More Archaeology in Hay

 Exciting news at the Castle mound in the old cattle market by the Swan - trial trenches are being opened up this week to search for evidence of the original Norman castle.  This is the castle that came before Matilda de Braose built the present Hay Castle.

Black Mountains Archaeology Ltd. have been hired by Powys County Council to do the dig, and it's professionals only - not like the Cusop Castle dig in June, which welcomes volunteers as a community dig.

I'm hoping to get there towards the end of the week to see what they've uncovered.

 

Quilting at the Castle

 The entrance hall to the Castle has been moved around a bit, so the reception desk is no longer by the stairs, but directly opposite the front door where it can be seen more easily.  However, this means that the quilting table was pushed into a corner - about half the table was in direct light from one of the windows, but the corner was a bit dark.

I wasn't sure what to expect, so I went along with no sewing materials at all.  The regular ladies quickly set me up with needle, thread, snips and a pile of material cut into hexagons that needed to be sewn to hexagon shaped pieces of paper.  When the quilts are finally assembled, the paper is taken out.

Another new lady was shown how to add hexagons onto a partly completed quilt.

Each quilt is quite small, and they are intended to be given to new refugees.

Conversation around the table was  interesting - one lady was about to go to Shanghai to see her son.  Another lady is a potter, and she showed us pictures of a Viking lamp she had made.  This is a small bowl with a central column, and you wind beeswax impregnated twine round the column to make the wick, then fill the bowl with wax, or olive oil, or whale blubber if you've got it!  Because it's a coiled wick, it makes a brighter light than a normal candle.

Another lady had pictures of the Red Dress.  It's an absolutely gorgeous silk dress, made from embroidered pieces from all over the world, and it took years to put together.  Many of the pieces were made by refugees.  It's now touring on exhibition - it was at Theatr Brycheiniog last September, and it's in Geneva on 10th March.  Later in the year it will be in Australia. 

There's now a new project for a Calico Dress made in a similar way.  Calico Dress Cymru has been made by a variety of different groups across Wales, in partnership with the Waterfront Museum in Swansea.  Other calico dresses are being developed around the world.

The quilting group meets every Saturday at 11am at the Castle, and I've already put a little box of supplies ready for next week. 

Dydd Dewi Sant Hapus

 

Wyevale

 I went into Hereford to buy some train tickets, and do some other necessary business, and have a look for some new boots.  Sadly, nothing caught my eye, but I did run into two lovely ladies who recognised me from my blog.  Since there was a while to wait until the next bus home, they offered me a lift.

On the way, they wanted to pop into Wyevale Garden Centre.  I haven't been there for years, so I was quite happy to have a look round with them.  Also, I had been thinking of buying a dwarf plum tree for my garden, and they said there was plenty of room in the back of the car for it.  They even let me use their discount card to buy it.

So thank you Penny and Liz for the lift home, the garden centre, and the interesting conversation.  I'm really glad I bumped into them! 

Scaffolding

 

Scaffolding is going up around the Cabinet of Curiosities - it looks as if it's going to go right over the roof.

It's good to see the work starting to renovate the building. 

13th Anniversary at the Baskie

 It was the 13th Anniversary of the first acoustic Wednesday evening session at Baskerville Hall last night, and a good crowd came to celebrate - some of whom hadn't been for several years!  They all knew each other from other local open mics, though, so there was a lot of very nice collaboration going on, with guitars and harmonicas and, occasionally, Ellie's train whistle!  I went back to some of the very first things I did when I started going (not quite thirteen years ago), so they got the Joyce Grenfell monologue where one of the nursery children gets her finger stuck in the keyhole.

We also got some Elvis for Dale, and Jolene for Joe, with Dale and Joe dancing at the end.

It was an excellent evening, and there were also sausage rolls and chocolates to celebrate. 

Collapsing Castle

 I was very sad to hear that one of the towers at Clifford Castle has collapsed, due to the heavy rain we've been having.

The owner of the castle had been opening it to the public for twenty eight days a year (I went up there with a group a few years ago, and had a good look round).  But now he says he's closing the site, because he can't take the risk of anyone getting hurt.  He's working with Historic England now to see how the site can be stabilised and made safe.