Food Festival Weekend

Lots of people about for the Food Fair - and lots of good food, with pots of herbs for sale as well. Entertainment was provided by a brass band (I think it was the Brecon Band), and a choir of small school children - there was probably more, but not while I was there. Chef on the Run had a stand with leaflets - they're reserve winners of the True Taste (Gwir Flas) Wales Awards this year, with their rhubarb and blackcurrant jam.

In the middle of the day, a traction engine chugged through town, on the way to the meadow by the river where the wicker man had been erected. I was in the back garden (harvesting my blackcurrant crop, all 23 berries of it!) when I first heard the hooter on it, and the rattling of the iron wheels on the road, and I still had plenty of time to get round the front to watch it swing round the corner to the bridge, leaving a tang of coal dust in the air in its wake.

In the afternoon, there were Morris men wandering around town. You could hear them before you saw them, too, on account of the many bells they were all wearing. They were the Aldbury Morris Men, and they were performing in Kilvert's garden through the afternoon. The sign said "expect quaffing ale....and dancing with bells on".

And if all that weren't enough, over the river, there was jousting at Clyro Court.

This morning I took Islay over the river to Wyecliff for her walk - and they did burn the wicker man last night. There's nothing left but a black patch on the meadow.

I didn't get to see what was going on today, but the posters were up for an Arts and Crafts Fair, doing a quick changeover from the food, and the drink moved into the Buttermarket for a mini Beer (and cider, and perry) Festival. I got a bottle of beer yesterday, Cat's Whiskers from the Whittington Brewery in Gloucestershire, and it was just the thing for a hot summer's afternoon in the garden.