Welsh Art at the Castle

 The latest exhibition at Hay Castle (free to enter, once you have your ticket to go upstairs) is a collection of art by Welsh artists.  I had a good chat with the lady who was volunteering to look after the exhibition, and she said that this was a private collection of art from a retired art gallery owner from Cardiff, so all the work there was his own personal taste.

He has very varied taste - from traditional portraits and landscapes to abstracts, and by a wide variety of artists.  Some are famous, like Gwen John and Augustus John, and Sir Kyffin Williams, and some were artists I hadn't heard of, like Harry Holland, who painted the portrait of the black girl which is on the posters for the exhibition, and Jack Jones, whose picture reminded me of Lowry.

I did enjoy seeing the paintings up close, and since this is a private collection, who knows when they'll be available for public viewing again. 

Meanwhile, downstairs the Quilting group was meeting.  They meet most Saturdays from 11am to 1pm, and they're making quilts for refugees.  I think this grew out of the big quilt that was made with the help of refugees, who provided decorated squares for a big quilt, which was later exhibited to raise money for the refugee charity. 

The Bevan Family

 I knew already that Archdeacon Bevan had been Vicar of Hay for 56 years during the 19th century, and that he had lived at Hay Castle with his family when I went to the Enchanted Hour talk at the Library, but I learned a lot about the rest of his family.

John Price has done a huge amount of research into the rest of the family, combing through newspaper articles and diary entries, including the diary of Edward Lear, who wrote a poem for one of the daughters of the family.  (In fact, the talk over-ran the time slot, there was so much to pack in!)

Archdeacon Bevan was involved in just about everything that went on in Hay over that 56 years, and he had some remarkable children.  One of them rose to become Bishop of Swansea and Brecon.  His daughter Mary Louisa (later Mrs Dawson) wrote several books and pamphlets about local history, some of which John had brought along to show us.

Then there was Willy.  William Armine Bevan was a successful businessman - he even owned shares in a gold mine!  He organised shows at Olympia in Kensington, and had a keen interest in music.  He knew several leaders of military bands.  He moved in the same circles as people like Noel Coward.  He also enjoyed yachting, from the Weymouth Yacht Club (where his brother the Bishop died unexpectedly while visiting him). Almost nothing is known about him - this was all pieced together from snippets, but a full biography of him would make fascinating reading! 

It was a very interesting talk, and it would probably be possible to do a full talk about each of the Archdeacon's children, who all seemed to have lived full and interesting lives. 

 

Nourished Earth

 All of the new plants that I've put into my new garden have flourished - except for one.  I bought a fuchsia bush in Hereford, and first all the flowers fell off, and quite quickly it turned into a desiccated stick.

So I needed a replacement - not another fuchsia this time.

I stopped by the big plant stall on the market, but nothing seemed quite right for the space, and then I saw a few elderflower bushes at a stall closer to the Clock Tower.

This was the plant nursery and worm farm Nourished Earth, which was set up this year near Painscastle.  They sell worm tea (don't try to drink it!), biochar, and soft fruit bushes (there's a family connection with growing blackcurrants for Ribena!).  As well as the market stall, they have a website at www.nourishedearth.co.uk

[Edited to add:  I mistakenly said that they sell peat-free compost.  They don't, but they know someone who does!  Hay Regenerative Soils at https://haywegotworms.bigcartel.com/ who also take kitchen waste to turn into compost as a subscription service]

 

They're also making connections in local communities.  For instance, they were selling some tomato plants for a charity called #BeMoreFrank, which was set up to provide help for families in Herefordshire and surrounding counties who have a child suffering from cancer. It was set up by the family of Frank, who sadly died of cancer at the age of 13.  The family would have appreciated help with things like travel to Birmingham Children's Hospital, parking fees, hotels and so on, so when Frank died they decided to do something to provide that help to other families in a similar situation.  They can be found at www.bemorefrank.org

They're also involved with On The Verge in Talgarth, a group that is encouraging anyone with even a tiny plot of ground to get involved to increase biodiversity and create wildlife habitats. They can be found at www.ontheverge.wales

I had a fascinating chat with the chap on the stall, and I came home with one of the elderflower bushes - which still looks healthy so far! 

The Return of the Baskervilles

 Last night at the Baskie had a bit of an Australian theme, as an Australian couple were in the audience - and one of them was called John Baskerville!  He was having a holiday there because he was related to the Baskervilles who built the Hall.

