Local Election Results

 So, the results are in.

Plaid Cymru will now be running the Senedd, with Reform in second place.

Locally, Jane Dodds has become the only Lib Dem in Wales to get a seat.  The new voting method meant that each area sends six candidates to the Senedd, and for Brycheiniog Tawe Nedd, the new constituency since the last elections, the six are Jane Dodds for the Lib Dems, 3 members of the Reform party, which got 33% of the vote, and two members of Plaid Cymru.

Labour and the Conservatives got just over 8% of the votes each, so ended up with no-one going into the Senedd here, and the Greens were just behind them with 6.7%.

The turnout  was 53%, which is not bad for local elections.

So Rhun ap Iowerth, the Plaid Cymru leader, will probably become the new First Minister - his party got 43 seats, but there has to be a vote next week to confirm that.

Reform got 34 seats, so are the party of opposition.

Then Labour got 9 (they lost a lot of support), followed by the Welsh Conservatives at 7, the Greens with 2 including Anthony Slaughter, the Welsh Green leader, and finally the Lib Dems with one.

43 seats is not a majority - Plaid Cymru needed six more seats for that - but they do say they will reach out to other parties to form a new Welsh government. 

Dodgy Electoral Tactics?

 When I picked up my copy of the B&R from Spar this week, there was a wrap around advert for the Reform Party with it (the proper front page is inside).

"That's a bit cheeky, isn't it?" I said, and the lady behind the counter said they'd had lots of complaints, with a lot of people leaving the advert behind in the shop - she'd got a big bagful out the back for recycling.

Meanwhile, I have voted and there was a steady stream of people coming into the polling station, even that early in the morning. 

Local Elections

 Don't forget to vote tomorrow!

Here in Hay, most of the posters seem to be for Jane Dodds, the Liberal Democrat. 

Other candidates are available!

I think the results across the country are going to be quite interesting. 

P for Planting

 The next Cabinet of Curiosity event is on Saturday 9th May, and it comes in two parts.

The first is a walk from the Bean Box cafe under Hay Bridge to the Warren, starting at 2.30pm.  The walk will be led by Dr. Emily Warner, from the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery at the University of Oxford, and Jenny Dicker, farmer and specialist in land management.

The second is a film at the Globe about non-native and invasive plants, followed by a panel discussion.  That starts at 7pm.

The panel consists of: 

John Crellin, the County Recorder for Botany for Brecknockshire and author of the recently published Flora of Brecknockshire - he'll have a few copies available for sale.  This was the life's work of John's friend Mike Porter, who died shortly before the book was finished.

Imogen Cripps is head grower at a local walled garden, and she will come with some vegetables from the garden.

Layla Robinson is a dried flower artist who has created many beautiful arrangements for the Cabinet of Curiosities.  She also has a new book out called Everlasting Blooms. 

Beverley Lewis is the Biodiversity Liason Officer for Bannau Brycheiniog National Park.

Sophie Ferrier is the Director of Hay Regenerative Soils and an artist, and she will come with some of her creations and experiments. 

And the facilitator of the panel is Matthew Pryor, a journalist who trained at the Royal Horticultural Society.

The previous talks, walks and films put on by the Cabinet of Curiosities have all been fascinating.  

I don't know if I'll be able to get to the Globe, since I'm giving a talk myself on Saturday afternoon, and I might have run out of energy!

 

"Poor and Indignant Women"

 I was just putting my recycling outside the front door when two ladies waved to me from across the street.

They pointed up to the stone sign over the middle of the row of almshouses.

"We were just reading about the poor and indignant women - and here you are, right on cue!"

(It's actually "poor and indigent", but who says indigent any more?) 

A New Chapter for Chapters

 I've just seen the announcement that Mark and Charmaine McHugo are closing their restaurant in Hay after seven years.  Chapters is in part of the building of St John's Chapel, opposite Tomatitos.  They are serving their last meals on 16th May.

Taking over will be chef Matt Sampson.  He intends to serve just twelve covers (Chapters presently serves twenty two covers), and plans a fourteen course tasting menu focusing on fish and shellfish, with a few meat courses - all for £98!

Not the sort of place to pop into for a snack, then - more of a very special night out. 

A Long Walk and a Bus Ride

 I'm really glad I decided to go for a walk up Cusop Hill yesterday, when it was so hot I didn't even need a coat (and I nearly always wear a coat).  I'd been looking at some aerial photos of the area and saw what looked awfully like crop marks on top of Cusop Hill - and my curiosity was aroused.  

The public footpath goes up past Capodolwyn, and I was pleased to see that someone is renovating the house after many years of it lying empty.  On the way up the field, I startled a hare, who loped off into the distance, and when I had a sit down later, higher up the hill, a red kite flew by below me.  There's another ruined building above Capodolwyn, and I was lucky enough to find a piece of a slipware bowl there, probably from the 17th century.  I was up that way because I slightly mislaid the path, so I was following the fence line round until I came to the stile, which is usable though not in very good repair.

The views from the top of Cusop Hill are spectacular - all down the Wye Valley and across the plains of Herefordshire.  The traces of archaeology were less so.  I think that the markings I had taken to be ditches were actually natural features draining the water from boggy areas - though there had been some stone quarrying up there at some point, and there's a fairly modern pond with the spoil heap from digging it out right next to it.

Still, it was a glorious day, and the hedgerows were full of wild flowers as I came back into Hay.

This morning the weather was decidedly chilly and grey, but I had to go into Hereford to do a few things.  The Golden Valley is still blocked off, I think at Peterchurch, so the bus turned round to go down the hill and cross the river, for a non-stop journey to Hereford.  Despite the greyness (and some rain) it was lovely to see all the apple orchards in blossom.

One of the things I wanted to do was to look at the local history section of Hereford Library.  The Library has been in temporary accommodation in the Town Hall for some time now, and it's a very ornate building inside as well as out.  Being temporary, until the new premises in the Shire Hall are ready, there is only a small selection of books available, but I still found something useful.  I also joined the library, so next time I can check out up to twenty books (!).  I was given the choice of four different pictures to go on my new library card, and I chose the one with shelves of books facing each other, with birds flying between them.

On the way back, the bus was labelled the X15 rather than the X44, and again went non-stop on the other side of the river from the Golden Valley.