Festival sights

I had some time today to wander around town. I haven't been round to the entrance of the Castle for a little while - so I was quite surprised to see this (above). They've put a new stone bench in, and that's a Sally Matthews horse - she does wonderful animal sculptures.
There's a Sally Matthews dog by the entrance to the garden of the Swan Hotel, too, where they're having an art exhibition in a tent on the lawn.
Round the front of the Castle, the Abergavenny Food Fair stalls are up and running, and books are on the shelves of the Honesty bookshop. They made the new roof for the shelves wide enough for a wheelchair to get underneath - but now they've put gravel down to make the path, which is really awkward to push a wheelchair over! (Perhaps it's just temporary?)
Meanwhile, in the middle of town, there's an art exhibition in St John's, and the Wheatsheaf has re-opened - except it's not the Wheatsheaf any more. It's now Tomatitos tapas bar.
In Backfold, there's a raffle at the Sandwich Cellar in aid of Cancer Research. The prize is a beautifully decorated Jubilee Cake:

On the way to the Festival site there are lots of stalls in people's gardens and round the entrance to Cartref (the old people's home). I particularly liked The World's Only Witch Photographer, who has come down from Shropshire with some marvellous photos, to which have been added layers of ghosts and dragons and fairies. He accepts Paypal, cash, cheques or magic beans in payment. I complimented him on the steampunk goggles on the brim of his top hat, and he solemnly told me that they were night goggles for photographing small nocturnal fairies.

Up at the Festival site, there were lots of school parties. In Pemberton's Festival bookshop, Philippa Gregory was signing books, and so was a children's author called Andrew Hammond (he had a long queue of school children). As usual there's a lot to see and do around the site, from the Wiggly Wigglers garden to the Oxfam bookshop. One stall was selling board games which I rather liked, a version of Scrabble played with the chemical symbols for the elements, and a Penguin Bookchase game which appears to involve collecting little Penguin books on a little bookcase as you go round the board. They also had some Swallows and Amazons mugs which I fell in love with. A little way along, Richard Evans with his prints, and Shelley Faye Lazar with her silk scarves, were sharing a stall near Athene English.
It's not the full on crowds yet, but there's a good buzz around town.