More Bargains

Lots of car boots down at the school yesterday - obviously tempted out by the sunshine! I met a lovely girl who's just come back from Portugal after eight years out there. She was selling rag rug making kits - and I learned how to make rag rugs at a workshop run by Jenni Stuart Anderson, at what is now the Hourglass Gallery on Broad Street, so we got talking, and I ended up buying all her back copies of Sacred Hoop magazine.
One of my neighbours was there too, doing a clear out, and she had some lovely silky shawls from the Far East (Vietnam, possibly?).
I also picked up the Russell Crowe Robin Hood movie for £1, which should be entertaining. (My favourite Robin of all time is, of course, the great Errol Flynn, followed fairly closely by Richard Greene).

After that, it was off to the pony sale. I've never been to one before, but one of my friends was having a Significant Birthday, and decided that the thing she would like to do most in the world was come to the pony sale in Hay for the day. She was bidding, too - she and her partner have started gentling ponies to sell on - though they didn't get anything in the end.
I noticed that some of the ponies were going for around £200 and some were only going for around £20, so I took the opportunity to ask her why. It seems that the fillies are more expensive, because the colts need to be gelded later, and that costs around £200. Other, older, ponies for sale were far more expensive. One of the ponies on sale was being offered by the executors of Chris Gibbons, our local butcher who died recently.
The auctioneer said that there were people there from Spain, Germany and the Netherlands, as well as Wales. The 'meat men' were there too, to pick up the cheap ones to take to France. "They go for the spotty ones," my friend said, "to turn into handbags."
About halfway through the proceedings, we moved from the grass ring (where the awnings provided very welcome shade from the hot sun and the ice cream van was doing a roaring trade) to the indoor ring. Among the pens, there were ladies with tea urns and plastic chairs and tables laid out, and there was food on offer too, and down by the grass ring there were stalls selling tack and boots and so on. You could go to the pony sale for the day, and never see the rest of Hay.
We moved over the road to the Blue Boar, though, for lunch - where our starters and main courses all arrived at the same time (but the curry was very tasty, and the duck pate starters the other two had looked lovely).
It was all very interesting - and I'm glad I went with someone who could explain things to me!