Lazy Saturday

I ambled down to the school in the morning for the car boot sale - and some serious temptations! I really, really wanted the Second World War ladies tin hat (which can be adapted very easily into a Wars of the Roses helmet), and the cavalry sabre was gorgeous - but when would I use it?
Instead, I sensibly bought a little pan, and a tankard (I'm getting quite a collection of pewter-like tankards) and a little wooden scoop. But if I see that sabre again, I might not be able to restrain myself!

In the afternoon, I celebrated putting a new story up on Smashwords by going to Kilverts for a quiet half of Columb-O.
This is a free short story called Ice Magic, and can be found here:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/209213
It's an origin story for Ytir, my fantasy world, describing some of the first wielders of magic at the end of the Ice Age.
While I was in Kilverts, the Olympic archery was on the big screen - Italy vs. USA, with Italy just ahead. It was hard to see what distance they were shooting over, since the camera angles showed the archers and the targets, but not both in the same shot. Near the bar, a man with waist length blond hair was talking knowledgeably about the differences between compound bows and longbows, with actions.
I have to admit that I would have loved to see a scruffy medieval peasant stroll up and wipe the floor with the Olympic teams!

I do seem to have this fixation with medieval weaponry, don't I?

Small Business Saturday

At last, a Bookshop!
The Children's Bookshop is actually over the border in England, and was originally the Toll Cottage for the main road which passed through Clifford and eventually led to Hereford. It's also number 1 on the map of the bookshops in Hay.
When I worked here, I used to bring my dog every day - she had a collar tag that said "Member of Staff" and decided that it was her job to greet every customer who came in.

Health Focus Group

I think they make the posters as boring as they possibly can to put people off from going.
This one is in English and Welsh, and says:

"The next meeting of the Hay-on-Wye/Talgarth health focus group will be held on 1st August 2012 at 10.30am in the Community Centre in Hay-on-Wye.
Amongst the items for discussion will be the Local Health Board's Vision for Healthcare Services for South East Powys and arrangements for future meetings."

Sounds dry as dust, doesn't it?
And yet part of the Vision for Healthcare will be a discussion about the possible closure of Bronllys Hospital, and the possibility of moving some of the beds to a new care home next to Hay doctor's surgery, which is part of the development plans that include the school and all the controversy that surrounds that.
Since it's 10.30am on Wednesday morning, I'll be at work. I suspect a lot of people who might have liked to go will also be at work, and the announcement of the date is at quite short notice to arrange time off to be able to go.

I hope some people manage to get there, though.

No Escape from the Olympics!

Yesterday, one of my colleagues met the mother of a member of the South African Olympic squad - the sole South African entry in the 470 sailing class.
Today, I met a tour guide who will be bringing a party of Spanish Olympians to Hay next week - they're going to be visiting Cardiff Castle, Brecon and Hay, and she was having a quick look round as she'd never been to Hay before.

Hay Superhero!

The Masked Potter!

Years ago, I was on holiday in Italy, and I loved the way you could wander down narrow alley ways and look into small workshops where things were being made in front of your eyes. I'm happy to say that also happens in Hay, when the local pottery overflows onto the pavement outside.

Lunch at the Blue Boar

I had visitors yesterday, so I took them to lunch at the Blue Boar.
The starters were almost a meal in themselves - I had the soup (not sure what it was, but it was delicious!), and my cousin went for the mackerel. He didn't want to eat it all, in case he didn't have room for the main course. And the main courses were also for people with hearty appetites. I had the chili, and my visitors had the salmon and broccoli tagliatelle and the chicken and mushroom pie. "I was expecting one of those little pots with the flaky pastry on top," my cousin said, after polishing off something that was obviously home cooked and delicious.
We didn't have room for a sweet, but we did wash the meal down with some nice Hooky and Landlord, and a glass of Pinot Grigot.
As we were getting ready to go, three old ladies were also getting ready to leave after their lunch. One lady wanted to wait for her son to pick her up outside, but was a bit unsteady on her feet, and couldn't see very well, so my cousin's wife took her arm and helped her down the steps.
"I'll be a hundred years old on Christmas Day," she said, and said that the church was organising a party for her - before Christmas, because she wanted to be there! They all walked with sticks, and one of them said; "They call us the Three Musketeers in the chemists!"

