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: