of the EU, the Welsh Government could get EU grants for wildlife if a certain amount of riverbank was designated as SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest).  So, there is nothing actually special about this bit of woodland, but it was there to make up the numbers - and they can't touch it, unless it's to pull out the Himalayan balsam, or thin out sycamore trees, which are counted as invasive.  So it's basically just sitting there.  Meanwhile the woodland around it, which is being managed, has enough light to the ground to encourage flower species that indicate ancient woodland, like bluebells and celandine, and wood anemone, which make the woods look so beautiful in spring.

Coming out to the (slightly flooded) meadow, we were experiencing a completely different environment.  For the past couple of years, the owner has been mowing the meadow.  They tried other ways of managing it, but nothing really worked well - now, though, the clear stretch of meadow between the trees supports a lot of insects in the summer, and there is enough space for the swallows and martens to get a long flight path to eat the insects, so that's working very well.  

They also pointed out a couple of saplings, just in the water.  These were elms - but sadly, since Dutch Elm disease wiped out most of the elms in the country in the 1970s, any elms that do start to grow get to about the size that these trees are, and then die.

It was rather sad to learn that the woodland that looked fine at a casual glance actually had a lot of dying trees in it (and there's nothing they can do to stop ash die back or Dutch Elm disease), but at the same time, it's a hopeful sign that the woodland is supporting 76 species of birds, along with everything that the birds eat.

There was also a bit of discussion about what sort of woodland we want to see in the future - what sort of trees should be planted to be more resilient to disease and climate change, and so on.

It was a fascinating walk - worth getting my feet wet for!  (I wore a pair of boots that I thought were waterproof.  They were not.). 

Cabinet of Curiosities Pop up Exhibition

 Yesterday morning I went down to the Parish Hall for the first part of a day of Tree-related activities.  

Chairs were set up in the centre of the hall for the film later that evening, and round the walls was the exhibition on the theme of trees - and also into the kitchen.  Some of the exhibits came from the main Cabinet of Curiosities collection, like the selection of woods that go to make a piano, and there were also quotations from people who came from all round the world, talking about their favourite tree.  

Tim the Gardener wrote a poem about elms, a big part of his childhood - but when he went back a few years later, they were all gone because of Dutch Elm disease.  A Chinese lady wrote about gathering kapok blossoms, and there was a chap from Soweto remembering jacaranda trees, as well as a local little girl talking about climbing her favourite hazel tree.

Earlier in the week, Pierre had come into the Cinema Bookshop to look for The Word for World is Forest by Ursula Le Guin.  We couldn't find it for him, but there were several other forest and tree related books as part of the exhibits.  There was a whole section on cider apples, for example. 

There was also art - botanical illustrations of pears by a group of children, and leaves, a wire figure decorated with leaves and dried flowers, and some of the figures from the Cabinet of Curiosities including my favourite, the Queen of the Night.

It took some time to go round and appreciate it all properly, and meanwhile Francoise was introducing people to each other - which is how I came to meet Carrie from the Tourist Information office, who was interested in my knowledge of local ancient monuments.  She's looking for anything she can find to make visitors' time in Hay more interesting for them. 

Bus Timetables

 It was a bit over a week ago that I was going to write a rant about the lack of bus timetables at the bus stops in Hay - but a friend sent me some correspondence they had been having with Powys County Council, who are responsible for putting the timetables up.  They said they were treating it as a priority and the timetables would be up by today.

So I went to check this morning, and - rapture!

 Then I checked across the road - modified rapture!

 As you can see, someone has put up a handwritten timetable in the absence of the official one.

And telling people to scan a QR code is not entirely helpful.  I have a smart phone, but I don't know how to do QR codes, and I don't feel inclined to learn.

Sergeants buses took over the Hereford - Hay - Brecon route on 1st September, and it is now 15th November.  On the Herefordshire side of the border, the timetables went up very quickly, and there was even a special notice warning about the disruption to the service because of roadworks in Dorstone.

It would be nice if Powys County Council would do a bit more to encourage people to use the bus service, and make it easier for them to do so. 

Happy Birthday Lynn Trowbridge

 Happy birthday to Lynn Trowbridge, who has just turned 102 years old!

She used to live in one of the almshouses, but has now moved into a local care home.

And she became a published author in her 90s!  Her book is called Random Ramblings of a Nonagenarian and is available on Amazon.

Sticks and Twine at the Black Lion

 Sticks and Twine is a new knitting (or crocheting or whatever other handicrafts people are doing) group that meets in the Black Lion about once a month.

It was on Tuesday this month, from 6pm to 8pm, so I went along straight from work.  We were sitting round a table in the Lion's Den, the room across the corridor from the main bar, and it was very pleasant indeed.  As we were in one of the oldest buildings in Hay, there was quite a bit of discussion about old superstitions to protect buildings, like burying a witch bottle under the hearth so a witch couldn't fly down the chimney.

And, of course, the Black Lion has ghosts.

Originally, the present pub and the house next door and the bookbinder's  workshop beyond that were all part of the same complex of buildings.  The present owners of the Black Lion bought the house after many years of it standing vacant, and renovated it.  Before they did this, though, they had some ghost hunters in who spoke to the French ghost in the cellar.  I'm not sure how a French ghost ended up in the Black Lion cellar, but he seems to be a fixture - and he talked about going to the "other cellar" after they talked to him.  (Again, I'm not sure how they were talking to him - but something was mentioned about an app they had on their phone!  You can get apps for anything these days!)  As far as the owners of the Black Lion were concerned, there wasn't another cellar, so they thought the ghost hunters might be making things up.  Then they bought the house next door - and it has a cellar, which would originally have connected to the Black Lion.