Small Business Saturday

Here's Cwm Dulais B&B, on Lion Street. At the back of this building is the old magistrate's court and the cell where Major Armstrong was kept when he was first arrested for murder.

Hay Music

There's a full programme of classical music happening at Booth's Bookshop over the next few months.

Saturday August 11 7.30pm Richard Booths Bookshop Anna Downes (violin) & Joanne Jefferis (cello)

Sunday September 16 3.00 pm at Dorstone (5 miles from Hay) Gagliano Piano Quintet

Friday October 19 7.30 pm Richard Booth's Bookshop The Castalia String Quartet

Saturday November 24 7.30 pm Richard Booth's Bookshop Moray Welsh (cello) plays Bach

Wednesday December 19 7.30 pm Richard Booth's Bookshop Music for voice & Viols

I think the Dorstone one is taking place in somebody's private garden. These events are always popular, and it's best to get tickets well in advance!

Mosey Goes to the Shrink

Open Mic night at Kilverts had a World Premiere last night - the first ever performance of Mosey Goes to the Shrink, by Tim the Gardener!
It was a two hander play, with him playing Mosey and Ros from New Zealand playing the psychiatrist - and it was a biting satire about a certain rival "entertainment complex"! The writing was witty, and intelligent, and very funny.
About half way through, another member of the audience leaned across to me and whispered; "This is what Radio 4 would be like after budget cuts." And a little later, he added; "Actually, this is good enough for Radio 4!"
Tim is already thinking of a sequel - and I'll certainly turn up to watch!

Changes in the Shops

The temporary antique shop has come to an end at the shop on the end of Castle Street.
Also, Outcast Dave is having a sale - his shop is tucked away behind Rose's, near the Clock Tower. This is also preparatory to closing down.
It'll be interesting to see what moves in when they have moved out.

Hereford Historical Day

On Saturday, I went into Hereford, in full medieval costume, to the Historical Day. Our camp was on the Castle Green, and it was pleasing to see more groups there than last year - and more members of the public, too. In fact, I had a wonderful time, demonstrating weaving, along with another member of Drudion, and lucetting, which is a medieval craft for making cords and bootlaces and so on. The food, cooked over the open fire, was delicious - lots of sausages and liver and sweetbreads and other fried meats, and a couple of fresh rainbow trout.
Apart from the three medieval groups, there was one Romano-Celtic (with Celtic warrior painted blue, who bravely remained shirtless all day), one tent filled with a family of jesters, the Sealed Knot, including one rather fine artist and a craftswoman making braid to go round 17th century hats. I didn't get as far as the main field, where I'm told there was a World War Two assault course amongst other things - that was where the skirmishes were taking place, too - you could hear the Sealed Knot cannons and drums!
We were lucky with the weather - it didn't start raining until about three o'clock.
On the grass outside the Cathedral, I met a friend from the library, giving leaflets out about the storyteller. Cat Weatherill was there, who is a wonderful storyteller.
And just round the back of the Cathedral was the Herefordshire trow, which was one of the thousand boats which sailed down the Thames for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee recently.

On the way back to the bus, I went through the main square, and got my first look at the new statue of a Hereford bull by the Old House. I think it looks splendid - but I didn't have time to stop and take a photo (and besides, it was raining quite heavily by then, and me in just my medieval velvet cloak which is only shower proof!)
I've already got my name down for next year, when it's possible the event will be spread over two days.

Small Business Sunday

...because I forgot to do it yesterday.

Here's Zebra Designs, where fitted kitchens are made.
Originally this building was used to teach the boys of Hay School woodwork and other useful skills - the school building then was just across the road, where the Police Station is now.

A Good Evening Out

An evening at Red Indigo was a very nice treat recently. Good company, and I tried the chicken chat for starter,which was spicy, and tangy, and absolutely delicious! After that the bhoona seemed quite ordinary, though it too was very good.

Computers

I was chatting to the lady in the newsagents the other day. She was complaining about a phone call she'd got one Thursday morning, right in the middle of her busiest time. She told the young man that she didn't have time to talk because she had customers in the shop.
"All right - I'll email you," he said.
"We don't have a computer," she said.
"But - you must have! You're a business!" he spluttered. He really couldn't imagine how they could manage without one - and the answer is, very well, actually!

Gym and Tonic

I don't know if there are new people in charge at Gym and Tonic - but suddenly they've started a quite aggressive marketing strategy.
There have been lots of leaflets being put through letterboxes (I've had at least two, and there's been one at work - which was pushed through the letterbox even though the other side of the door was open).
I was phoned at home the other day by someone asking if I'd be interested in gym membership - I said, only if they started offering fencing lessons, and he seemed quite taken aback!
Then they acquired a new flag, which was stationed right at the end of the alley way by the chip shop for a while. It's a very narrow alley way, and lots of vehicles need to get in and out, so it really was in the way there. Then it made the leap across the road, in front of the big house opposite, where it still is.
And this afternoon, they phoned the bookshop. I was quite short with the girl (I hate cold callers anyway) - and later I found out that this was the second time they'd rung the shop to try to sell us gym membership!
It's starting to get annoying.

Housing Need

One of the local issues at the moment is the availability of social housing for local people. I've been very lucky with my rented house, but there are others who aren't so fortunate.
At the Hay Together meeting, I was passed some figures, and here they are:

For one bedroom properties, there are two in stock (from the Council) but 33 people waiting for a place.
For two bedroom properties, there are 9 in stock, and 33 people waiting.
For three bedroom properties, there are 44 in stock, and 15 families waiting.
For four bedroom properties, there are 8 in stock, and 10 families waiting.

So the need is there, and the housing developments in recent years haven't really addressed the need - they've been aimed more at the higher end of the market.

Hay in Other Blogs

Well, Hay and area - I rather liked the pieces about Dore Abbey on English Buildings blog dated 1st and 4th June. English Buildings goes round the country looking at interesting and unusual buildings or architectural features, and Dore Abbey is an interesting building (which was hugely bigger in the Middle Ages - the entire nave of the abbey church is missing, though you can see where it used to be).

Good Show, Sir is a blog about weird and wonderful book covers, usually SF, and they mentioned coming to Hay and finding something blog-worthy on June 20th.

And Paul Cornell mentioned coming on holiday here in the sunny weather just before the Festival (June 8th on his blog). Paul is an SF writer who has written for Doctor Who.

Beer in the Wye!

I went to the beer festival in Hereford on Saturday, in a marquee next to the rowing club. Or, at least, it was supposed to be in the marquee. In fact, the ground inside was so churned up after the Friday that no-one was allowed in. There was a table set up outside, and you had to choose your beer from the list and wait for the volunteers to pick their way across the mud to the barrels to bring it back for you. Fortunately, the afternoon was fine, so it was okay to sit out at the tables - while watching the level of the river cautiously. Someone said it was twelve and a half feet higher than normal:

I was sticking to the dark beers - apart from Thornbridge's Jaipur, because if that's available you've really got to have a glass! I very much liked the Orkney Dark Island, Beowulf Dark Raven, Coastal Merry Maidens Mild and Titanic Lifeboat (the name seemed somehow appropriate!), but I'm afraid I had to pour the Saxon City Dubonni mild away into the grass - not to my taste at all.

Sadly, they had to cancel the Sunday session altogether.

Feminist Resurgence

Stitch and Bitch re-located on Thursday night to the Globe, so we could get together for crochet and knitting and chat, and also listen to the Feminist talk.
Finn Mackay came to How the Light Gets In last year, and she was in Hay again to talk about the feminist movement and why it matters. There was a good crowd there to hear her, almost entirely female. Some, like Jo Eliot, remembered feminism in the 1970s and others, like Fern of the Stitch and Bitch group, hadn't even been born then.
My goodness, she knew her stuff - she talked about the Reclaim the Night marches, and government cuts which target women disproportionately, and equal pay, and when questions from the floor were invited, the conversation moved on to child care impacting on women's careers, and the cost of it.
Someone from the newly formed Hay Feminists asked about what Finn Mackay could suggest as practical measures to campaign about in a rural area - she is more familiar with urban settings, where Reclaim the Night walks are effective, but that probably wouldn't be the way to go in Hay.
She also read out the seven aims of feminism from the 1970s - and several of them seem impossible even today, child care issues being amongst them.
If this sounds like a heavy and serious discussion, some of it was, but it was also fascinating - and people were nodding along in agreement during the discussions.
Since we had one of those rare evenings with actual sunshine, the discussions moved outside, and someone went down to the Co-op to collect picnic supplies.
I did find it quite amusing that I was sitting with a bunch of women who were all doing stereotypically feminine craftwork - and that a few days later, I would be attending Beer on the Wye, which is a stereotypically male occasion. But that's really the point of it - feminism means you are free to choose your own interests, and not have them imposed on you by society, for both men and women.
The new Hay Feminists group has started meeting at the Globe on some Sunday mornings (child care issues - the kids can watch the free film while the mums chat) and meetings will happen at other times and places as well.

