Garden Warming

I've just come back from a wonderful evening - in fact, if I wasn't going to work tomorrow I'd still be up there, sitting round the campfire, listening to people singing to guitar and mandolin.
I was up at the Community Garden, Hayfield, just outside Hay on the other side of the bridge, to celebrate the success of the garden and to welcome Steph Bradley to town on her walk around the country, collecting Transition Tales. She told us about some of the other towns and cities she has visited, since she set off from the "town that is not too big and not too small", and some of the good things that are happening around the country. I rather liked the idea of the Saturday cycle rides in one town, going to one place for a starter, riding on to find a main course, eating and talking and digesting and then riding on again for dessert. Steph has also visited forest gardens, and community gardens, and seen the Cambridge herd of cows, sharing the common with dog walkers and cyclists, and many other fun things. One of the points she made was that Peak Oil is serious, but our response to the crisis can be a lot of fun.
There were also the most wonderful cakes (especially the chocolate one smothered with cream and summer fruits).
The garden itself is quite impressive, too. They've only had the ground for about three months, and already they have a surplus of potatoes, and big healthy courgette plants, and wigwams of beans, and fennel and beetroot and turnips and sweet peas and flowers - and a composting toilet suitable for wheelchair access, which was built when the lower part of the field was rented out for tents for the Festival.
One of our local artists has suggested that it would be a good place for art workshops, too, with such a wonderful view of Hay across the river.