Mark Westwood - and stiles

Mark Westwood's shop has now closed for good - but only in Hay. A notice on the door says that he is re-locating to Sedburgh, in Cumbria, and there are pictures of a bookshop that looks spacious and comfortable to browse in.

Meanwhile, I took Islay and Alfie up to the Wyecliff walk. When you cross the bridge out of Hay, you walk up the hill rather than turning down into the Offa's Dyke Path. I don't normally go up there with Alfie because of the way he pulls on the lead, but I was getting bored with Offa's Dyke - and Alfie was being very good.
As I crossed the road (always a bit of dicing with life or death on that corner) I noticed that the stile had been replaced with a smart new gate - much easier to get the dogs through quickly on that stretch of road. It's not busy, but the cars do fly along - and then brake heavily when they come to the bridge. Across the field, that stile too has been replaced with a gate. This is good news for my boyfriend, who is not a country person at all. I once took him on this route; he was wearing a long leather coat, and when he climbed over the stiles he looked like a Gestapo officer come to view the mass graves.

The path here is over an organic farm, and the field borders on the land of the people who hire out geodesic domes as marquees. They have one as a chicken run ("Mmm, chickens..." "No, Islay - don't even think about it!").