Small Business Saturday

Here's the Bookbinders that's tucked away beside the Black Lion.

Another Cancellation

I went down to see if the Car Boot Sale was on at the school this morning - and rain has stopped play, sadly.

Community Picnic

STOP PRESS!
The weather continues 'orrible, and the ground is too waterlogged on the field.
Therefore, the Community Picnic is being postponed until Sunday September 9th!

Hay Together

This was the third meeting of what is intended to be a sort of umbrella organisation for all the groups and interested parties of Hay.
In the last thrilling installment, a couple of chaps from the Localism Network came to talk to the meeting about the possibility of running a workshop to find out what the needs and desires of the community in Hay are - and once everyone knows that, those wishes can be acted on, and the community can talk to local authorities and other bodies to make their wishes and needs known. (I think that's a fair summing up of what it's all about).

This meeting was to decide between the three different bodies which can provide such a workshop. There was the Localism Network, of course, and an architect's firm from Cardiff (who understand the way things are organised in Wales, and who recently did a lot of work with the town of Ruthin in North Wales) and PAVO, the local Powys body which gives grants and so on. There was a fair amount of discussion about the pros and cons of all these groups, but eventually PAVO was chosen, partly because they were offering the workshop for free, and partly because they are the body that Hay would most come into contact with when applying for grants and arranging projects, so we may as well start off with a good working relationship.
There was also some discussion about whether we needed an outside body to come in and facilitate a workshop at all, with all the talent that there is already in Hay. However, the discussion itself proved that, to quote one participant, we were "a group of well-meaning people floundering...." Also, an outside, neutral facilitator would be able to rise above any in-fighting or rivalries or personal differences which would be bound to surface between groups in Hay itself.

So, Johnny Kramer, who has been doing a vast amount of work behind the scenes to make this all happen, is going to go to PAVO and ask them to arrange a workshop for sometime in September. He's going to be part of a committee which will also include Gareth Ratcliffe, the man from CRAP, Kate Freeman for the artists of Hay, Ellie Spencer who is also on the Town Council, Liz from the feminist group who also works for PAVO (she kept very quiet during the discussions of who to choose for the workshop) and, once it was mentioned that meetings would be taking place in a pub, Gareth who organises youth football! There are a couple of other people, too, but I didn't catch every name.

It was a great concern of the meeting that everybody in Hay should be included, and every voice heard - there are always people who never join anything, but their views are important too, whether it's the people who have allotments, or people who fish on the Wye, or elderly people, or the youth club - the future of Hay is the future for everybody who lives in Hay, as well as people who live in the surrounding villages (Gareth the footballer lives in Painscastle). The idea of Hay Together is that there is a united voice for the town, including the Town Council but not just the Town Council, so that the people of Hay can say what they want and be listened to by those people who have power to impose changes on the town. There are a lot of challenges in the world at the moment which the people of Hay have no control over - recession, climate change, peak oil, and all those other things that don't seem to have much to do with everyday life here - until they do. One example of this is the government announcement that the British Army will be cut by 20%. That impacts families in Hay directly, as jobs will be lost.

Another concern was that existing groups in Hay should be supported - especially Community Support, and Dial-a-Ride, for example - who are already in touch with people in Hay who don't normally come to meetings.

Rodney Mace, who stood for the Town Council recently (but failed to win a seat), brought along a relic of a past attempt to do something similar - a hugely thick document produced after a consultation exercise around the time of the Millennium, called United Hay. Several people at the meeting remembered this happening - and the lack of anything tangible coming out of it afterwards. So there is a certain amount of cynicism, and a certain amount of determination that this time it will be different. Apparently, some parts of the document have been used, by the Cheesemarket renovation group, for example, but it cost an awful lot of money for very little effect, and we don't want to make that mistake again.

