Meeting Betty and other news

I saw Betty on the Riverside Path this morning. She said there had been quite an unpleasant incident on the Warren on Easter Monday. A man, not a local, had taken his two alsatians up there. There are sheep on the Warren at the moment, but that's not a problem for those of us with dogs that are trained to ignore sheep - and they tend to ignore the dogs, or just amble out of the way.
Not this time. The two alsatians caused a stampede into the river, and the fire brigade had to be called with their inflatable boat to fish sheep out. I don't know if any sheep were killed but I hope the fire brigade catches up with the man with the alsatians.

On a happier note, Betty was enthusiastic about the Hay Arts meeting last night. They have been approached by a writer, illustrator and poet to help to apply for grants to produce a book about Gerald of Wales, who visited Hay while preaching a Crusade with the Archbishop of Canterbury in around 1180. Betty said that the poet read some of his work out, and he had such a lovely lilting accent (being originally from the Caribbean) that she said they ought to do a CD as well!

The Old Stables Tearooms has been secretly inspected by the Tea Guild, and have passed with flying colours. This is something like getting a Michelin star in the tea shop world, and the owners are delighted!

Western Power spent the day digging up the road in front of the Three Tuns. I think they were putting new cables in for the pub. All is back to normal again now, though for a few hours there seemed to be building work going on everywhere you looked, with the Country Pie having a new window frame put in, and council workmen removing a lamp post behind the Library.

I went round to help Doug with his computer, and found he's become the Lib Dem candidate for Golden Valley North. He shares a house in Cusop Dingle, which is over the border into Herefordshire, so he's eligible to stand as a councillor. Apparently, he said he'd help, and then the original candidate for the council fell ill and there seemed to be no-one able to replace him. Doug has now learned that he has a good chance of winning the seat! I left him designing his campaign leaflet.