Looking Back at 2020

 

I think this sums it up - the Plague Doctor figure that stood outside Belle Books.  I took this picture about four years ago.

I'm not feeling terrible optimistic that things will be much better in 2021.

Wild Birds

 When I came back from taking a photo of Basil Brush yesterday, a red kite flew low over Broad Street, heading from the old Library to the river.  

And a few days ago, when I was delivering Christmas cards up Cusop Dingle, I saw a kingfisher fly out from under one of the bridges and along the stream.

Boxing Day

 The Boxing Day Hunt has been cancelled, so it was safe for Basil to come out to the Clock Tower this morning:

Nadolig Llawen

 

Christmas Eve

 ... and what better way to spend the evening than by choosing a book to read?

Picture by Chris Dunn

Queues Everywhere!

 On Monday, I had to go to the Post Office from work, and the queue stretched all the way to what used to be Eve's Cafe, round the corner and down the hill.

Today, I was one of many doing last minute Christmas food shopping, and there were queues at both butchers, the greengrocers, Spar, and Londis, as well as people turning up to collect their phone orders, so there were a lot of people standing patiently in the rain.

I was going to hand deliver the last of my Christmas cards, but I think I'd rather stay in by the fire!

Santa Visits Hay

 I know he was at the British Legion to meet the children, but I've just seen him again!

I heard a bell ringing, and music, and when I opened the curtains a lorry was going by, festooned with lights, and Santa was waving from the back!

Clyro School

It seems that some teachers at Clyro School are about to be made redundant - and they've been told by Powys County Council at the end of term just before Christmas!

The Chair of the board of governors, Mari Fforde, posted about this on Facebook - she's resigned in protest.

Apparently, Clyro School needs ten more pupils according to Powys' Fair Funding Policy.  Local people have pointed out that new houses are being built in Clyro, which means that families will be moving to the area in due course, so it's entirely possible that ten more children might be enrolled in the school - by which time, the school will have lost experienced teachers.

Lockdown Comes Early

 It seems that we're back on strict lockdown from tomorrow, Sunday, rather than the 28th December, with all non-essential shops closed to the public.

So today's Christmas Fayre really was the last chance to get that last minute Christmas shopping.

Snow at the Christmas Fayre

 

The snow was coming from a snow machine poking out of an upstairs window at the British Legion, and it does make the entrance look more festive!  Father Christmas is meeting children inside the club, and there's a small choir singing from the little courtyard next door, at a good distance from the audience and each other.  When I passed, the Town Cryer was there too.

Over the rest of the Christmas Fayre, the sun is shining.

The market marshals have tinsel wrapped around their 2m sticks, and only 8 people at a time are allowed in the Buttermarket, where there are all sorts of crafts on sale.  The rest of the stalls are in the market place, the Cheese Market, and up Castle Street.  There's beer, and gin, and charcuterie and jam, jewellery and Christmas decorations, chainsaw carvings (there's a lovely dragon on the back of the lorry), wooden spoons, children's clothes, baskets, quilts, blankets, and more.

The Fayre is open until 4pm.

Vigil for the River Wye

 When I first came to Hay, the River Wye was one of the cleanest rivers in the country.

Sadly, that is no longer the case.

In this year alone there has been a major pollution incident up the River Llynfi, which is a tributary of the Wye, as well as algae blooms linked with intensive chicken farming.  Nearer to Hereford, the River Lugg has also been badly affected by phosphates - and a local farmer has removed all the trees and bushes from a stretch of the Lugg, claiming the damage is for flood prevention purposes.

So, on Saturday 19th December, a vigil will be held on the Old Bridge in Hereford, and Victoria Bridge, and along the river banks, between 3 and 4pm.  This will be a silent vigil for people to spend time thinking about the river, and mourning the state it's got into.  The vigil is being organised by XRMarches, the local branch of Extinction Rebellion.