And to finish with dates for the diary: Hay School Fete will be taking place on Saturday July 14th, and the Community Support AGM will be in St John's on Thursday 12th July at 7pm.

Weekend events

The concert at Booths this Saturday sounds interesting (tickets £10 each). Sild will be playing a mixture of Welsh and Estonian music. I'd quite like to go, but at the time it's on I'll be helping to put tents up at Hayfield Gardens for the Community Picnic on Sunday afternoon. This has been organised by the Fairtrade group together with Hayfield Gardens and the owners of the field, and there will be snacks and drinks, Paul Hartley playing co-operative games, basket weaving, nature art - and it's all free! Just bring a picnic along. Earlier on Saturday afternoon I'll be at Beer on the Wye - so putting up tents could be an interesting experience.
Meanwhile, up in the hills above Llanigon, a group of Buddhist lamas will be performing three days of blessing ceremonies at Kurt's place, which has been used for Buddhist retreats for years.
[Edited to add] There's also another film on Saturday afternoon at Booth's Bookshop Cinema - this one's called Damsels in Distress, and starts at 4.30pm

Council Meeting, Part Two

The meeting moved on from Timbuktu to the potentially contentious issue of the update on the Youth and Community Centre/School/Supermarket Development, with the news that the County Council will not be able to make a decision of any sort until September at the earliest. August is the month when only urgent and emergency work gets done. There's a lot happening with the local schools, though - Clyro is getting refurbished to the extent that it's practically a re-build. Ffynnon Gynydd is closing shortly. After a campaign to save it, Glasbury School will be staying open until 2016 - but there are only four children there at the moment. Llanigon School is also due to close - and Hay School remains in limbo, and the funding is not in the Town Council's control.

After a vigorous discussion, the meeting moved on to the issue of closing the public toilets at night during the winter months - and who would have the responsibility of locking up each evening? There had also been a letter of complaint about the state of the public toilets in Hay - together with information about the holiday cottage that the complainer wanted to rent out!

There's now a Communications Working Group, and they are making a real effort to inform the public about what the Council is doing for the town. One step towards this is a regular column in WyeLocal - the first one was in the latest issue, and though there are a few teething problems, this will become a regular feature. They were also talking about a new notice board. Everyone is welcome to come to the meetings (first Monday of the month at the Council Chambers) and minutes of all the Council meetings are available to read at the Library.

The scaffolding around what used to be the big bookshop at the top of the Pavement was discussed. It's pretty much blocked off the little lane down to Lion Street, and the builders have been parking their vans across the top of the Pavement, more or less cutting off the bottom end of town from the top end. There were comments that, during the Food Festival, the top of town was full of people, but Lion Street looked like a ghost town. However, the scaffolding has now been taken down on the side of the building where the road is, and remains only on the Pavement side, where people can get past.

There have been problems with the playground equipment supplied by a group called PlayQuest, which was inspected and found to be non-compliant with the regulations (though the risk was low to medium). Repairs have been done, but the Trading Standards people need to become involved to make sure that the equipment really is up to the job.

There were questions from the public, the main one being a plea for someone to approach the Rose and Crown to get them to renovate their Grade II listed building.

There were then reports about different groups in Hay. Apparently someone had queried, at a previous meeting, why the Council were giving money to Dial-a-Ride, and what were the benefits? There's now been a meeting with Dial-a-Ride, and it was found to be very much worthwhile from a social point of view, and well worth supporting financially. There will be meetings with other groups that the Council supports financially soon, asking very similar questions of them. There was some discussion of how to split the money available between Dial-a-Ride and the Community Support office - and what about the sixty odd quid for Easter eggs for the children of Hay School? Which budget would that come out of? Someone was also going to go through all the information they had on the Community Centre, though a lot of information seemed to be missing from the records. Meanwhile, the Cheesemarket Renovation Group have applied for a Lottery grant.

There was a report, too, about the youth group in Hay - and how they didn't know about the Youth Forum that took place during Hay Festival, which they really should have been involved in.