We weren't just telling ghost stories, though -  apparently there's a new TV series about knitting, along the same lines as the Sewing Bee, but the people who'd seen it weren't terribly impressed.  They did a piece about Fair Isle knitting, and got a long and detailed letter from a lady in Shetland, which one of the ladies in the group quoted, telling them all the things that they had got wrong, or had failed to mention, despite the researchers going to the Shetland Museum and finding out all about it.  So I don't think this programme is going to be the success among knitters that the Sewing Bee was among the sewing community.

They weren't sure if there was going to be a December meeting - the feeling was that it might be too close to Christmas - but I'll keep my eyes open for information, because I really enjoyed the evening. 

T is For Tree

 Botany and Other Stories are holding a pop up Cabinet of Curiosities event on Saturday.

It's all about trees.

From 10.30am to 7pm, there will be an exhibition at the Parish Hall (exhibitions are normally at the house on Oxford Road, but that is being renovated at the moment), with botanical illustrations of trees and leaves, and all sorts of other interesting tree-related things.

At 7pm, there will be a film, also in the Parish Hall, called The Hidden Language of Trees, followed by a Q and A session with a panel.  Matthew Prior, a journalist, will be the facilitator of the panel, which will be formed of Jeremy Armstrong, Jenny Dicker, Imogen Cripps and Emily Warner.  These are all trustees of the Botany and Other Stories charity.

There will also be a walk along the Offa's Dyke path, starting from By the Wye Glamping.  There will be a children's version and a more scientific adult version, observing the trees along the river in the context of climate change.

I've got my walking boots ready! 

Remembrance Sunday

 

The latest Post Box topper.

New Vicar for Cusop

 Cusop parish is looking for a new vicar at the moment - the official title in the Link magazine is a Rural Pioneer Priest for the Borderlink Benefice.

Rev. Luci Morriss is the priest at the moment, but she's moving on to the new Black Mountains Benefice to the south.

The job isn't just for Cusop - the priest has to cover Preston-on-Wye, Blakemere, Moccas, Bredwardine, Hardwicke, Dorstone and Clifford as well.  So all the representatives of those parishes are meeting to discuss what they want from a new priest, to go into the job description.  They're hoping to hold interviews in December, but the application process is open now, and they're hoping to have a new priest by Easter next year. 

Ian Jardin's Funeral

  Cusop Church was packed for the service - there were even extra folding chairs at the back.

Rev Jane Rogers took the service, and the chief undertaker was a very smart woman in a low top hat.  It was all beautifully done.  The coffin was a wicker casket, and the church was decorated with autumn foliage and flowers, including an arch under the Norman arch to the chancel.  A piece of piano music was played which had been written for Ian by a friend of his.  There was a donation box to give to the upkeep of Cusop churchyard.

A family member spoke about what Ian had been like when she was growing up, and a long term colleague of Ian's from English Heritage spoke about his professional life.  When he and Tracy moved to Cusop, he put his project management skills to good use when the Cheesemarket was being brought back into use, and he was also a long term member of Cusop Parish Council, starting with ten years as the Clerk of the Council, and then becoming a councillor, and leader of the council.  He was very much involved with the local history project on Cusop Castle (just across the road from the churchyard) and the churchyard itself, which is an early round churchyard.  He'll be greatly missed in the local community.

We left the church to the music of the Levellers - "There's Only One Way of Life", which had a lot of people tapping their feet to the beat.  Ian was buried in Cusop churchyard, and then there was tea at the Village Hall - everyone had worked very hard, and it was a very good spread. 

Old Hay in Photographs

 There's a talk at St. Mary's on Wednesday 5th November at 7pm.

Tim Pugh will be giving a slide show of Old Hay in Photographs.

It should be a fascinating evening.

Tickets are £5, in aid of St Mary's Church, and the St Mary's bar will be open. 

Patchwork - a talk about Jane Austen

 I had a great time at the talk at North Books on Thursday afternoon.

They run a stitching bookclub, so most of the regulars had brought along their knitting projects - this was an extra event, with the author and artist of the book Patchwork, Kate Evans. This is a graphic novelisation of Jane Austen's life, and the title comes from the fact that she actually did help to make a patchwork quilt.  

There are digressions about the fabrics used - muslin  and chintz from India, linen from Ireland, cotton woven in Lancashire and grown by slaves in the United States. 

Some of the pictures are created on a sewing machine - Kate made panels of patchwork and machine embroidery which have become a frieze something like thirty five feet long!  Far too big to display at North Books, but she is doing a talk at a big country house later in the year, and there will be room to display it there.

At the back of the book are the footnotes - quotations from the novels and notes about what is happening in the text.  She was insistent that the book reflected the academic research she had done for it.  She had a short and heart-felt rant about how comics/graphic novels are overlooked by reviewers in the UK, and considered to be for children (if they're not about superheroes).  So an adult book, written as a graphic novel, is difficult to place - people don't generally go into a comic shop to look for a biography of Jane Austen, and ordinary bookshops find them difficult to place, too. 

She also had a bit to say about Beau Brummel, and the beginning of modern men's fashion.  Before Beau Brummel, who was a good friend of the Prince Regent, and therefore very influential in fashionable circles, clothing for the wealthy was all about displaying your wealth through your clothing - so fine silks, embroidered waistcoats, and so on.  Beau Brummel was all about the tailoring - still fine fabrics, but not in bright colours, and with little or no embroidery - and in tying the perfect cravat.  

She also had quite a bit to say about how women's work is devalued.  Women at every level of society did sewing, all the time.  All clothing was hand sewn, as well as curtains, sheets, and everything else made of fabric round the home.  There are many quotations from Jane Austen's novels about the women having their workbaskets with them (even Lydia thought about trimming a bonnet!) and several characters are shown to be idle and worthless because they don't do any sewing - this would have been very apparent to the contemporary readers of the books, though not so much to us now, where dress making is no longer a common skill (and so manufacturers can palm off just about any old rubbish on us in the name of fast fashion!).

So, I had a wonderful time, and I bought the book and had it signed - Kate asked each person she signed for to turn to a random page in the book, and she would write a quotation from that page.  Mine was "What is the line between imagination and reality?"  which I am delighted with! 

Happy Hallowe'en

 

Three little ghosts in Radnor House garden.

Hoopla at the Treehouse Cafe

 The Treehouse Cafe is holding an event for kids on Saturday 1st November, from 10am to 12 noon.  Tickets are £5 a child.  

This is in collaboration with Oil and Oak, so there are lots of crafty things to do.

The first thing is roasting s'mores over a fire, followed by a chance to make a candle, badge or crown.

At 11.30am, there will be a Best Dressed competition.

There's also a Woodland Scavenger Hunt, face painting, seasonal craft boxes that the children can take home - and Origin Pizza will be providing the food.

Sounds like it'll be a lot of fun! 

Haymakers Move

 For as long as I can remember, the Haymakers shop has been on the road between Kilvert's and Tomatitos.  It's quite a small, narrow shop.

Now they have new premises - bigger and more central.

 This is where the Literature Laboratory used to be, before their lease ran out and they went off to a new shop in Brecon.  It's a lot bigger than the original shop, so plenty of room to display things.

Cusop Funeral

 I was very sad to hear of the sudden death of Ian Jardin.  He lived in Cusop and was a keen member of the Cusop History Group and member of their Castle Project team.

I knew him because of his partner Tracy, who was one of the founder members of the Stitch and Bitch group that used to meet in Hay.  As I was another of the founder members, I've known them both for years, and I liked Ian a lot.  He will be missed.

The funeral will be held at Cusop Church on Thursday 6th November, at 2pm.  They have asked for family flowers only, and if anyone attending would like to give a donation, it will go to the upkeep of Cusop Church and the graveyard.

"You Were Only Supposed to Blow the Bloody Doors Off!"

 The quotation comes, of course, from one of the most famous exploding vans in cinema history, in The Italian Joh.

So this was the introduction to Tom Harris, of NEFX, who was talking about his long career of creating physical effects for the film and TV industry.  He wasn't involved in the Italian Job, but he did blow up a lot of vehicles in his time, and he had a lot of clips to show of the work he had done.

Some of the effects are so subtle they are not even noticed - a smoky atmosphere in a pub in Poldark, or rain (rain in film and TV is nearly always an effect that can be turned on and off).  When the ship in Hornblower was sailing through a howling gale - that was him.  He also made the cannons fire in Hornblower. 

Things like showers and kitchen stoves in TV and film are also effects, rather than the real thing.  He also showed a very scary clip from Spooks involving a fat fryer (which was not actually hot, but had to appear so in a torture scene). 

The very first highlight of his career was working on Morecambe and Wise - he built the toaster that was used in the justly famous sketch where they made breakfast to the tune of the Stripper.

He went on to work on Metal Mickey - not the robot, but all the other physical effects, which had to be done live in front of a studio audience, such as a floating (and crashing to the ground) tea tray, or a 'mad scientist' bench full of fizzing beakers for a science class.

This stood him in good stead for the stage production of Bugsy Malone - he brought along a splurge gun.  These had to actually work on stage, and he had to construct polystyrene shells for the splurge so they would hit the targets and splat on impact.

He also did a lot of pop videos - he built a chariot for Toyah Wilcox, and they hired the horse from the local Travellers in Wandsworth, where they were filming.  He put Diana Ross on a revolving platform with Roman candles shooting out of the sides for Chemical Reaction (there was a man underneath the platform, turning it by hand!) 

He set up the sugar glass window for Adam Ant to jump through in the Dandy Highwayman video - and he passed round sugar glass bottles, the sort used to break over people's heads in bar fights.  Just as he was saying that they were quite fragile, there was a crash and "Sorry!" from the back of the room!

When he worked on The Spy Who Loved Me, he took careful note of the 'cannon' they fired the Lotus Esprit out of to make it plunge dramatically off a dock - and used something similar for a van when he was working on Dempsey and Makepiece.  He was also responsible for a lot of fires on London's Burning, as well as things like collapsing scaffolding.  He even once set a listed building on fire!  Or so it appeared - the building was actually unscathed. 

I don't remember the series, but he showed a clip of a coach full of school kids overturning which was very dramatic.  If you looked carefully, the actual overturning coach, rolling down an incline next to a cement mixer, only contained the stuntman driver, but was cut cleverly with footage of the kids falling about while the camera revolved to make it seem like they were rolling over.  Part of the set up (he stopped the film to show us) was a small sign next to the cement mixer which said "Press the button here, Gabe" (Gabe was the stunt driver).  At that point, he was supposed to activate a canister of nitrogen which would push the bus over to roll down the slope.  In fact, he pushed it just a bit early, so the bus crashed into a telegraph pole at the bottom rather than the cars that they had set up.  They could only do the stunt once, though, so that was the shot they used. 

 It was a fascinating evening - and next year he's setting up an event where members of the public can "blow the bloody doors off" themselves!  He will show how the effect is set up, and you get to press the button!  For further information email unique@totallybespoke.vip

Greens at the Market

 

Here's the stall set up by the local Green party at yesterday's market - they seemed to have a steady stream of interested people, at least until Storm Benjamin caused the market to close up early.

They were also doing a survey to find out what local people were most concerned about.

Suddenly, the Green Party isn't a little minority interest party any more - the membership has doubled since Zack Polanski became leader, and is still going up, overtaking the Lib Dems and the Conservatives. 