There was also plenty of the Beatles, and the usual mix of vintage pop, folk, songs written by the performer, kazoo solos, and more. 

Enchanted Hour

 John Price will be the speaker at the Enchanted Hour at the Library on Friday 27th June at 2pm.

He'll be talking about the Bevan family at Hay Castle, with unpublished diary extracts from Kilvert, Mary Bevan, and Edward Lear, with connections to Queen Victoria and Rossini, the story of Painscastle and Glasbury, Kipling, Noel Coward, Christopher Dawson,  Hay Church, the town clock, parish hall and cemetery lych gate.

That's a lot to pack into an hour's talk!

Teas and coffees available, and the talks are free.  

Vintage Clothes on Castle Street

 

I thought this was going to be a pop-up shop for the Festival, but it seems to be attached to the guitar shop next door - 1970s jeans and shirts and so on.

Hay Community Resilience Initiative - the Story so Far

 There have now been three Community Assemblies at the Swan Hotel to discuss the three aspects of the plan for Hay.

For the Food initiative, the plan is for Hay to become self-sufficient in locally grown food by 2030.  The priorities are to find a place that can serve as a Food Hub, to share information about food availability, and increase demand for local produce. There is also a need to make it easier to access land on which to grow food, support for growers and supporting food production in community gardens and public spaces.  The Hay group is now working with Bwyd Powys Food, as part of the South Powys Food Loop, and the plan is to develop a Hay Online Real Food Supermarket.  This will be where farmers and growers can sell their produce direct to a membership group of householders in Hay.

The Energy initiative has the ambitious target of becoming self-sufficient in energy by 2035, starting with mapping areas that could be used for energy production and engaging with stakeholders in the wider community, as well as schools locally.  The Hay Resilience Team was recently invited to be part of the Community Energy Wales conference at the Centre for Alternative Technology, and met groups from all over Wales who are doing similar things.

The Wellbeing initiative focused on the need for a Community Hub, training in first aid and listening skills, and making sure that activities and resources take into account accessibility, poverty and inclusion, to combat loneliness in the community.  The team are working on finding a space to house the Food Hub, Online Supermarket, drop-in centre for mental health and offices for the businesses involved in the project.

Obviously there is a lot of work to do, and the vast majority of it will have to be done by volunteers.  One group that has been giving a lot of behind the scenes help is the Powys Facilitators Team, run by Cllr Sian Cox.  A lot of help has also been given by PAVO.  If anyone wants to get involved, there is a link labelled Hay Resilience on the sidebar.

Eventually the Initiative will be self-funding, but until then grant funding is needed, and it takes time and expertise to apply for grants.  So this is a major focus of the team at the moment. 

The Light of Day

 I was going to go to the Hay Music concert at the Castle - until I bumped into Tom from Gay-on-Wye, who reminded me that they were also having an event that evening.  

I felt a bit guilty about stopping him to talk, because he was carrying two heavy boxes, and he dropped one of them and broke two bottles of wine that were intended for the evening's event!

Dale, from Clocktower Books, was interviewing the authors of a new book called The Light of Day, which is a biography/memoir of a man called Roger Butler.  In the early days of campaigning for the legalisation of homosexuality, Roger was an ordinary man who took an extraordinary step.  He sent a letter, with two other men, to the papers, signed with his own name, while homosexuality was illegal.  They were risking prison.

It was important that he was an ordinary man - an estate agent from Lewisham - rather than a celebrity, to make the point that gay men were just ordinary people living ordinary lives, and not some weird creatures on the edge of society.

Decriminalisation of homosexuality came in 1967, but by this time Roger had new challenges to face, as he lost his sight.

Much later Christopher Stephens, one of the authors of the book, met Roger - he was one of the students who went to read to him at his home in Oxford.  They became friends, and Roger left his papers to Christopher when he died.  

When Christopher started to go through them to try to make a book out of them, he enlisted the help of Louise Radnofsky, who had also been a student at a different college in Oxford.  

Louise had flown in from Washington DC early that morning and come straight up to Hay with Christopher - she's now a reporter for the Wall Street Journal.  Christopher is an academic whose last book was on 4thC church history - so this was a bit of a departure for him.

It was a fascinating evening, and of course I bought the book. 

Midsummer Hay Music

 This is a bit late, because I didn't notice the dates!

But there is still time to book for the latest Hay Music events which are tonight, June 20th and tomorrow.

The Ferio Saxophone Quartet will be at the Castle tonight at 7.30pm, playing music from films, TV and stage.  Tickets are £17.50.

And tomorrow they will be playing at a more formal concert at St Mary's Church, with classical music from Bach to Bernstein. Tickets are £20.

All the details, including ticket concessions, are available on the Hay Music website. 

Bluegrass

 Wednesday night was the usual acoustic session at the Baskie, with the added pleasure of musicians who were attending the Bluegrass Festival there this weekend.  It was like being dipped in a warm bath of sound from guitars, banjo, fiddle, double bass and ukelele.  Lots of new songs to listen to, and it gave me an excuse to dig out Billy, Don't Be A Hero, which everyone knew.

There was also a musical tribute to George Cooper, who used to be a regular at the Baskie, and who sadly died this week.  Bob played one of his favourite pieces - Pinball Wizard! 

New Community Centre?

 Could it finally happen this time?

The latest plans for a community centre are for a facility on Forest Road, with room for sports activities, and the Youth Club, Dial-a-Ride office, allotments, business units (to be rented out to provide income to run the centre) and a bike track.  According to the Herald, Powys County Councillors have agreed to release the pot of money they've been sitting on for years to fund design work, surveys, planning applications, and any other work that needs doing on the project.  

The story in the Herald is a few months old, but the story also appeared in the Brecon and Radnor Express, and they have already started building the allotment beds, which don't need planning permission.

Tracy Stedman commented on a previous blog post (about the Well Being Assembly) that the architect and project planning consultant have been appointed, and all the statutory surveys are scheduled, so it's looking very hopeful.

One of the main things that came out of the Health and Well Being Assembly recently was the need for a community centre, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. 

New Bus Stop?

 It seems that action is being taken at the bus stops on Oxford Road again.  New timetable boards have been put up, with up to date timetables.  According to my sources (!) the engineer who put up the boards said that Powys County Council will be replacing the bus stop on the Hereford side of the road with a new bus stop similar to the one they have put in at the top of the car park.

So I shall be keeping a look out, so I can take a photo of the new bus stop when it arrives! 

Old Railway Line Garden Centre

 It's a long time since I've been to the Old Railway Line Garden Centre, and it's grown quite substantially.

It's a quick and easy journey on the bus.  From Hay, the bus drops you just across the road.  Coming back, the bus stop is a hundred yards or so towards Brecon, outside the Landrover dealership.

I met one of my new neighbours going into Brecon on the way there, and we had a fascinating chat.

I only had about an hour until the bus came the other way, so I grabbed a trolley and proceeded to fill it up to my carrying capacity.  Next time I will know that I could be more leisurely - I didn't spend much time exploring the indoor shopping area, which seemed to have everything a gardener could need.

The chap at the till managed to fit all the pots in the carrier bag I'd brought with me, and I was back in Hay by mid-day.  

Then I spent the afternoon planting out my purchases.  The lupin and delphinium and oregano are starting to develop a blue and purple theme.

Later I sat out in my deckchair reading.  A blackbird hopped past me, across the upper flower bed, quite unafraid, and ate every ripe wild strawberry off the plant there, keeping eye contact with me the entire time. 

Artist at the Chair

 I've started going to the launderette again, now I've moved into a place with no washing machine (there's a space for one, but it's not high on my list of priorities).

So while the washing was on, I headed towards Shepherds for a coffee - and never quite made it.  There's a new exhibition at the little gallery and I went in to see that instead.  

Nicky Litchfield paints animals - mostly dog portraits, but other things as well, and with a quirky sense of humour.  She's come all the way from the Ribble Valley in Lancashire for this, and she's fallen in love with Hay.  She was working on a charcoal sketch of a standard poodle when I went in, a new local commission, so the exhibition has been helpful to her.  She was quite excited because she'd just met Barbara Erskine, so I was able to tell her all about Lady of Hay, the book that launched Barbara's career. 

She can be found at www.nickylitchfield.com 

More Crime Fiction

 

Addymans has expanded their crime fiction into the next shop, now called Christie & Doyle.

Meal at Red Indigo

 The Cinema Bookshop did well over the Festival, so last night was a celebration meal to thank the staff for all their hard work.