Mistletoe

 I thought I'd blow the cobwebs from my brain by going for a walk by the river.  There was a little light drizzle in the air, which formed rainbows over Clyro, and lots of mistletoe:

A Soapy Cabbage Leaf

 The latest edition of The Cabbage Leaf, from Botany and other Stories, is out now, and this issue is devoted to the letter S, for Soap and Scent - soap for Sanitation in this time of pandemic, and scent because one of the symptoms of Covid-19 is loss of smell and taste.  There's an interview with local biochemist Raphaella Hull, on flower scents, and an article on incense burners by Denise Darbyshire, who works for the Ashmolean Museum.  Suzy Branson reviews the novel Perfume and Marie-Jeanne Winstone talks about her favourite flowers from her childhood home in Belgium.

There's another S in the magazine, too - Spotty the pony, who has been trained to work as a therapy pony, and lives at Brilleywood Livery.

Christmas Fayre

 Also on Saturday 19th December, Hay Markets are organising a Christmas Fayre in the middle of town, so there will be plenty to do in Hay!

Santa at the British Legion

 On Saturday 19th December, Santa will be visiting the British Legion from 10.30am.  Slots to see him need to be booked, for £5 each - book at the Legion between 10am and 2pm on Tuesdays and Fridays.  Santa will be giving out a wrapped gift and a bag of chocolate coins to all the children who meet him.

At the same time, there will be something for the adults to do, with tombola, raffle, tea, coffee, hot  chocolate and mulled wine to drink, cakes and other stalls.

Christmas Shopping

 I've done nearly all my actual Christmas shopping locally, but there were a few essential things I had to go into Hereford for, now that the non-essential shops have opened again.  Ink for my printer, for instance, which I always get from the cartridge place opposite to where Peacocks used to be.

And I had a gift voucher for Marks and Spencers that needed using up - I got a lovely grey flannel shirt.

I noticed quite a few changes in the city centre while I was there.

There's a new vintage shop, Cult Vintage, in the space where Sports Direct used to be in Maylord Orchards.  At the moment, it's a pretty bare space with a few clothes rails dotted about, but I got some good quality silk blouses for only £12 each.

Outside the old Laura Ashley shop, there was a skiffle band.  They were playing Putting on the Style when I passed, and they had CDs for sale.

I also had a look in the Edinburgh Woollen Mill, which is having a closing down sale - and Bon Marche is closing down too.   There's also the threat of closure hanging over Debenhams, though I didn't get that far on this trip.

I was sad to see the stall on the market that sold ribbons and buttons and so on had gone, too, though there's another one where I got the gold ribbon I wanted.

Ley Lines

 I got chatting to a lady at the bus stop the other day, and somehow the conversation turned to ley lines, as discovered in the landscape by Alfred Watkins.  This is the idea that important prehistoric sites, and things like church steeples, can be connected across the landscape by straight lines (which may or may not be lines of mystic energy).

She asked if Hay Castle was on a ley line.  I didn't know, so I've spent an evening with the OS maps and a ruler, and I can't find any alignments that Hay Castle might be part of.

If anyone knows differently, please comment!

How to Find the Town Council

 Now that the Council Chambers are up for sale, and the Town Council have officially given the keys back to Powys County Council, they can still be found at the Brecon Road Sports Centre, where they have moved into an office.

Angel Tree at Dial-a-Ride

 The pop-up shop at the Dial-a-Ride offices is open again - this time they have an Angel Tree.  The idea is that the tree is hung with gift tags for children - anyone who wants to can choose a gift tag, which has details of a child's age and their interests, and buy a Christmas present for them.  It's being organised through Brecon Food Bank.  Presents should be returned to the office by 12th December so they can get to the children in time for Christmas.

Today they reported on Facebook that they only have two gift tags left on the tree.

There are also baubles and candles for sale.

The shop is open tomorrow, Saturday.

Grant for Hay Theatre

 The Hay Junior Youth Theatre started in 2009, and have been giving performances ever since.  I hugely enjoyed the performance of Henry V at Cusop Church, for instance - it seems strange to think that it was five years ago!  

This year has been difficult for Hay Theatre because of lockdown, but by August it was possible to hold drama workshops outdoors.  In Cusop Churchyard, they were dancing under the oak trees.

Now Hay Theatre has been given a grant from the Co-op Community Fund of £4,254 to continue their work.  The project that the money is supporting is called A Midsummer Garden, which includes a specially adapted version of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and will be performed outdoors in Glasbury and Cusop Churchyard.  Members of the Hay Adult Theatre Studies group have already started a read-through on Wednesday evenings at Glasbury Village Hall, while the young people will be rehearsing every Saturday after Christmas, outdoors.  

Both Hereford Times and the Brecon and Radnor Express have articles about this, including a delightful picture in the B&R of children pretending to be squirrels under a tree.

New Shop on Castle Street

 The cardboard on the windows of the shop that used to be Number 2 has now come down, revealing this:

The shop is called Hawthorn, and is selling silver jewellery, wooden items and prints, as far as I can see from the window - I haven't had time to go in and look round yet.

Christmas Window

 

I think this is my favourite Christmas window this year, at the Antique Centre.  That 1920s dress is amazing!

Winter Festival Weekend

 It's all virtual this year - no crowds in the square for the Turning on of the Lights, no marquee for the talks.  Hay is quiet.

But online, there's a lot going on.  The link is at www.hayfestival.com/winter-weekend/home

Events are being streamed live, and they're free.  Benjamin Zephaniah is one of the speakers tomorrow, and Elton John, Dawn French and Gary Numan are part of the Sunday line-up.  

The site also has a list of local Hay businesses to support, and also Welsh language workshops.

Take a Walk on the Wild Side

 I've been admiring the nature photography of Stewart Roberts on the Hay Facebook pages throughout the year.

Recently, he created a calendar which he advertised on Facebook and I was thinking about buying one.

Today, I found I didn't need to get in touch with him directly, because he has donated 25 of his calendars to the Red Cross Shop, where they are on sale at £7.00 each, with the proceeds going to the Red Cross.

The pictures are absolutely gorgeous.

Mad Hatters Christmas Craft Markets

 I'd forgotten the Mad Hatters Craft Markets until I saw a lady in an elaborate felt hat near Golesworthy's, so we went up to the Buttermarket to have a look.

The standards really are very high - we stopped to chat to the lady who hand sews teddy bears from the most gorgeous fabrics, some of which come from the Abergavenny studio of Charles and Patricia Lester (some of their clothes appear in Liberty's of London, and they also provide costumes for film and theatre).

They have a website at www.charles-patricia-lester.co.uk

We were very taken by the foil artwork of Riddle and Ravens - they have bookmark designs based on Harry Potter, Tolkien, Shakespeare, Greek Mythology and more, as well as larger pieces.  If customers sign up to their newsletter, they also get a 10% discount from their first online order and access to The Raven Club, an online bookish community in the style of a 1920s speakeasy!

They can be found at www.riddleandravens.co.uk

Some wooden goblets caught my Young Man's eye on the NS Woodturnings stall - he bought a tall tumbler style drinking cup in ash, and a smaller one in oak.  All the wood is fallen branches or pieces from the firewood pile, turned into something beautiful.  They have a Facebook page.

Most of the crafters who appear at the Buttermarket also sell their wares through the Mad Hatters Christmas Craft Market Online on Facebook, and can be found through www.madhatterscraftparty.co.uk

They have craft markets planned for 28th November, and every Sunday in December - 6th, 13th and 20th.

Planters

 

Over the summer, some of the roads in the middle of Hay were blocked off by barriers for some of the time to help with social distancing.

Now it seems that the scheme is becoming more permanent, as planters have appeared all around town in the places where the barriers used to be.

Today I went up to the market, and the junk/antique stall near the Clock Tower had utilised the nearest planter to display his garden tools.

We just got to the square at the right time to hear the Town Cryer celebrating the birthday of John Evans from the window of the flat over the Cheese Market - John has been involved in the Chamber of Commerce, and the Market, for many years.  Happy Birthday was sung for him in Welsh - penblwydd hapus.

In the Buttermarket this week there was a table selling second hand clothes in aid of the Hay, Brecon and Talgarth Sanctuary for Refugees group, which seemed to be quite popular.

Crowley and Aziraphale cosplay

 Since we couldn't wear our costumes at a Con this year, we had a little photo shoot in the back garden.  This is the Angel Aziraphale and the Demon Crowley from Good Omens, with the Nice and Accurate Prophesies of Agnes Nutter:

Pastries

 I was lured through the door of Dugan's Patisserie this morning by the promise of 3 savoury pastries for £10.  At the moment they're set up in the little shop that used to be The Thoughtful Gardener on Backfold.

Changes at Nevill Hall Hospital

 I've been waiting for the booklet to appear, about the changes to the regional health service, and today I picked one up outside the Chemist's.  It's very clearly laid out, but the news is disappointing as Nevill Hall is being downgraded and people will have to travel further for the services they will no longer be providing.

The changes come in on November 17th, earlier than expected because Grange University Hospital near Cwmbran has opened four months early to help cope with the expected increase in Covid-19 cases over the winter.

The services which will still be available at Nevill Hall are:

The Minor Injuries Unit

Day surgery, where the patient is discharged on the same day as the operation.

Outpatient clinics

Diagnostic services - X-rays, CT scans, MRI and so on.

The Medical Assessment Unit, Enhanced Frailty Unit, and 213 inpatient beds.

Midwife-led maternity services.

Services which will no longer be available from Nevill Hall are:

Consultant-led Accident and Emergency Services (the nearest A&E for most people in the area will be Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil, or County Hospital Hereford).

Children's inpatient services (again, probably Prince Charles Hospital)

Consultant-led births and Special Care Baby Unit (now at The Grange near Cwmbran)

Inpatient surgery requiring overnight stay.

For people in Hay, this probably means a greater reliance on County Hospital Hereford.

There is also a Minor Injuries Unit in Brecon and Llandrindod Wells.  At the moment, the Minor Injuries Units are Appointment only - you can't just turn up.  This is because of Covid-19 precautions.

There's also information available now for getting to and from hospitals on public transport, which would have been a great help to me several years ago when I was rushed to Nevill Hall with food poisoning and the staff there were somewhat at a loss to advise me how to get home (one of them suggested I go home via Monmouth - which would not have helped.)  The website is www.myhealthjourney.traveline.cymru

New Bird Sculptures on Riverside Path

 

Celebrating the End of Welsh Lockdown

 On 9th November, from 5.30pm to 9pm, the Three Tuns have invited Trigg Food to cook their deep fried chicken, as the pub re-opens.

Meanwhile, a new lockdown began on Thursday for the English side of the border.

Someone Remembered the 5th November

 

It's not easy to see, with the reflections, but there's Guy Fawkes, surrounded by rockets, in the window of the shop at the end of Castle Street.

Technical Problems

 I went up to the Post Office today  to pay my Water Rates - but they aren't open, due to technical problems.

However, they have announced their new hours for when the Welsh lockdown ends on the 9th:

Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 9am to 1pm and 2pm to 5pm

Tuesday 9am to 1pm

Saturday 9am to midday.

Remembrance

 The Remembrance service on Sunday will be going ahead at 3pm, but in a limited way.  Only 30 people are allowed to gather, so the service will be by invitation only, for those who are going to lay wreaths at the War Memorial.

There will be another service on Wednesday 11th November at 11am.

A Demonic Snake for Hallowe'en

Walter Map was a medieval cleric and writer who was born somewhere on the Welsh Marches.  At one point in his career he was considered for the position of Bishop of Hereford, but was unsuccessful.  Hereford Cathedral still commemorate his death every April 1st.

The only complete work by Walter Map which still exists is called De Nugis Curialium, or The Trifles of Courtiers, and is a collection of stories and anecdotes, Court gossip and history.

I thought one of the stories in the book was appropriate for Hallowe'en.

It concerns a holy hermit who lived in a cave, and his demonic pet snake.

One day a small snake came into the cave while the hermit was eating his meal, and it begged for a few crumbs.  Each day the hermit fed the snake, and each day it grew a little bigger.

Eventually, the snake was so huge that it filled the cave, and the hermit was forced to leave.

The moral of the story seems to be - don't give charity foolishly.  Or maybe, hermits shouldn't have pets that turn out to be demons....

Brynmelin for Sale

I bumped into a friend while out shopping who told me that the home of Richard Booth, King of Hay, has just gone on the market, so I looked it up on Rightmove.

When I first came to Hay, I lived at Brynmelin - we lived in the Annexe, at the top of the house, and basically acted as the Booths' servants - cooking and gardening mostly, and looking after their various animals.  They had horses then, and bantam chickens we called The Matildas, after Matilda de Braose and all the other Queens and Empresses of the Middle Ages called Matilda - we called the cockerel William, after William de Braose.  

There were peacocks - we called them Darius and Roxanne.  Roxanne once went missing and was found several days later admiring her reflection in the plate glass window of Rising Sun Cottage.  My husband Allen was planting peas in the vegetable garden once, and when he looked up, Darius was following him along the row, eating the peas as he planted them!  

There were pigs that we fattened up for the freezer, and there was Monty the lurcher (full name Montolieu, after the book town Richard set up in France), and two cats.

Here's the house, in the days when Richard Booth's uncle owned it, and now:

A few things have changed since we lived there - there's now an array of solar panels on the roof on the other side of the house, for instance.  I was amused to see the description of the Annexe now includes plumbing for a washing machine on the second floor landing.  Our bedroom was the top right window in the picture, and our toilet was downstairs right by the tower - we could measure the distance on the OS map!

We also noticed, after some time living there, that there was a square space between the Annexe kitchen and the entrance hall which seemed to have been boarded up.  It wasn't boarded up very securely - when we investigated, we discovered the lift shaft which is mentioned in the sale details.

The garden is big, and includes an orchard, and the sale includes 20 acres of land, including woodland, most of which is rented out to local farmers.

It's on the market at 1.3 million pounds, and there's a note in the sale details saying that the King's shop on Castle Street (now occupied by the poppy appeal which can't open because of lockdown) is also available for sale separately.

Kirsty Williams Stepping Down

 Kirsty Williams has been the Welsh Assembly member for Brecon and Radnor for twenty two years.  She's gone from new member to leading her party (the Lib Dems) in Wales, and has served as Education Minister in Wales.  Before she became AM, she was involved in the campaign for Welsh devolution.  She's also campaigned for a law requiring a minimum staffing level for nurses in Welsh hospitals.  She was made a CBE in 2013 in the Queen's Birthday Honours List.

She's also been very much involved in local matters in Hay - the last time I saw her was on the stage in the new school hall as part of the Silver Jubilee celebrations for Dial-a-Ride.  She also did as much as she could to help the HOWLS Library campaign.

Now she has released a letter - I saw it on the Hay Community page on Facebook - saying that she would not stand for the next Senedd elections.  

I don't know what she's planning to do in the future, but I wish her all the best.

Hay Festival Troubles

 First, it was the allegations that one of Hay Festival's employees was sexually assaulted when she went to Abu Dhabi to organise a Hay Festival there (Hay Festival organises literary festivals round the world now).  Caitlin MacNamara said that the Minister for Tolerance, Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan assaulted her, and Caroline Michel, the Festival chairwoman, has said that the Festival will not return to Abu Dhabi while the Sheikh remains as Minister for Tolerance.

Then Peter Florence, director and co-founder of the Festival, was accused of bullying, and has been suspended pending the outcome of grievance procedures.

Tania Hudson has been appointed as interim chief executive, alongside the international director, Cristina Fuentes La Roche.

Meanwhile, the Winter Festival is going ahead, but online, like the main Festival this year.  It will be taking place over the weekend of November 26th to 29th.  As is now traditional, the Turning On of the Christmas Lights will happen on Friday 27th November, with a special Festival guest to flip the switch.  There will be carol singing, and Christmas tales recorded in and around Hay's bookshops.  

