The Kitchen Shelf

 

I only went away for a few days, and when I got back a new bookshop had opened!

The Kitchen Shelf sells cookery books, along with a few condiments and accessories for kitchens.  They're in the shop that used to house the Haymakers, who have now moved next to the Buttermarket. 

Fragility Into Form

 The Cabinet of Curiosities is putting on an exhibition of the work of Dotty Brotherton-Ratcliffe.  She's a weaver and dyer, and a lot of the exhibition is formed of pieces she made for her degree at the University of Brighton (she got a First!).

She works with natural dyes, and makes some rich deep browns by, for instance, adding rust to oak galls.  Hence the pieces of rusted metal which are part of the exhibition.

These pieces are dyed with madder.

 

Because the house on Oxford Road is still in the process of renovation, this is a travelling exhibition - round the corner into the garage/studio in Bear Street.

This will be the last exhibition to be held in the Bear Street studio, as they are selling it to the family who live next door.

The exhibition is on until Saturday 17th October, from 11am to 6pm. 

Witches and Healers Exhibition in Manchester

 

Here's a video of the Witches and Healers exhibition at the Portico Library in Manchester - I was invited because I'm one of the exhibits!  In fact, when I arrived I was delighted to find that Rosie Reed Hillman had used three of the photos she took when I took her to the Swan Well.

The video was taken by Claire, from Middlesborough, who was likewise delighted that her book on telling fortunes by casting lots is on sale at the Library.  She runs a Facebook page called Hedge Witchery UK.

It was a wonderful event, and the exhibition is on in Manchester until March, when it moves to Glasgow.  There is also a film about three of the women in the exhibition, but that isn't being shown until the end of the month.

There was even a link with Hay - and Timbuktu!  The lady with long grey hair (seen communing with a rock in her photo, somewhere near Fishguard), travelled a lot around Africa in her younger days, and spent some time in Mali and Timbuktu.  She was asked to come to speak to the Timbuktu Twinning committee when the twinning project started, and talked about the storytelling traditions in Mali.  Some stories can only be told on one night of the year, and when that night comes round, the community stays up all night to listen to the stories. 

Normal Service will Soon Be Resumed!

 I've been away on holiday twice over the last couple of weeks.  The first one was a trip to North Wales to revisit some scenes of my childhood holidays:

 This is the bridge at Llanrwst, with the tea shop covered in Virginia creeper on the far bank (the cakes are awesome!)

And today I got back from a couple of days in Manchester, where I had been invited to the opening of an exhibition in the Portico Library entitled Witches and Healers.

I had an absolutely brilliant time!

I know that quite a few things have been happening in Hay while I've been distracted, but I hope to get round to talking about them soon! 

Drone Flight

 Hay is busy with visitors for the Fungi Town events and the last Saturday market of the year, in bright sunshine which is unseasonably warm for the beginning of October.

Meanwhile, I was up in Cusop churchyard with members of the Cusop Castle Dig committee and the Cusop Dingle Research Group, and a man with a drone!

It was fascinating watching him work.  The drone has a legal height limit of 120m, and a voice on the control panel warns the operator when they've reached that height - but that was quite high enough to get good views of the churchyard and over towards the castle and the Dingle.  The photos and 360 degree panorama he took will be used for research by the groups.  We will be looking for any archaeological features which are visible from above, as well as things like how field boundaries fit together.  Some of this can be done from maps, but it's so much better to have the photos to work from.

For some reason I've been getting clips of Gerry Anderson's UFO series on my social media recently, and the drone looked just like something Gerry Anderson would have dreamed up for Thunderbirds or one of his other puppet series - except we can do it for real now. 

Fungi Town

 Here's the latest post box topper celebrating the Fungi Town weekend.  Most of the shops have got mushroom themed window displays, too - even the estate agent!

The full programme of events is at fungitown.org.uk 

Crowdfunder for Talgarth Mill

 Talgarth's mill wheel has stopped turning.

The volunteers who run Talgarth Mill had been making flour to sell through the Mill shop, but they can no longer do that because the mill wheel needs £10,000 worth of repairs (including a new sluice gate).  They also want to raise another £10,000 for necessary maintenance on the mill building. 

So they have thought up several money raising schemes.

The main one is the Crowdfunder   https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/keep-the-mill-wheels-turning-1?utm_campaign=sharemodal&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=shortlink&fbclid=IwY2xjawUludlleHRuA2FlbQIxMABwZG9mBWJyaWQRMW13SFBPaUNxTXM3bjNpNEZzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEe4XbBPr9FZmr_8_U0a4cFkrvlF30YwJxbBIO5nNwhUXHsVGBSvziG-uAd7q8_aem_N_LAnU49PNms-Ct9fGibbQ

I know it's a long link - it's also possible to go to the TalgarthMill Facebook page to access the crowdfunder directly from there.

They are also planning Pizza and drinks evenings at the cafe, and a poetry evening, and an afternoon talk with local illustrator and printmaker Hannah Firman.

All donors to the crowdfunder will become a Member of Talgarth Mill.