Film about Phosphates

 I ran into Father David this morning outside the Cozy Cafe, and he told me about a short film that he's hosting at St Mary's Church on Thursday 31st October at 7.30pm.

It's only half an hour long, and it's about the problems with phosphates which are used as fertiliser on farmers' fields and then washed into the rivers, causing pollution.

Most of the film is about the Somerset Levels, but they also mention Our Lady of the Waters and the pilgrimage begun by Father Richard.  As well as the footage of the first pilgrimage, they have contributions from scientists, farmers, businesses, and concerned individuals.

This isn't just a problem in the UK, of course - it's global, because of modern farming techniques, and until those techniques are changed, the problem will only get worse.

Entry is free, refreshments will be available, and there will be a Q&A session after the film.

Very, Very Wet

 I'm thinking of sending out a raven to search for signs of dry land!  

Today children were sent home from school early - and Peterchurch School is rumoured to have flooded!  Michaelchurch Escley and Clifford schools have also been closed.

Meanwhile bus routes across Herefordshire were shut down because of the amount of water on the roads, and top soil from fields is washing into the river at a worrying rate.

And it's still raining.

Heritage Apples at the Library

 About a dozen people gathered for Ainsleigh Rice's talk on Heritage Apples, which turned out to be a fascinating look at the detective work that researchers have to do to correctly identify the different varieties.

These days, it's possible to get a DNA fingerprint of the apple variety, and the National Fruit Collection has a huge collection of these - but it's still possible to find something that has never been seen by the NFC, and it's also true that mistakes happen, and apples are mis-named or renamed.  One of the four apple varieties Ainsleigh talked about, Brithmawr, turned out to have been renamed by a rival plant nursery as Pride of the Orchard, and the original grower even had a note printed in his catalogues warning of this unethical practice.

The first apple to be featured was Gabalva - which comes from Cardiff (not related to Cabalva across the river from Hay).  The variety was discovered at Aberglasney Hall, and Cardiff Castle is about to replant some trees; the original breeder was the head gardener for the Marquis of Bute, and worked at Cardiff Castle.

Then there was Hitchin's Pippin, or Hedge Apple, Brithmawr and finally the much more complicated story of Egglestone Styre, which presently has two rival claimants for the name, one by way of Tasmania!  After seeing the painstaking way that the evidence was put together for the previous three apples (including tracing a link from Rutland to Crickhowell by way of a Victorian wedding) I'd tend to side with the non-Tasmanian option, which actually has paper records to support it.  The Bulmers sales records had a sale listed to an orchard on the other side of Herefordshire of 52 trees in 1934 - the orchard still exists, and they still have their records which show that they bought 52 trees, and where they planted them.  Unfortunately, they didn't like Egglestone Styre as a cider apple, so they cut off the tops of those trees, and grafted new varieties onto the root stock. 

Apple trees are wierd like that.  It's impossible to grow a variety from seed - just about anything apple shaped would come up - so keeping the variety going is done by grafting scions of the original tree onto root stock.

Fortunately for the investigators, in this case the orchard workers missed some of the original fruiting branches, so the trees that now exist carry fruit of both varieties!  Since one is yellow and the others (one of them was Dabinett) are red, they were easy to tell apart!

All the apples mentioned in the talk were there on the table in front of Ainsleigh.  When I went in to the talk, the apples were just apples.  By the end of the talk, I was amazed that I hadn't noticed all of those Really Obvious Differences between them!

Now is probably a good moment to mention the Marcher Apple Network, which does a lot of good apple related work locally, and only costs £20 a year to join.

Also, Ainsleigh is hosting a walk around his own orchard in Cusop next Sunday, weather permitting, time to be arranged.

This was the first Enchanted Hour that Mary Anne arranged, since the librarian who started it can no longer carry on.  I hope it's the first of many under the 'new management'!

Spooky Season

 

                                            Here's the latest seasonal post box topper!

Enchanted Hour - Apples

 The next Enchanted Hour at the Library will be on Friday 11th October at 2pm.  

Ainsleigh Rice will be talking about Heritage Apples.

Father Richard's CD

 I was meeting a friend outside the church this afternoon, and as I was a few minutes early I slipped inside.

On sale at the table at the back of the church is a new CD by Father Richard.  It's called Parish Notes and includes a variety of extemporisation on classical tunes, a couple of Jerome Kern tunes and some classical music - all for the organ, of course.  I'm playing it now in the background, and it's very good.  The price is £10.  

Father Richard's event at the Winter Festival, where he plays the organ for the silent film Metropolis, is already sold out, by the way, so the CD is a good way to get a flavour of his playing whenever you want!

While I was there I also picked up the latest issue of Way on High.  It was a bit of a surprise to see that they are commemorating the death of David Rees in 2000 - he was the vicar of Hay before Father Richard, and I knew him quite well.  It doesn't seem that long ago!

I also noticed that Father David is now the vicar of Clyro as well as Hay.  This is in addition to the churches at Llanigon and Capel-y-ffin, which have been looked after by the vicar of Hay for many years.

He also reported on the pilgrimage of Our Lady down the Wye, which was a great success.  They hope to make it an annual occurance.

Winter Festival

 The brochure for the Winter Festival is now out, and the tickets are flying out!  I went up to the box office this morning and was only just in time for the events I wanted to see.

The dates this year are Thursday 28th November to Sunday 1st December, and for the first time in years I'm going to miss the Switching on of the Christmas Lights on Friday evening, because I will he heading for the church to watch Father Richard play the organ for the film Metropolis!  (I could do both, but it would be a bit of a rush).

Then on Saturday morning I'm going to see George Nash talk about the Neolithic tombs of Wales, also in St Mary's Church.

Other highlights of the weekend are the Quentin Blake Exhibition and a talk on the demons, witches and ghosts of Christmas by Sarah Clegg, John Fitzpatrick and Blackthorn Ritualistic Folk at Hay Castle.

There's also a cello concert at St Mary's Church on Saturday evening, a guided walk on Sunday, Tom Bullough (local author) talking to artist Jackie Morris about Writing and Rivers, Natalie Haynes talking about Goddesses in Greek Myth, Jenny Eclair, Carol Vordeman, Paterson Joseph, Jonathan Dimbleby and David Olusoga, Luke Evans, Ali Smith and more!

There's also an online pass for people who can't be there in person to watch from home for selected events.

If I had unlimited funds, I'd be going to a lot more than two events!

I also find it interesting that one of the sponsors of the Winter Festival this year is Visit Seattle, which is where the World Science Fiction Convention will be held next year.