Botany And Other Stories - Meet the Trustees

 Renovation work is  finally starting on Henallt House, which has been housing very successful open days of exhibitions, and Botany and Other Stories has blossomed into a registered charity.

Registered charities need a board of trustees, and the latest issue of the Cabbage Leaf has been put together to introduce them, and their various interests and expertise.

Dr Emily Warner is a researcher at the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery, based at the University of Oxford.  Her special interest is trees.

Jeremy Armstrong is a woodland manager - so he also has a special interest in trees, and in increasing the biodiversity of woodlands by careful management.

Jenny Dicker is a farmer and specialist in Land Management.

Pierre Moulinier is one of the founders of Botany and Other Stories.  He is also a journalist, geographer and geopolitician.

 Françoise Verger is the other founder of Botany and Other Stories, and is also a journalist, as well as a language teacher and botanical illustrator.  At the moment she is painting a lot of different mushrooms!

Imogen Cripps is a researcher and Head Grower at a walled garden that is being restored.

Emily Jones is a pharmacist, who also grows medicinal plants (sometimes unintentionally, she says!) 

 Over the coming year there will be a series of events, and behind the scenes the trustees will be working to organise the volunteers, set up a scientific committee to help produce reliable information about climate change and nature, and to develop the Budding Botanical Illustrators Club, which was launched during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

In November, the theme is Seeing the Wood for the Trees

In January - In Onion is Strength!

In March - Mushrooms are not Plants!  (they were disappointed that they couldn't do anything to take part in the recent Fungi Weekend organised by Hay Castle - but they voted on their programme in June, before they knew what the Castle was planning).

And from May to August next year, they will be exploring the themes of Hands in the Dirt, Heads in the Sun, Heart with Nature. 

Good News from Small Farms Butchers

 Small Farms Butchers recently announced that they were going to close permanently, due to family circumstances - but their Facebook page has a new update with some good news.

Tom and Julie from Upper Court Farm will be taking over the running of the shop, so there will still be a butcher's shop on Broad Street. 

[Edited to add: Small Farms already get their beef from Upper Court Farm, so they already have a relationship]

Repair Cafe

 The next Repair Cafe will be on Saturday 25th October, from 10am to 1pm, at The Pavilion on Brecon Road - so if anyone has something that needs mending, the volunteers will be there to help.  They also do knife sharpening.

They are also looking for new Volunteer Fixers. 

They also have a Facebook page at Hay Repair Cafe. 

Greens at the Market

 There will be a stall on the Thursday market this week run by the local Green party.

The Greens have been having a surge in membership over the last month, under the new leader Zack Polanski, so this would be a good chance to find out more about them and their policies.

Doing Strange Things with a Harpsichord

 It was a small, but enthusiastic, audience in St Mary's last night for the harpsichord concert - and two of the composers of the modern pieces were actually there to hear their work performed.  Janet Oates also sang for one of the pieces.  Sarah Lianne Lewis's Goleunir'r Dyffryn, for the Welsh part of the trip round the British Isles, was the world premier performance.  There were pieces from Scotland and Ireland as well, and also a piece to start the concert from Ana Bon di Venezia, an 18th century Italian composer.

It was a mix of traditional pieces and modern pieces in conversation with the older work, and the modern pieces were using the harpsichord in all sorts of unusual ways - knocking on the wood, plucking the strings inside the case and, in one case, rolling a golf ball around on the strings!  Despina Homatidou, the performer, was also called upon to hum and cry out at certain points.  It was quite fascinating to watch, especially in the piece called Keening, which was written shortly after the composer's father died. 

Later, in the question and answer session, Despina said that she hadn't been sure at first how robust the instrument was to stand up to such unusual treatment - but it turns out that harpsichords are tougher than they look!

It was also lovely to see a little girl in the audience with her mum - and she's clearly having piano lessons because she was allowed to try the keyboard of the harpsichord, which she did with confidence. 

The new pieces were commissioned by the Vale of Glamorgan Festival Legacy Funds,  

Special Effects at the Castle

 

Tom Harris will be speaking at the Castle about TV and film special effects.  From the poster, it seems that he's been involved in all sorts of shows over the years (I wonder what sort of special effects there were in Morecombe and Wise?).  

The talk is at 7pm on Thursday October 23rd, and costs £12.  Tickets available from Hay Castle Trust. 

Harpsichord Concert at St Mary's

 Tonight, at 7pm (doors open at 6.15), Despina Homatidu will be playing the harpsichord at St Mary's Church.  She is a Greek musician currently working at the University of Cardiff and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.  The concert is part of an initiative to produce new works for the harpsichord, and the programme will be a mixture of old and new, folk and classical.  There will also be a question and answer session, and there will be an interval with refreshments.  Tickets are £13.50 on the door.

Job Opportunity at the Food Hub

 Cultivate is the host of Bwyd Powys Food, the sustainable food partnership for Wales.  

Their vision is "Good food for Powys!  Where local, sustainable and healthy food supports local communities, its people and the environment."

They are based in Newtown, but are offering the opportunity of a job that involves remote working, so you don't have to live in Newtown to apply for it.

What they want is someone to help to develop a Food Hub in Hay, as part of the wider Powys Food Loops, from the planning stages right through to implementation.  It would suit someone who wants to enhance their business skills, learn more about sustainable food systems, and obtain real-life experience of implementing solutions to climate change.  The title of the post is Local Food Systems Officer and the closing date for applications is 2nd November.  More details can be found at  https://findajob.dwp.gov.uk/details/17264917?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2025-10-17&utm_campaign=+Job+Alert+-+Local+Food+Systems+Officer+for+Hay+

(sorry that's a bit of a long url, but I can't do direct links). 

Changes on Broad Street - and Elsewhere in Hay

 Several businesses are changing hands or closing in the near future.

