Afternoon Concert

 On Saturday morning I went into Hay via the footpath past the Swan Well, and then down to the riverside path, which meant that I passed the gateway to St Mary's church just as a chap was sorting out posters there.  He reminded me of the concert that afternoon, which I had completely forgotten about.

So at 3pm I turned up for a wonderful concert given by the Hay Madrigal singers, in aid of The Lucy and Charlie Charity in Uganda.  They support 43 orphans and a small community in Western Uganda, and the charity started with a donation from two Hay residents to a young man in Uganda, so it has strong local connections.  They are trying to start their own school for the orphans, so they don't have to walk miles to the nearest school.  If anyone is interested in donating, the link is:

http://gogetfunding.com/lucy-and-charlie-charity-center-uganda/

Entrance to the concert was £10, and the church had halved it's usual rate for hiring the space.

We started with Felix Mendelssohn, and moved on to his sister Fanny, whose work was mostly not performed or published in her lifetime, but is now being discovered and performed.  One of the pieces was all about how everything in Creation was singing, so how could she be silent?

The tenor sang Death and the Maiden, in German, and there was a duet from Yeomen of the Guard by Gilbert and Sullivan.  I didn't get one of the flyers, so I don't remember all the pieces, but it was all very good indeed.  Other songs were Yum Yum from the Mikado singing "The sun whose rays are all ablaze"; Rosemary the pianist played a Song Without Words, and there was some Handel.

And also very good cake (though almost all of it had almonds in it!)

There are some other concerts coming up from the same group of singers.

On Saturday 8th August, at 3pm, Lucy Green and Rosemary Firman will be performing songs and piano music by a variety of composers, under the heading Songs of Love and Longing from Paris, Vienna, Milan and Leipzig.  Entry is free, with a retiring collection in aid of church funds.

And on Saturday 22nd August, from 3.30pm, there's Soirees musicales - the story of Robert and Clara Schumann in their own words and music, narrated by Birgitta Claus and Steve Goodridge (the tenor), with Rosemary Firman on the piano.  This concert is also free, with a retiring collection in aid of church funds, and both concerts will have cake and drinks.

We're really very lucky in Hay to have so many talented people who are willing and able to perform for us! 

Summer Show

 Hay Summer Show happens tomorrow, on Hay Playing Fields from 10am.

Lots to see and do, of course.

Lucky Seven brewery are running the bar, and Origin Pizza and Hungry Farmer are providing food.

There will be stalls from local makers and sellers, games, a dog show, bouncy castle and face painting, as well as traditional craft and produce competitions.

There's live music from 3.30pm, and shows by Ferret World, Paws for Thought Dog Agility and Steve Kaos.

Also, HADSCAL will be at their growing space, giving away free produce from their gardens.  They'll also have information about the latest plans for community developments.

It sounds like a brilliant day out - and I'll miss it, because I'm at work! 

 

Steinway Piano

 Sadly, I missed the concerts at St Mary's at the weekend, but I did happen to pop in for a Way-on-High magazine while one of the pianists was practicing on the magnificent Steinway Grand Piano that they had brought with them.

Which made me even more sorry that I missed the actual concerts. 

Tapas at Tomatitos

 My neighbour took me out to dinner to thank me for watering her plants while she was away (none of them died!).  She hasn't eaten out much in Hay before, so I gave her a list of options, and she chose Tomatitos so that we could order a variety of dishes and nibble - it being too hot for a big, heavy meal.

This was also a good choice because of the garden area at the back, which she had been unaware of.  It was a bit too hot and stuffy inside, even after 7pm.  

We had patatas bravas (because I love Brave Potatoes), a cauliflower dish and something with blue cheese and little bits of beetroot, along with a glass of Pinot Grigot - not too much to eat, and a very pleasant evening chatting. 

Beer on the Wye

 I went into Hereford yesterday afternoon with a friend and her two adult children for the nineteenth Beer on the Wye.  It's also running today and tomorrow, at the Rowing Club in Hereford.

 

Because of works that the Rowing Club were doing on the field, the beer festival wasn't held last year.  This year, because of the improvements to the site, the marquee has been erected at 90 degrees to it's position in all the previous festivals - which was a bit disorienting.  Inside, it looks exactly the same, but when you look outside, suddenly you have no idea where the river is!

We got used to it over the afternoon, and even sat at a table by the river (under an umbrella) with a lovely couple from Cardiff who were doing a crossword puzzle.  My friend is a crossword fanatic - she'd even brought some crosswords to do at the festival herself - so we had a lot of fun helping them to solve it and chatting.

Usually at a beer festival I like to try as many different beer styles as possible (subject to my cut off point of a maximum of three pints - any more than that and I feel awful the next day).  So this means six halves, or nine thirds.  However, this time there were two breweries there with beers I wanted to taste, and they were both Gold beers (somewhere around the bitter/IPA area, but now a distinct style of its own).  Uley's Hog's Wallop and Woodfordes Bure Gold were both delicious, but the Uley packed a slightly harder punch at 5.2%.  Then my friend wanted to try the Solstice from Three Tuns brewery at Bishops Castle - we'd both visited the pub at different times some years ago, so it was a bit of a trip down memory lane.  Solstice is a bitter, and very pleasant on a hot day.

I wanted to try a mild, so I went for Old Magic from Magic Dragon in Wrexham - again for nostalgic reasons, because I used to live near Wrexham.  I hadn't come across the brewery before, but it was a very good mild.

I finished off with the Jaipur Union IPA from Thornbridge.  I first tasted Jaipur at a Beer on the Wye (I think it might have won supreme champion of the festival that year) and since then they have installed a traditional Burton Union fermentation system in the brewery (which is something that beer nerds get quite excited about).  It was delicious, and a good beer to round off the session before we went for the last bus home. 

The champion beers of the festival (and also ciders and perries) were announced while we were there, but I didn't write them down.  I think Makerfield from Weird Dad brewery in Newport was the supreme champion this year - it's a pale ale, and Jarl, a blond ale from Fyne Ales in Argyll, all the way from Scotland, was also mentioned, as well as Titan from Left Handed Giant brewery in Bristol, a pale ale. 

And there was a treat when we got back to Hay - a traction engine came down the road just as we got off the bus!

 

Lily Forwood Exhibition

 A friend said I should go to see the exhibition at The Table by Lily Forwood.

She makes big pictures in mixed media, many of them of railway stations, and my friend pointed out that the orange lines on some of them are made from old train tickets.  

She also does local landscapes like the Cat's Back and the Twmpa, and there was one small and very pretty one of the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris.

Two of the pictures have already sold. 

Fir Restaurant

 

The new restaurant has opened at St John's, and a friend stopped me in Spar to rave about how good it was!  As it's a tasting menu, the portions are small - but the flavour, he assured me, is intense and amazing.

I hope the chef does well.