And finally, Ellie Spencer talked about going along to a meeting of the Health Board - a four and a half hour long meeting! It concerned the future of Bronllys Hospital, in part, and the impression I got, listening to Ellie, was that the Health Board don't actually want the public to be involved in their meetings at all. They've already moved the times of meetings from evenings to during the day - and public attendance has gone down to a quarter of what it was because of that - and they didn't put information up on their website until the morning before the meeting. When they finally did, it was about 200 pages long, and pretty turgid going. They also had an item on the agenda to exclude members of the public so they could talk about confidential matters, though they didn't actually do this.
One of the proposals at this meeting were that the Mansion House at Bronllys Hospital, which presently houses clerical staff, should be sold off, along with the land around it, and the staff re-located elsewhere in the complex (about 200 of them). It was also mentioned that the hospital was £30 million in debt!

The next meeting will be held on Monday 3rd September, at 7pm

Council Meeting

I got the time wrong. I thought the Council Meeting started at 7.30pm, but it actually started at 7pm, and I came in during the presentation by the local police officers. They were talking about parking during the Festival, and the difficulties there had been with Festival goers parking illegally all up Brecon Road. One of the people who had been given a parking ticket had even written to the Council, and complained in the letter that they had missed an event while they were moving the car!
There is going to be a meeting soon between the Highways Department, Town Council, Hay Festival and the Globe to make sure that parking is managed better during the Festival next year.
Parking came up more generally later in the evening, with a Powys wide movement to change the car parking fees to allow at least one hour of free parking. CRAP was mentioned - the Campaign for a Realistic Approach to Parking in Powys - and all the hard work that group have done to look at the issues surrounding parking in Hay. Gareth Ratcliffe said that there are now four supporters of CRAP on the Cabinet of the County Council, which makes change in that area more likely.

Another presentation was given by Mr Cook and Tracy Nettleton of the National Parks, who have decided to come out and meet people around the county to talk about planning, and find out what people's concerns are on the ground. They were asked about people driving off the road on the common land around Hay Bluff - which is illegal, and causes soil erosion. A park ranger recently had stones thrown at him when he stopped to talk to some motorcyclists who were riding illegally!

There was some concern about George the Town Cryer, who seems to have been lax in fulfilling his duties lately. The Council would like to have a word with him about it.

They talked about maintaining the path along the riverbank - a tree will be felled shortly, and they discussed strimming.

They also talked about the recycling facilities in the main car park, the profits from which are used for community projects - they earn about £700 a quarter from them, which all goes back into the town, so it's worth taking recycling down there rather than waiting for the bin men to take it away.

Mary Fellowes was at the meeting, as an observer, and she and John are giving up their work on the gardening around the Library this year. There was some discussion about who should take it over, and mental health charities were mentioned as a possibility.

Sue Felgate was going down to London to take part in a meeting about Timbuktu - and everyone is very concerned about the situation there. Hay is involved in an education project for girls there, and now the Islamists are in control of the city, the education service is being re-organised, with boys and girls being segregated into separate classes. Soon the use of French as the language of tuition will be banned, though nobody was sure which of the local languages would replace it.

And so we came to about half way through the meeting, with lots still to discuss - the concerns of local councillors are certainly wide ranging!

Endangered Timbuktu

Bad news from Timbuktu, as Islamists in the city have started smashing up some of the historic mausoleums. The full story is on the BBC at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18665522

Sausages and other delights

Lots to do in Hay yesterday!
I started off at the Car Boot sale at the school. There weren't as many boots as there sometimes are, perhaps because of the uncertain weather, though the rain held off nicely. They won't be able to hold a car boot at the school in two weeks time, so they're having another one next week instead.
Then it was off to the middle of town to the Food Fair, where I stocked up on interesting sausages from Neuadd Fach and Coity Bach. There was also some interesting beer there, so I picked up the gift pack of three bottles from Jacobi brewery, who were offering samples. In fact, just about everybody in the Fair were offering samples of their wares.
The new Cinema at Booths was open as well, showing the Pirates film in the morning (for anyone who didn't get to see it during Hay Festival) and a Swedish thriller called Headhunter in the evening.

Next weekend is the Community Picnic at Hayfield Gardens, just over the bridge, organised by the Fairtrade group (see the Fairtrade Blog on the side bar for more details).