 Small Farms butchers is closing due to family circumstances - they're a very good butchers, and they'll be sadly missed.

Next door at the Chippy, the lady who runs the chippy has an allergy to fish which has been getting worse over the years, so she can no longer work there.  Happily, they have found a buyer for the business, so they are closing on 18th October and the shop will be re-opening on 1st November under new management.

Meanwhile, there are changes at Tomatitos:

 So it's goodbye to Thalia and her team, and hello to Hay Distillery on the drinks side (who have premises just down at the side where the pottery used to be), and Epicure on the food side, who have been working at Hay Castle Cafe.

Events at North Books

 There's going to be a talk at North Books on Thursday 30th October at 4pm.

Kate Evans has written a book called Patchwork: A Graphic Biography of Jane Austen, and she'll be in conversation with Jo Farrell, who leads the Stitches and Stories book group that meets at North Books.  The book tells the story of Jane Austen's live through the story of a quilt.  The event is free, but anyone who wants to go should email Jules at North Books, jules@northbooks.co.uk because seating is limited.  People are also encouraged to take a stitching project along with them if they like.

And the day before, Wednesday 29th October, from 11.30am to 1.30pm, author Lara Latcham will be signing her book Estella, about a woman with mental health issues who has been hiding her problems from her circle of acquaintances.  And then she meets an exciting young man....

Mapping Workshop

 

Mapping Workshop (including a walk around the local area), at the Globe on Tuesday 28th October, from 2pm.  It sounds fascinating - it's a pity I'll be at work!

Gareth Ratcliffe on the Visitor Levy

 Powys County Council have been discussing the possibility of charging a visitor levy on tourists to the area (for context, I've just booked a couple of days holiday in Manchester and part of the hotel fee was a small tax - about £1.20 - as a visitor levy).

Gareth Ratcliffe had some thoughts about that, which he shared on Facebook.

He was particularly concerned with the wording of the proposal.  Option 3 states that the money would be used to "support general Council services when the work impacts on visitors".  He points out that business rates in Hay already raise over £500,000 a year, and that the car park raises £365,000 a year which goes to the County Council - but when local groups hold events, they are also expected to pay the County Council.

He also pointed out that the National Park contributes greatly to the prosperity of the area by attracting visitors, but they don't have the same access to funding as the Council - and they need proper funding for the infrastructure to support tourism.  This is a responsibility of the Welsh Government rather than the County Council, but it is something that needs to be borne in mind.

He ended his speech by recommending that a visitor levy should be designed so that the benefits are shared fairly among all organisations that support tourism.

It'll be interesting to see what the County Council decides. 

Simo in Gaza

 There was a stall on the market on Thursday selling booklets of photographs in aid of a family in Gaza.  There were two volumes - the first shows what Gaza looked like in 2023, and the second shows the devastation since October 2023.

There's a short introduction to the first volume, explaining why Simo (Salama Al-Lada) made the booklet.  He says it is to tell the truth about the blockade of Gaza by Israel, that was tightened up when he was seven years old.  He grew up with Israeli checkpoints opening and closing at arbitrary times, meaning (for instance) that patients were unable to get to hospitals for treatment, and with Israel controlling all goods that went into Gaza.  

One of the pictures shows the fence that surrounds Gaza, with the Israeli army on one side and Palestinian protesters on the other.  "Do you notice the difference?" he asks in the caption.  "The difference is the Palestinian's fighting with his voice and the Israeli is fighting with weapons, artillery and tanks."

This is the background to the terrible events of October 7th, 2023, as shown through the photos of an ordinary young man living in Gaza.  He, and others like him, were trying to get information out to the rest of the world about what living in Gaza was like and why they wanted it to change.

I didn't get the second volume (but I will if the stall comes back), but that shows how life changed for everyone in Gaza after October 7th. 

Leigh Day reaches the High Court

 The legal firm Leigh Day have been collecting claimants for a case against the polluters of the River Wye for a couple of years now, and they've finally reached the High Court, with almost 4,000 people involved in the claim.

The case is that Avara Foods and Freemans of Newent (with their industrial chicken production) and Welsh Water (responsible for sewage) are polluting the River Wye, the River Lugg, and their tributaries.  Welsh Water is also being blamed for pollution in the River Usk.

They have all denied the claims.

Now they've reached the stage where the defendants must submit their responses to the claim to the High Court, and unless there is an out of court settlement, or the case is struck out, it will proceed to a civil trial.

The claimants have all made allegations against the companies - they are people who live near the chicken farms, sewage works, or have riverfront properties, and people who have businesses that depend on tourism and recreation on the river.  They are claiming damages, and want the companies to restore the rivers to their previous healthy condition.  

The river now has an ecological status of "unfavourable - declining" according to Natural England, when it used to be one of the cleanest rivers in the country.  They have been monitoring the river, and report declines in the numbers of salmon, white-clawed crayfish and macrophytes, which are aquatic plants.  Natural England attributes the decline to sewage discharge, agricultural practices and climate change.  At the moment, they are working with other local bodies like Herefordshire Council and the Herefordshire Wildlife Trust to put together a Nutrient Management Plan, in particular to reduce phosphates in the water.

The court will hear evidence from experts, including the campaign groups that have been monitoring the pollution in the river with volunteer citizen scientists, like the Friends of the Upper Wye. 

(information gathered from the Brecon and Radnor Express, Natural England, and Facebook posts from Leigh Day and others) 

Compost at the Castle

 Hay Castle is now running a composting scheme from the Castle Yard, up the track past Prints of Hay.

I met some friends last week, taking their compost bucket up there - they take the kitchen scraps up, and they get finished compost for the garden in return.  Today I went to see for myself.

