There are many advantages to living in a 200 year old listed building - this is just one of them.
Looking online for ways to cool buildings (in the absence of air con or fans), it occurred to me that the almshouses come equipped with fully functional shutters at the windows.
So this morning I closed the shutters, brushed all the accumulated dead leaves and spiders webs off the back of them (sorry, evicted spider!) and voila! It really helps!
I was going to go out with a friend to visit some local ancient sites, but we decided it was much too hot.
So we thought we might go to the Honey Cafe at Bronllys instead.
The Honey Cafe was closed (they obviously thought it was too hot, too) so we thought we'd try the Mill at Talgarth.
They were open, but the bakery part was closed because of the heat.
We had intended to only have coffee, or maybe a cake, but I happened to notice the breakfast menu, and Eggs in Purgatory! I'd heard of devilled eggs before, but not purgatorial ones. So I decided to be extravagant, and it was so worth it! The eggs came smothered in a sauce of dhal and some sort of green leaf (spinach?) and yoghurt, and it was absolutely delicious!
We sat out in the courtyard in the shade, with just a light breeze to make it pleasant.
The cafe is run by Triggs at the Mill.
When I moved into the almshouse, the previous lady had left behind some good quality curtains - but a bit too floral for my tastes. A year has passed, and I started thinking about changing the curtains round, so I went into Hereford this morning to look for some new ones. I thought that it would be easy....
There used to be a shop that did made to measure curtains and blinds - but it's gone now. So I went round all the big stores - no curtains. And I went round the charity shops - some curtains, but not the sizes I needed. Finally I tried fabric shops - I can always have a go at making my own. The fabric shop behind the Green Dragon has gone - there's an interesting looking burger bar and bookshop there now. And there used to be a good shop for patchwork in Capuchin Yard, but that seems to be selling general homeware now.
In the other fabric shop near Maylord Orchards, the lady was actually adjusting some curtains for a customer, and she told me the only place that sold ready made curtains was Dunelms - which is out of town, of course. I have walked out there, when I wanted to go to the Hobbycraft shop that's in the same group of big shops, but getting a taxi from the railway station is easier. Of course, I'd run out of time for today, if I wanted to catch the bus home, so that will have to be a project for another trip.
I won't be going to the Talgarth Big Eats, because the PBFA Book Fair will be on the same day, Saturday 4th July.
I think this is the third (or possibly fourth?) time the Book Fair has been held in Hay Castle, and it's been very successful. Entry is free, and the exhibitors are all specialists in rare and vintage books.
This is, obviously, in Talgarth, but the Hay Community Resilience Initiative is involved.
Talgarth Big Eats host meals where the community comes together to prepare, cook, and eat nutritious local food, to help participants learn how to cook healthy food, meet their neighbours and community members, and spend meaningful time together sharing good food. This is the first of hopefully many Big Eats, which will take place in Hay, Talgarth and Brecon in the future.
They're hoping to have other meals in Hay and Brecon in the future, and so the Hay group is getting involved, and putting a call out for volunteers to help on the day.
The event runs from 10am to 2pm on Saturday July 4th, and they need early volunteers from 8.30am, the rest of the volunteers from 9.30am, and a few people to help clear up after 2pm. If anyone is interested but could only make part of the time, they would be welcome too.
Mainly it involves supervising participants as they prepare food for cooking (sharp knives and so forth), some washing up, and help with kids' activities.
The person to contact, for anyone interested, is Forrest the Volunteer co-ordinator, on 07763 757179 or email at forresterfolks@proton.me There will be a briefing before the event, and plenty of snacks.
And anyone who can't volunteer but would still like to come along will be very welcome. It's free, you get to meet local people, support the local community, and enjoy a healthy free meal!
This is based on Hereford Big Eats, and the purpose behind it is to encourage nutritional justice - the idea that access to healthy, nutritional food shouldn't be limited by affordability or perceived entitlement, while at the same time strengthening the local community and creating opportunities for food sharing and celebration.
I had a very enjoyable trip out to Mouse Castle with a friend yesterday. We were going to have a look at the earthworks around the motte to see if they might possibly look Iron Age rather than Norman.
It's a nice theory, but I think I agree with Tim Hoverd, the County Archaeologist, who has done a survey of the site and comes down firmly on the side of Norman.
By the entrance to the wood, there's a strange earthwork in the field which also may be part of the castle defences, but we didn't want to trespass in the field, and it was difficult to get close enough from inside the wood because of all the undergrowth (the perils of archaeological surveying!). There were also a lot of brambles around the motte, which have regrown since they were cleared a few years ago.
Very little is documented about Mouse Castle - I did a bit of preliminary research online, and one website suggests the castle was never finished, while another thinks it might have been built by Roger de Lacy - the de Lacys were an important medieval family in the area.
Kilvert has a charming diary entry about visiting the site. Back then the top of the hill was clear of trees, apart from the top of the motte itself. Kilvert met "a wild group. A stout elderly man in a velveteen jacket with a walking stick sat or lay upon the dry turf. Beside him sat one or two young girls, while two or three more girls and boys climbed up and down an accessible point in the rampart like young wild goats, swarmed up into the hazel trees on the top of the rock and sat in the forks and swung. I could not make the party out at all. They were not poor and they certainly were not rich. They did not look like farmers, cottagers or artizans. They were perfectly nondescript, seemed to have come from nowhere and to be going nowhere, but just to have fallen from the sky upon Mouse Castle, and to be just amusing themselves."
At the beginning of May, I dropped my shoes off for the cobbler who picks work up from Country Supplies. They warned me that he hasn't been well, so a few days ago I asked if they'd been heeled, and he hadn't even managed to get over to pick them up. I hope he recovers, but the ladies in the Post Office looked a bit doubtful.
So the first job of the day in Hereford was to go to Cobblers and Keys to drop the shoes off - and an hour later, they were ready.
I also had some financial business to do. I opened a new savings account with the Monmouthshire Building Society, so I can close my account at the Yorkshire Building Society. At least I can get into Hereford to visit the branch in person - which I will not be able to do when the YBS closes their office in Hay at the beginning of August, unless I want a whole day out to visit Abergavenny.
I also visited the EE shop to update my mobile phone contract, which was pleasantly easy.
There was plenty of time before the bus home to visit the Library (still in the Town Hall) to do a bit of local history research, and go down to the Barrels for a half of Wholesome Stout. On the way back to the middle of town, I noticed that the Town Hall was flyng the Pride flag:
