Turning on the Christmas Lights

There was a huge crowd in the town square last night for the turning on of the Christmas Lights.
Inside the marquee there were stalls selling food and drink - Brecon Beacons beer, fancy gin, the Fudge Shop, Welsh honey, fancy cakes and chocolates - as well as local groups. Hay School was selling Christmas wreaths in red and green, made by the children, and Christmas tree decorations. One stall was doing "guess the number of wine corks in the bottle" to win some wine. There were raffle tickets for a hamper. The Fairtrade group were there, with their new banner, to remind people that Hay is a Fairtrade town. Hay2Timbuktu had pictures of what they've been doing to help the high schools in Timbuktu.
Outside the marquee there were food stalls selling a vast variety of take away food - Indian, goat curry, Parsnip-ship's organic and vegetarian food, Welsh pizzas, mulled wine, and more.
The Community Choir sang carols, beautifully, introduced by George the Town Cryer. A procession holding big white lanterns, stuffed with fairy lights, arrived and mingled with the crowd - there had been a lantern making workshop at the library earlier in the afternoon.
I still wasn't feeling 100% so I slipped away before the countdown to the lights going on started - but it's the biggest crowd I've seen yet.

Witchcraft talk at the Winter Festival

This is one of the pictures Thomas Waters used to illustrate his talk on the history of witchcraft this afternoon. It's a curse doll with a note that was found in the wall of a house in Hereford, and is now in the possession of the Hereford Museum. I copied it from the Eat Sleep Live Herefordshire Facebook page. The writer of the note really didn't like someone called Mary Ann Ward!
It was a fascinating talk, with examples right around the world and up to the present day, though there were several stories from Victorian England. One of the conclusions Thomas Waters has drawn from his fifteen years of research for his book Cursed Britain is that, although some cunning men and witches were undoubtedly charlatans, others performed a valuable service to their clients not unlike counsellors and therapists today.
As in previous years, the tent in the Cattle Market has an annexe with bar, snacks and a few stalls, including the Festival Bookshop where I treated myself to the Mike Pitts book Digging for Britain. There were also some girls from Fairfield School, in uniform with Extinction Rebellion badges. They'd set up a tree, and were inviting people to write their wishes for the future on luggage labels, and tie them to the tree.

Outside the tent there's a big mobile burger bar set up, selling burgers with local Hereford beef, which I've heard good things about, though I didn't try any today.
And in the centre of town, the tents are going up for tonight's switching on of the Christmas Lights, tomorrow's Food Festival and the fair on Sunday.

The Aliens have Landed!

This is probably the most bizarre of the Christmas decorations around town - outside the Old Electric Shop.

Goodbye, Alistair Shaw

It was a shock to look at Facebook this morning and find that Alistair Shaw has died.
I've been watching him putting up the Christmas lights all over town in the last week or so.
When I looked at his Facebook page, the last post he put on it was the Four Candles/Fork Handles sketch from the Two Ronnies.
His family say he suffered a heart attack.
I've known Alistair for a long time - he always seemed a little larger than life, a showman with a circus background. He was one of the characters that make Hay special.
He will be missed.

Small Business Saturday

Kooko, which appears to be selling Christmas themed goods and furniture at the moment.
This picture was taken before they painted the quotation from Shakespeare on the wall: "I like this place, and willingly could waste my time in it."

Feeling Ill

I am in isolation at the moment, so I don't spread my 'orrible germs to anyone else.
Which is a pity, because I was quite looking forward to the XR meeting at Cusop Village Hall tonight at 7pm, and I don't think I'll manage to get to the Shantymen concert on Sunday either.

The Aeronauts

Some films need to be seen on the big screen.
I'd been looking forward to The Aeronauts, starring Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones as Victorian scientist James Glaisher and balloonist Amelia Wren who attempt to break the height record for balloon flights while taking scientific readings.
I went to Brook Street Cinema on Monday evening - it was almost like a private showing, as only six people had bought tickets for the 7.30pm show.
The special effects were very good (after all, they couldn't really have been flying over Victorian London!) and it wasn't just two people in a balloon basket. I did like the portrayal of James Glaisher's father, the clock and watch mender, who had a telescope out the back of his shop and was only just holding on to reality. He was played by Tom Courtney. It was also nice to see James' friend being played by an Indian actor, Himesh Patel, and some black and brown faces in the crowd scenes (there were black and brown people living in London in 1862, after all). Also some glorious crinoline dresses!
I was inspired to do some research after seeing the film - the balloon flight in the film was actually made with a male colleague, and Amelia Wren was fictional, but based on some real lady balloonists of the time.

The trailer was for Last Christmas - I was quite excited to spot Michelle Yeoh in that, running a Christmas shop. I last saw her as the evil Emperor of the parallel universe Terran Empire in Star Trek: Discovery! That's coming soon, and also coming soon are Gaugin from the National Gallery, The Good Liar starring Helen Mirren and Ian McKellan, Knives Out and a Les Miserables Concert.

Unicorns, Almost at the Winter Festival

It's not long now to the Winter Festival.
It starts on Thursday 28th November and goes on until Sunday 1st December, and is the more intimate, smaller version of the main, summer Hay Festival. Venues are a 500 seater tent on the Cattle Market (the Baillie Gifford tent), St Mary's Church and the School Hall.
It was at the summer Hay Festival that the one man play Unicorns, Almost was launched. It was written by Owen Sheers, one of Hay's local authors, about a Second World War poet, Keith Douglas, who was a tank commander in the African desert war. It was a great success, and went on to Edinburgh Festival - and now they're back in Hay, still with Dan Krikler playing Keith Douglas. There will be a 20 minute question and answer session after the play with Dan, Owen and the producer John Retallack.
I wasn't able to go when it was first performed - there were too many other things going on at the time - so I'm glad to have a second chance to go to see it now.

I was hoping to see Mike Pitts the archaeologist, too, but his talk is happening while I'm working. Instead, I'll be going to see Thomas Waters talk about the history of witchcraft and black magic in modern times.

There will also be several woodland walks, and the Flying Pig Cookery School.
Jackie Morris will be painting a red fox on stage, and talking about the Welsh language version of her collaboration with Robert Macfarlane, The Lost Words - Geiriau Diflanedig. There's a rather nice Lost Words calendar on sale at the Poetry Bookshop at the moment, which I treated myself to.
Father Richard will be playing the organ to accompany the silent classic Metropolis - both showings are already sold out.
Jane Dodds, Tom Davies and Fay Jones - the Lib Dem, Labour and Conservative candidates in the up-coming General Election, will be holding a free but ticketed hustings.
There's an update on what's happening at Hay Castle, memories of King Richard Booth, Mid Wales Opera, Archbishop John Sentamu, and historian Max Hastings talking about the Dambuster Raid - and more!
There will also be a scratch Messiah at St Mary's Church - the ticket includes two rehearsals and a copy of the score.

Cerys Matthews will be there - and she's also turning on the Christmas Lights this year.
Also in the square, on Saturday there's the Winter Food Fair, and on Sunday the Hay Artisan Market.

Small Business Saturday

The Drawing Room has been replaced by a new photographic gallery called Thru The Lens. They've opened their first show with a variety of local photographers - I met Billie Charity when I went in the other day. We had been told to go and look for the "blue Dalek" - which is a photo by Jasper Fforde, who is also a local writer (the Thursday Next series and other books).
For such a small space, there's a wide variety of images, including scenes of working class Liverpool, vintage photos of Wales, landscapes, a magazine of images by Richard Greatrex, and a collage of images by Geraldine Charity who is still taking creative photos despite being confined to bed.
They are generally open from Thursday to Saturday, but at this quiet time of the year sometimes they are closed on those days too. The present show runs until December 5th.
They have a website at www.thruthelens.photography which seems to be a work in progress at the moment.

Re-lining the Car Park

This is the car parking area in the middle of Hay, the Market Square.
I was chatting to someone the other day who couldn't understand the reasoning behind the new lay-out. Four spaces have been taken away underneath the castle wall, which does make sense because they will be building a new route down into the square there shortly, so it wouldn't be safe to park just below where the work is taking place.
The problem comes in the centre of the space, where there are now two spaces for vehicles carrying disabled people, with extra space to unload wheelchairs and so on. It's a very good idea to provide extra disabled parking. Unfortunately, five ordinary spaces have been taken away to fit the new spaces in.

Artistraw Cider

I was in the Wholefood Shop the other week, where a local cider producer was offering samples from a table by the door. He and his wife have a farm in Clifford where they produce perry and cider from traditional, unsprayed orchards. The name "Artistraw" comes from a local dialect word for a shrew.
They have a website at www.artistraw.co.uk, and are also on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Lime Tree Preservation

I happened to notice a yellow sign tied to a post as I walked along Broad Street this morning. It seems that the five pollarded lime trees along Broad Street have just been granted a Tree Preservation Order.

Cwm Rhondda

I've been away for the weekend in the South Wales Valleys.
As we travelled on the Saturday morning, the bus ticket was free (travel on the T14 within Wales is free every Saturday).
We went down to Pontypridd, where my Young Man's friend met us and took us out to his place in Cwm Rhondda. It was pretty damp and drizzly on Saturday morning, but later the sun came out, and the trees growing up the valley sides were decked out in autumnal colours, with moorland just visible beyond them, and the Rhondda river itself running close to the road. It's a very beautiful place to live these days, with the occasional reminder that this was once an area of heavy industrial activity.
Our friend offered to drive us back to Hay, and the views were glorious going over the hills. Up at Storey Arms, there were cars parked all along the sides of the roads, and lots of people heading up across the moors on the paths.
It was lovely to get out of Hay for a little while and see parts of South Wales that I've never been to before.

No Richard Booth Procession

It was a shame that the plans for a procession and fire festival on 31st October didn't come to anything (I had a costume ready to wear, just in case). I'm sure Richard Booth will be properly remembered next April at the Independence celebrations.

Cakes and Ale

I moved on from the Dial-a-Ride party to the Parish Hall, and saw several familiar faces who had done likewise.
This event was A Haydloniant Cakes and Ale Concert - and there were cakes and ale on sale at the back (at least, the drinks were on sale while the cakes were free). Apparently, 'adloniant' is Welsh for 'entertainment', so when you put it together with Hay, you get Haydloniant!
The Parish Hall was set out with tables, with candles burning, and so many people turned up that they had to bring more chairs out. Which was very gratifying for the lady introducing the evening, who had been out earlier in the Market Square shouting "Free Madrigals" to drum up custom!
The group was formed from a variety of local choirs, including the Black Lion Singers and the Wern Fach Singers. There were also guest artistes Donald Ellman, who played the harpsichord, and Steve Jones who played violin. Lucy Green also played the harpsichord for some solo songs.
The music was sublime, a mixture of English and Italian madrigals - and the lady introducing the pieces was hilarious! "In the last pieces," she said (as an example of her patter), "there was a lot about dying, but they were really talking about sex - and if I'd told you that before we sang them, you wouldn't have listened to a word, would you?"
There was a retiring collection, rather than an entrance fee, and the money raised goes towards the musicians, and to help up-and-coming young musicians.
At the end of the concert, a member of the audience stood up to thank the performers (I think he was also involved with a music group locally) and he said how fortunate we are in Hay to have so many wonderful musicians living locally.

Haydloniant will be having another Cakes and Ale concert on 13th December, and they also had flyers for a charity concert at St Mary's Church on Saturday 23rd November, at 7.30pm. Tickets for this concert are £7.50, with proceeds going to Ovarian Cancer Research and St. Mary's Music Fund, in memory of a lady called Elaine.
The music will be a mix of Mozart, Menelssohn, madrigals, folk, traditional, musicals, and Flanders and Swann! And will be performed by the Wern Fach Singers, Hay Madrigals, Lucy Green, Janice Day, Catherine Hughes (who was also one of the madrigal singers), Kate Hardy, Pierre Moulinier, Ian Charlesworth (local vicar), Paul Sweeting, Terry and Christina Watson (also singing madrigals for Cakes and Ale), Gay Funnell, Darren Elliot and Chrissy Maddy.

Also at St Mary's Church, on Saturday 7th December, will be Enrico Tomasso and Martin Litton. Enrico is an award winning trumpet player, including five times winner of the British Jazz Awards in the trumpet category, and he will be paying tribute to his influences, including Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, Harry James, Bunny Berigan, Chet Baker, and Miles Davis.

Celebrating Twenty Five Years of Dial-a-Ride

The hall of Hay School was full for the Silver Jubilee celebration of Hay Dial-a-Ride.
Although the school had hired out the hall, they didn't provide the tables and chairs, which had to be borrowed from Clyro Village Hall.
The people there included those who use the service, including the lady who lives in the most remote spot they visit (as someone said later, even the most comprehensive public transport system wouldn't be able to get up there!). There were drivers, past and present, all volunteers, and there were the organisers and special guests, including Trudy Stedman the Mayor and other Town Councillors. I was there because of the blog, but I did remind Mary Fellowes that my ex-husband had driven the Dial-a-Ride bus for a while in the early days, along with a chap called Doug who used to dress up in costume - I remember him doing Darth Vader and a Viking in a horned helmet!
Twenty five years ago, they needed to raise £25,000 for an accessible bus (the buses cost about double that now), and at one of the first fund raising events John Grant, who had a shop on Castle Street, was heard to say it would never last. Now they have nearly 300 members who use the service, and three staff, as well as the volunteer drivers.
They started out sharing an office with Community Support, in what is now Chris the Bookbinder's workshop beside the launderette - they suffered from floods, and nightmare plumbing!
Then they were able to move into an office in the Council Chambers, where they stayed for many years - and now there are question marks about the future of the Council Chambers they have just moved to an office on Castle Street, opposite the Blue Boar.
As well as the bus, they have drivers who use their own cars, and they've also started running day trips. Now that Hay has no bank branches, they also run a regular Bank Bus so people can visit their bank branch in Brecon.
Fund raising and applying for grants is something they always have to be thinking about - they don't get the same level of help from Powys or Herefordshire County Councils that they did in the early years.
There were speeches - Mary Fellowes, who was involved from the beginning, gave a run down of the history of the service, and Kirsty Williams, the Assembly Member, praised them for enabling older people to continue to live independently for longer.
There were presentations, too - Mary Fellowes got a special certificate, which they'd managed to keep secret from her, and Dial-a-Ride was presented with a Dementia Friendly sign. The lady presenting it said she thought that Hay was the first community bus service to get such an award, and it was all thanks to the enthusiasm of the office secretary, Lesley Moore. And all the volunteers got a little scroll. The service has also been awarded a Community Transport Association Quality Mark, and several awards (from PAVO and others) for Volunteers of the Year.
There was also tea and coffee, and a buffet big enough to feed an army! Everyone got a slice of cake too, which was sponge iced with a picture of the Dial a Ride bus.

Poppy Sellers

Last year, the poppy sellers had a table beside the old HSBC bank, exposed to the elements.
This year, they're in the old King of Hay shop on Castle Street, under cover.
This year's enamel badge for the Welsh British Legion is a green and white map of Wales with a poppy superimposed, and there's a special edition one for the 75th anniversary of D-Day, too, as well as all the other poppy related merchandise.

Mushroom Pickers, Beware!

I've seen some big mushrooms near the Old Library which I think are shaggy ink caps (edible, if so).
Other mushrooms are not so user-friendly - I was told this afternoon that there are death caps growing somewhere along Forest Road. As the name implies, it's not a good idea to put them in an omelette!