 The scheme is for members only, and the emails and contact details are written on the smaller sign.  I think the email is hayigotworms@gmail.com (I had to blow up the picture pretty big to read it!)

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. 

Funding for the Resilience Project

 Good news from the Hay Community Resilience Initiative - they've been granted the funding they applied for!  The National Lottery Community Fund has given enough money for the project to employ a professional to work on it, rather than relying on the hard work of the volunteers who have carried it forward this far.  And with this funding in place, there are other pots of funding that they can apply for, which are more specific to the three Pillars of the initiative (Food, Energy and Mental Well-Being).

They will also be recruiting a bigger team very soon, and are almost at the point of registering HayReliance.org as a Not For Profit Organisation.

They have been working with Cultivate (Bwyd Powys Food), the Black Mountains College and Our Food 1200 to develop a local food chain, and Bwyd Powys are recruiting a Supply Chain Development Officer.  One day a week, this person will be working with HayResilience to develop the Food Hub in Hay.

They are also applying for funding to work with the Centre for Alternative Technology and Dr Caroline Verfuerth of Cardiff University's Business School to research the demand for local food in the area, so that they can develop a marketing strategy and encourage people to change their shopping habits and shop for local produce.  The Food Hub wants to make it as easy as possible for people to buy from them.

So there are lots of practical things happening about local food.  Local Community Energy and mental health are more complex problems, and are still at the early stages of research, but they are hoping to be able to share more about their progress soon. 

Rent at Theatr Brycheiniog

 

My neighbour is involved in this production!

Willow Tree

 

I took the first picture before I went away, and the second one yesterday.

It's sad to see old trees felled, but sometimes it is necessary. 

Events I Missed While I was Away

 I was still checking Facebook while I was on holiday, so I see that I missed a very good cider festival in the Buttermarket over the weekend.  I look forward to them doing it again next year.

It's also been h.arts week, with several artists in Hay taking part.  Oil and Oak had one of the signs up when I passed.  There are, in fact, four venues taking part in Hay this year - and there's still time to find them, because the week ends tomorrow.

They are: Jess Shaw, who has an exhibition of her work at Priory Wood Chapel in Clifford.  It's described in the booklet as lighting and 3D mixed media.

Oil and Oak has a variety of artists and craftspeople.

John Clare at Tinto House is exhibiting his paintings.

And in High Town, the Chair gallery has been taken by Creative Breaks.  It's their 25th anniversary.  There are thirteen members, and the theme of the exhibition is Rivers.  When I passed, some of the artists were sitting round the table in there, so you could see them creating new work. 

Back to Hay by Bus

 Back from my holidays - I had a lovely time, but the travelling was exhausting, so I pretty much got home and went straight to bed!  Luckily, everything connected, and I didn't have to wait too long for each connection - apart from a delay at Larnaca Airport which might have been due to bad weather over Manchester delaying the outbound plane that we were waiting for, or might have been a Cost of Living strike by staff at the airport!

On my way to Manchester at the beginning of my holiday, I had the opportunity to see the new Sergeants buses in action.

I had been led to believe by the timetable they sent me that there would be two buses going to Hereford early in the morning - the X15 for college and the X44. When they actually turned up, though, only the X15 was going to Hereford, and the X44 was going to Brecon.  There was a man with a clipboard there to make sure that everyone got on the right bus.  The X15 crossed the river and went into Hereford that way, dropped the students off at the college, and then went down to the train station, so I don't know what any students in the Golden Valley were supposed to do.

On the way home, I caught the first bus from Hereford after travelling through the night, which was at 9.22am.  They are still sending two staff - the driver and a man who I assume is checking the route and the timings as well as giving advice to passengers.  That went by the Golden Valley route, and had a very cheerful driver!

I did remember to check the bus stops when I got off at Hay, and the Brecon side has a new timetable, but there is nothing on the Hereford side of the road yet. 

 

Holidays

 I will be away for a week or so - which means I will miss the Cider Festival this weekend, and the Hay Music Festival on the theme of Exiles and Emigres.

In the meantime, here's a picture of Hay Castle from 2015:

 

Mass at St Mary's

 Normally I'm at work on Sundays, so it's very rare that I get the opportunity to go to a proper Sunday service.  This week, though, I'm getting ready to go on holiday, and there is someone at work who can cover the front desk, so I had the time to do it.

It's even better now that I can cut through on the little public footpath behind the Almshouses and come out right at the church.

Poor Father David was only assisting at Mass this morning, because his arm is in a sling, and for some things the presiding priest needs two hands.  He did preach, though, on the Gospel reading about Jesus warning people not to take the place of honour when they were invited to dinner parties, and to throw banquets for the poor instead.  He did say that he's not on co-codamol any more, though - so he's not as high as a kite, and he is getting better!

I didn't know all the hymns, but hymns are generally designed to be easy for the congregation to pick up, so that was all right, and I was able to belt out Tell Out, My Soul as the last hymn.

After the service, I was asked to mention the next concert at St Mary's.  Rhapsody in Blue is a concert by Mike Hatchard, assisted by Susanna Warren and Jeremy Young, and there will be jazz, and Chopin, Ravel, and Flanders and Swann.  Tickets are £15 from WegotTickets or on the door.  OAPs are £12, and it starts at 7.30pm.

Also, on Saturday 6th September, there will be coffee in the church from 10.30am, followed by the monthly organ recital at 11am, with Barrie Magill. 

A little later I met Simon the Poet in town, and he asked me if I'd like to sign up for the Parish magazine, Way-on-High - so he took my address and £10 on the spot and will add me to the list.

It means I'll have advance warning of things like Parish trips - for instance, yesterday there was a trip up to Capel-y-ffin for the annual Father Ignatius Memorial Pilgrimage.  They start at Llanthony Abbey, and go from there to Capel-y-ffin, finishing off at the ruined monastery church.  One of the banners in St Mary's Church is of Our Lady of Capel-y-ffin - a schoolboy had a vision up there in 1880.

And next year there will be the Parish pilgrimage to Walsingham - I visited Walsingham when I lived in Norwich many years ago, and it is a place with a very special atmosphere, so I'd love to go back. 

 

Electrifying Rose Hips

 I was invited to a private party at the Cabinet of Curiosities a couple of nights ago - a thank you from Francoise and Pierre to all the people who had helped them, before the renovation work starts.

They asked people to bring their own glass, and had local cider, Weobley Ash apple juice and Lucky 7 beer available (but no wine). 

They'd also subtly changed the displays throughout the house, as they do every time they open to the public.  I'm sure there were more of the dressed little mannequins around the house - those wooden models that artists use to get poses right when they're drawing.  I noticed a little fisherman this time.  They're made by an artist called Maizie Healy (I think I have the name right - I wasn't taking notes!).

My favourite this time, though, was a large 19th century book which was open on a page of experiments.

I don't know what the book was - it would have been rude to move it to see the cover - but the author was describing an experiment where he electrified rose hips with "electrical fluid" (with the help of his servant!) to see if they would grow better than a control group of rose hips that had just been steeped in water.  And he was successful! 

Film Crew

 There's a film crew in Castle Street - they seem to have nearly finished now, but I don't walk past that way as often now, so I missed them starting off.

Apparently, there's a design show on TV, and they're doing a makeover of Oil and Oak and the guitar shop Wye Fret.  I must say, the guitar shop looks very comfortable inside now, with leather sofas in the middle of the shop.  It's harder to see inside Oil and Oak!

They should be on TV sometime next summer. 

Beautiful Bus Stop

 First there was the new bus stop, and now the area around it is looking even more welcoming to visitors.

Two of the wooden planters that were scattered around town a few years ago have been relocated to either end of the bench (also recently refurbished by Mac).  They've got new plants in them, too, thanks to Francoise and Pierre, who will be keeping an eye on them.

Francoise is also keeping an eye on the timetable situation, and if one doesn't appear very shortly after 1st September, when the bus companies change, she will be chasing them up!

 

Vintage Car

 

A rather gorgeous Bristol car, made in 1947, and first registered in Stoke on Trent according to the Chiltern Vehicle Preservation Group list.

Secret Japanese Wine Bar

 I went to Belmont House for their Secret Garden weekend around lunchtime on Saturday, and it was already busy.  Tables had been laid out around the garden, and the serving tables were at the top, the food table under the kitchen window so that food could just be passed down, and the wine table just round the corner.

I had the vegetarian gyoza (little dumplings).  They also had pork gyoza, a burger, chicken bits and a couple of other things - all of which looked quite interesting.  The wine was from Black Mountain Winery, and I had Shouting at Weather, a sparkling white wine.

I found a bench to one side of the garden.  I remember this garden when it was an allotment, but now it's been transformed with curved flower beds, and many of the plants have literary associations.  Gareth, who does the bookshop for Hay Festival, helped them with the planting.  I was sitting on the camomile lawn (from the book by Mary Wesley), and that's how I found out that I have camomile growing in my garden - some of the wildflower seeds that I sowed earlier in the year came up after all!  

There were several roses ("Roses are easy to find," I was told) - for instance Jane Austen and Lady of Shalott, and other plants included Bertrand Russell, Tom Thumb, Gabriel Oak from Tess of the D'Urbervilles - there were about forty plants in all, with little slate labels.

So, good food and wine, beautiful garden, and a view across the Wye Valley - I hope they do it again some time. 

Percussion with Hay Music

 It's going to be a busy Saturday for Hay Music at the end of August.

In the morning, from 11am at the Globe, is Shake, Rattle and Bash, a workshop for children from eight upwards.  It costs £7.50 for an hour's session, and they will be making music to accompany the story Chico's Big Day Out.

Then in the afternoon, from 2pm, there's the adult session, Samba for Grown-ups, which will last 90 minutes and cost £10.  You can learn all about the different instruments used in samba bands, and they might even have a second workshop if there is enough interest.

And in the evening, also at the Globe at 8pm, is Travels with my Marimba.  Tickets are £10 or £5 for the under-25s.

In this talk, Chris Brannick and his friend Jackie Mann, who were running the daytime sessions, will be recounting tales and anecdotes from around the world, with a selection of percussion instruments from around the world.  In a career that has spanned 30 years and working for the BBC Proms among other things, there'll be a lot to talk about.

 

Secret Japanese Wine Bar

 The Secret Wine Bar will be open at Belmont House from 12 noon to 8pm on Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th August.  The wine will be natural, organic, and local, and there will be Japanese tapas to try.

 

Bus Timetable

 Thank you to the lovely lady who sent me a copy of the new X44 timetable!

The first bus from Hay to Hereford should go at 07.37, and at two hourly intervals after that throughout the day. 

Wye Pilgrimage

 I realised that I hadn't put my photos on the blog yet, of the procession of Our Lady of the Wye on Friday.

After a short Mass at St Mary's Church, the statue was carried through the town to the canoe landing stage, where it was lashed to two canoes (which were already lashed together) for the trip down to Whitney as the first stage of the pilgrimage.

Here's Father Richard, who had the original idea for the pilgrimage.

 

And there they are, about to set off down river.  The banner says "Save The Wye".

The river is very low, after a summer with very little rain. 

Vintage Car

 

Isn't she a beauty?

The number plate began BO, which means the car was originally registered in Cardiff, according to the Chiltern Vehicle Preservation Group, which keeps a database of vintage numberplates.

As I was passing, a man and his little boy had stopped to look at it.  "This is the oldest car in Hay!" he said. 