We went to Red Indigo last year, and decided to go back this year, to sit on the balcony at the back in the evening sun, which was very pleasant.

I had the chat for starters, followed by a jalfryzi, with coriander naan bread, and the portion was too big for me to finish.  Our new part timer took a doggie bag home.  One person ordered the sizzling tandoori, to comments of: "Do you think that's hot enough?" 

Good service (thanks, Eklim!), good food, and pleasant conversation - a very good evening all round. 

Saturday Market Plant Stall

 The Saturday Market happens once a month across the summer months.  There are high quality crafts, organic veg, interesting food - and this time there was a plant stall.  I didn't take much notice of the other side of the stall, which was herbal remedies of some sort - I zeroed in on the plants.  After all, I have a big flowerbed to fill now, and the plants on offer were exactly what I was looking for.  I asked them for a box to carry my purchases away, and I filled it - perennial sweet peas, feverfew, thyme, and peppermint.  The peppermint has gone in a box next to the kitchen door - I don't want it to take over the garden!

I got them home and planted out in nice time before the heavens opened, which signalled the end of the market day!  It was great that it had held off until 2pm, though. 

Walking Holidays

 I went into Hereford on Friday, and also waiting for the bus was a lady who I'd seen on Wednesday evening at Baskerville Hall, in the audience for the acoustic music session.  Turns out that she's an Italian-American lady on a walking holiday, and the two younger ladies she was sitting with are also on a walking holiday - they're doing Land's End to John O'Groats, going around 18 miles a day, while she's heading south at a more leisurely 7 or 8 miles a day.  The ladies going north have a support vehicle - one of their husbands is driving a camper van so they have somewhere to stay every night.

The Italian-American woman was worried about what President Trump is doing, especially with ICE rounding up immigrants, but she said that, if the worst came to the worst, she still had family in Italy, so it wouldn't be so bad to leave the US. 

Affordable Housing

 As a follow up to yesterday's post, I saw in the Brecon and Radnor Express that there is a new plan to build affordable housing on the site where the old community centre was knocked down.

Powys County Council originally owned the site, which they sold to Wales and West Housing - who were going to redevelop it into affordable housing.  However it seems that Wales and West no longer own the site.  The new owners are Pegasus Developments and Hesyn housing association, and they also want to build affordable housing there.  Just to clarify - this is the site behind Garibaldi Terrace, near the bottom of Oxford Road on the bend.  

A consultation is underway, before planning permission is applied for, by the planning agents LRM.  They say this will include details on access, landscaping, drainage and so on.  There will also be an opportunity to comment when the National Parks Authority receive the planning application.

The consultation ends on June 20th, so there's still time to make comments.  The website is:

https://lrm-planning.com/consultation/former-community-centre-off-oxford-road-hay-on-wye/

 

Protests for Palestine

 

There was a little band of people protesting against the genocide in Gaza over Hay Festival, on the Festival site and also in town, around the Castle steps.

They were handing out leaflets recommending that people boycott Israeli produce such as avocados and citrus fruits, and also the companies which are supporting Israel - including Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Costa Coffee, Pizza Hut, Burger King, Macdonalds, Nestle, Walkers crisps, Starbucks, various perfume companies like Estee Lauder, Chanel and Clinique, and various entertainment companies like Disney, Paramount and Fox.  Another company that supports Israel is Caterpillar, who supply armour plated bulldozers to the Israelis, who use them to demolish Palestinian homes and olive groves.

I also noticed this sign, taped to a signboard by the back gates of Hay Castle.  AirB&B is a problem in Hay, as I found when I was trying to move a couple of years ago.  I can see that each individual landlord is making a choice that makes sense for them financially, but when too many people do the same thing at the same time it becomes a problem for the wider society - in this case taking properties out of the pool of long term letting for local people.  

I hadn't realised that the AirB&B company had links to Israel (clicking on the picture should make it big enough to read).

Re-connected to the Hive Consciousness

 In other words, the engineer from BT came round this morning and connected my internet!

So now I can do all the things that my phone didn't have enough signal for during the Festival.

Also, I'm making much better headway with the utility companies now that I know that the almshouses have their very own postcode, different to the rest of Church Street!  Suddenly, I do exist, after all!

In other news there was a small, relaxed gathering at Baskerville Hall last night, as I went over for the first acoustic music evening I've been able to get to for a while.