The Warren

I went down to the Warren this afternoon. There were people playing ball games, people walking dogs, and people skimming stones across the river. Flotillas of canoes were on the river - we could only just get past the canoe landing stage. That's me and two dogs who were interested in meeting everyone - "and are you going anywhere interesting, and can I get in the car with you?"

Back in town, I met an old chap who was about to sell the organ music that had belonged to his late wife. He was looking for somewhere to park when he brought the four boxes of musical scores to be looked at. "I used to come here in a pony and trap," he said. "We always left it at the Three Tuns - the horse inside and the trap outside. Then we got a car, and once I ran into the Castle wall. My aunt," he continued, "was one of the last two people to cross the Toll Bridge when it was a Toll Bridge. There's a photo of her in her pony and trap."

Down at the Globe, they're having a "Posh Sale" next weekend. It was a "Posh Boot" but the 'Boot' has been painted out on the signs. The building is up for sale. It has gallery space upstairs, where the chapel once was, and a quite large flat in the basement, where the Sunday School was once held. When I first came to Hay, the basement was rented out to one of the antique dealers in Hay as a store room. Then, when the chapel was first converted into an art gallery, the lower rooms were gallery space too.
I remember going to a party for Hay Arts there. Every now and then, one person would sidle up to another and whisper "Have you been downstairs to see the shed yet?" When I finally went down, one of the downstairs rooms had a very ordinary garden shed in it. Then you went inside the garden shed - and saw the stained glass windows. There was a lot of pink, and bodies in some very interesting positions....
Then I went upstairs, sidled up to a friend, and whispered "Have you been downstairs to see the shed yet?"