Fundraiser for Gaza

 There will be a fundraising event for Gaza in Hereford at the Left Bank Village on Friday 22nd August, starting from 5.30pm.

I won't be able to go, because there are no evening buses to come home, but it sounds as if it will be a good night, with Palestinian food, a film and speaker, and music.  The film is Censoring Palestine, which deals with the way the genocide is being reported on in the UK.  The musical performance is called Peace is the Song, and it has been put together by local pro-Palestinian poets, rappers and musicians.  There will also be a creche/craft workshop (some of the images in the film are not suitable for under-15s) where you can make a bird or a friendship bracelet.

All proceeds will go to Medical Aid for Palestinians. 

Booking is essential, and can be done through the Left Bank Village website. 

Great Night at the Basky

 Wednesday night is music night at the Basky, and this Wednesday some of the guests at the hotel joined in (or I presume they were guests - they were just visiting the area, anyway).

Marek is from the Czech Republic, and he was singing in Czech, explaining: "This one is about bad weather - this one is about the Czech Robin Hood...."  There were two violins in the mix last night - regular Tom and a visiting lady, and Marek actually had the music scores for them to accompany him on one of his songs!

The visiting lady said she would only join in with harmonies at first, but was persuaded to do a solo spot as well.  Another lady, who usually performs at the Globe, sang one of her own songs and did a couple of duets with Rob.

Ellie contributed to the multi-lingual nature of the evening by singing a song in Africaans.

Another visitor borrowed a guitar (Bob keeps a spare one at the Basky just in case) - he sang one song that he usually sang at his local rugby club (so it was a bit rude!).

There was the usual mix of classic songs - the Elderly Brothers did a couple of numbers (that's Bob, who runs the evening and  Pete in a duet).

I sang some folky stuff (and one SF song).

Bob and Ellie sang one of Dale's favourite songs that is not Elvis - I Shot Your Dog, which is a farmer apologising to his neighbour for shooting his dog by mistake!  

And the evening ended with Dale and Joe dancing to one of Joe's favourite songs, I'm The King of the Swingers. 

Next week, it will be completely different! 

Local Taxis

 While I was researching other ways to leave Hay if the buses weren't running, I decided to ring round the local taxi firms.  As it was the evening, I wasn't really expecting any answers.  I think it's useful to share what I did find out, though.

Booktown Taxis had an answerphone message to say that they are not taking any bookings because the driver is undergoing cancer treatment at the moment (get well soon, Mike!).

For A2B Taxis I just got the "this number has not been recognised" message.

Haytaxibus - the phone rang, but no-one answered.

Julie's Cabs had an answerphone.  I did leave a message, but no-one has got back to me yet.

Conclusion: it's quite difficult to get a taxi in Hay! 

New Bus Services

 I am not a happy bunny.

I booked a holiday, some time ago, in the belief that I would be able to get the early bus from Hay to Hereford to catch a train.  

Then I started hearing rumours about the change in the bus company that runs the present T14 route, so I thought I'd better check that the timetable hadn't changed.

Turns out that the new operator has cut the early bus altogether, and the first bus into Hereford on the day I want to travel leaves Hay an hour later than my train.  I had to look this up on the Traveline website, which doesn't actually give the number of the bus.

I saw somewhere else on Facebook that Sargeant's bus company are taking over the Hay to Hereford route, and that the bus will be the X44 - but there's nothing at all on their website to suggest this. 

So, I'm presuming that there is no early bus because it won't be a college day, but that doesn't help me catch my train!

[updated]  I got in touch with Sargeants, and they got back to me this morning to say that there would be an X15 school bus leaving from Hay at 7.40am - which should get me to my train! 

Yellow Submarine in the Car Park

 

Lots of Beatles memorabilia on the back window ledge, and pastel Daleks round the front!

Voyage of Our Lady of the Wye

 The statue of Our Lady of the Wye is making its way downriver again, partly as a pilgrimage and partly as a protest against the pollution of the River Wye.

Proceedings begin on Friday August 15th, with a church service at St. Mary's at 10am, followed by a procession through the town to the launch point near Hay Bridge.

On the first day, the pilgrimage will get to Whitney-on-Wye.

On the second day, they get as far as Moccas, to be greeted by Gregorian chant by the monks of Belmont Abbey (with wine and canapes).

The third day sees a Patronal Mass at St. Mary's at 11am, and Evensong at 6pm with Bishop Frome and the Amici choir.

On Monday 18th, the statue sets off from Bredwardine Bridge, to arrive at Hereford Cathedral in time for Evensong at 5.30pm, followed by a party at Old Chapel.

And on the final day, they go from Hereford Cathedral to Hoarwithy, where there will be Evensong at 6.30pm with the Ross Parish Church Choir. 

Dragonflies and Damselflies

 Stu Roberts gave a fascinating talk at the Enchanted Hour at the Library yesterday afternoon.

He talked about the differences between dragonflies and damselflies (dragonflies hold their wings out when at rest; damselflies fold their wings along their backs), and he talked about their life cycle.

Dragonflies spend most of their lives as nymphs, which crawl about in the mud at the bottom of ponds.  They can spend up to four years, getting bigger and bigger, until one day they crawl up a reed, and their body splits open at the back so that the adult dragonfly can emerge.  Stu brought some of these cases along to show us, gathered from his own pond.

Dragonflies will live for a whole summer, but damselflies only live for about a week - and August is the best time to see them, along the banks of the Wye and on the Warren.  Mary Anne suggested that he might like to lead a walk in the next week or so, to see if we could find any, and quite a few people were interested, so that might be happening soon.

There will be no Enchanted Hour in September, but in October there will be four talks, one on each Friday afternoon, on the subject of conservation.  Stu will be giving one of those talks.