Remembrance Sunday

 

Here's the band leading the procession to church this afternoon, outside the Cinema Bookshop, playing the Great Escape March.

Also in the procession were the British Legion flag bearers and the Cubs and Cadets.

Here's the war memorial at Peterchurch, seen from the bus window the other day.

 

And here's the statue of Allan Leonard Lewis, the local recipient of the Victoria Cross, in the Old Market, Hereford.

Book Bench

 

I'm not sure when this was installed beside the Castle steps - I only noticed it yesterday!

I think a bench shaped like an open book is a brilliant idea, and I love the little detail of the mouse down at one side.

Inscribed on the open page are the words: 

"Independent thinking begins with independent bookshops"

and

"Lose yourself in books, find yourself in Hay" 

Black Cattle

 

Here we are, just outside Hay, and this is the first time in over thirty years that I've been on a bus to Hereford that was stopped by a herd of cows!  

There was a car in front of them, to warn on-coming traffic, and a chap walking with them - and a tail of cars behind them. 

Post Box Calendar

 I was delighted to find out that there is now a calendar of a selection of the post box toppers that have become a regular feature of the gold post box opposite the Blue Boar.

The price is £10, and they are being sold to raise money for the Christmas lights (yes, the lights are already starting to go up around town).  Each month has a description of the post box topper to explain the designs.

They are available at Focus on Castle Street and Gay-on-Wye (and possibly other places as well, but those are the two I'm sure of). [edited to add: Gay-on-Wye is closed for the forseeable future, sadly.  I hope they're able to reopen soon][edited again to add: they were open again today, Saturday - the notice was only for reduced hours over the winter season]

Lest We Forget

 

Here's the latest seasonal post box topper.

I feel quite sorry for Guy Fawkes - he tends to get squeezed out between Hallowe'en and Remembrance Day. 

Hallowe'en in Hay

 

The jolly bat is in the window of Bohemian Folk, by the Buttermarket.

An American Werewolf in Hay Castle

 It's amazing that this film is 45 years old!  (and I was sitting close to someone in the audience who remembers London looking like it did back then).

Hay Castle had gone all out to create atmosphere, with a smoke machine at the back, and wolf howls in the background as we were coming in.

There was also an added extra - they showed Michael Jackson's Thriller video first, which was great fun and got us all in the mood.

It was also great fun spotting the local locations around Hay Bluff and Crickadarn - there's even a signpost pointing to Erwood.

Then, of course, there are the London scenes, around Piccadilly Circus and Tottenham Court Road tube station, and the zoo!  I'll never look at that tube station the same again!

This was the first time I'd seen the film, so I had no idea that Jenny Agutter was in it, as Nurse Alex Price who befriends the werewolf, John Woodvine as the doctor, with Brian Glover as the surly Yorkshireman in the pub, and a young Rik Mayall! 

There was even an attempt to show how multicultural London was - when our main characters stop for some shopping, the little supermarket is full of people of Indian heritage.

So it was a very enjoyable evening.

Coming up soon at Hay Castle, there's Peter and the Wolf on Saturday 7th November, with music from the Solstice Collective Wind Quintet and puppeteers Jodie Yates and Eve Wilson providing the action of the story.  That's at 5.30pm, with children and under 25s free, adults £15.

And for Christmas, they're doing A Child's Christmas in Wales, performed by the Lighthouse Theatre.  This is a double bill of stories by Dylan Thomas (of course) and also Richard Burton.  It's on Friday 18th December at 7pm.  Tickets are £14, and £8 for under 16s.