The Reading Room Cafe

 Booths Bookshop has just re-opened their cafe space at the back of the main shop, under the title The Reading Room, and I went there this afternoon for tea and cakes with a friend.

They even have a little stack of those Penguin taster booklets on each table, so you can browse while you're waiting for your order.  The booklets on our table were mainly Longfellow, I think.

The cakes are excellent - I had the apple cake and my friend had the chocolate brownie.  Both of them were warm with a dab of cream.  We shared a pot of English Breakfast tea.

And we talked - from 2pm when we went in, until the cafe closed at 3.30pm!

I was trying to remember the last time I was in there - the original cafe closed during Covid - and I think it was when a group of women got together to sew costumes for people to try on at the Castle.  As a medieval re-enactor, I was there as the authenticity consultant - which was a good thing, because I think they were all far better at dressmaking than I was!

It's a lovely cafe space - they've made it a bit smaller with a partition wall, but there's still a good view of the courtyard garden, which makes it a very pleasant place to sit (and talk!). 

Music by Women Composers

 There's going to be a special concert at St Mary's, organised by Hay Music, on Thursday 19th November at 7pm.  

The composers are all women.

The songs are all about women

And the performers are all women.

(really, this shouldn't be an exceptional thing in the 21st century, but it seems that somehow it still is).

This follows on from the wonderful concerts featuring the work of Clara Schumann, earlier in the year.

The concert is called Between Two Worlds, and is performed by soprano Jennifer France and pianist Lana Bode.

As well as songs by Fanny Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann,  there is a modern piece by Emma-Ruth Richards, with words by poet Kate Wakeling.  Both of them will be at the performance.

There are also pieces by Libby Larson, Rebecca Clarke, Kaija Saariaho and others.

Tickets are £20, with under-25s £10, available through the Hay Music website, the Tourist Information Office or on the door (if any are still available on the night).  There are also a small number of free tickets for under-25s from the website. 

Mark Westwood

 I was sorry to hear, via Facebook, that Mark Westwood died on Saturday.

When I first came to Hay, Westwood Books was the shop where Green Ink is now, but they also had the upper floors of the building as bookshop.

Later they moved to the Lake District, and opened a bookshop there.

When Mark and Evelyn retired, though, they came back to Hay.

Details of the funeral are yet to be announced.  I'm sure a lot of booksellers will want to be there. 

New Tourist Information Office

 

The Tourist Information Office has now moved out of the shop next to Country Supplies/the Post Office (the lease was up, and the owner of the building wants to sell it).  Now they are sharing a shop with Hay Tek in Backfold - and they are putting up extra signage so that visitors can find them.

The HayTek chap only uses the shop two days a week, and has a workshop at the back, so there's plenty of room for the Tourist Information people and all their leaflets and so on.

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.