The Christmas lights are being put up around town now.

Normally, a marquee is set up on the Memorial car park for the annual Food Festival, and it is used for the stalls of community groups on that evening.  That may not happen this year, though I don't know for sure.

News from the Castle

The Hay Castle Autumn Newsletter is out and, despite the problems of working during a pandemic, they have quite a lot to report.

The first thing is that the lift shaft has been installed in the tower.  It will connect with the different floors of the Castle and go up to a viewing platform at the top of the tower.

The roof is still being worked on, and when that is finished it will be possible to do more work on the interior of the building.

Emily is running workshops to make costumes, to be used when the Castle is finally able to open to the public.  I've already had a lot of fun talking to her about 13thC clothing, and I'm hoping to go along to at least one of the workshops.  

The introductory session is on Saturday November 21st, in the afternoon, and then  the workshops where the costumes will actually be made will be held on Saturday 16th January, Saturday 20th February and Saturday 20th March.

They are also looking for interesting fabrics to make the costumes from, especially things like velvet, satin, cotton and braids and trims suitable for noble clothing, in rich and natural colours.  They will need to be hard wearing because of the handling by the public that they will receive, and machine-washable.

The authentic fabrics for the period are wool, linen and (just coming in, all the way from China) silk.  Cotton was another luxury fabric of the period.  Patterned cloth was unknown, and so were buttons and (of course) zips!  Fortunately 13thC fashion was mostly of the loose, pull-it-on-over-your-head variety.

Another fun project is Hay Castle in 100 Objects, which the Castle is sharing on Facebook.  So far they've had a trebuchet ball, a HAY car bumper sticker, and the War Memorial, among other things.

Meanwhile on Twitter they are sharing excerpts from Kilvert's Diary, 150 years on.

On Instagram, they are sharing some of the historic photos of the Castle.

They also have two new Trustees.  Fiona Howard was head of Hay School and on Hay Town Council, including periods as Mayor.  Chris Fyles is a recent resident of Hay, having moved here from Cornwall eighteen months ago.  He has experience of being a Charity Trustee from his time as Trustee of the Porthcurno Telegraph Museum near Penzance. 

In the gardens, the yew trees on the terraces above the Honesty Garden have been clipped by a team of volunteers.

And Cosmic Carrot have been designing a short piece of animation to introduce visitors to the characters who have lived in the castle.  The idea is for the animation to be projected on the walls of the cellar, which are not the smoothest or whitest surfaces, but they've managed to produce something that can be projected onto the rough stone walls.  The narration will also be in Welsh and English.

Feeding Hungry Children

This sign has appeared in Cusop - picture shared on Facebook by Sean O'Donoghue.

There's been a lot of anger in the last few days about the vote in Parliament in which Tory MPs voted to allow children to go hungry over half-term by refusing to continue free school meals for them.  

Our MP, Fay Jones, was one of those 322 MPs.  However, there is a statement on her website saying that this is not what she voted for and she is working to find long term solutions to support those most in need.

The wording of the Opposition Motion is pretty clear on what the vote was about though: "That this House calls on the Government to continue directly funding provision of free school meals over the school holidays until Easter 2021 to prevent over a million children going hungry during this crisis."

As the handwritten sign above makes clear, the voucher scheme for free school meals is continuing in Wales, and all over England charities and small businesses and councils are working to ensure that children do not go hungry. 

(They shouldn't have to do this.  It should be the responsibility of the State).

In Hay, good people have stepped forward to help, too:

The Three Tuns are offering free children's meals over half term.  These have to be pre-ordered, because of lockdown, to take away.  They are not enquiring about people's individual circumstances, but offering this for all children's meals.

Hay Takeaway (the chip shop) are also offering free children's meals from Tuesday 27th to Saturday 31st for anyone who asks for them.

Also ready to help are Trudy Stedman (Mayor of Hay), Gareth Ratcliffe and Fiona Howard, who are the community support co-ordinators.

There is also the food bank at the British Legion run by Kelvyn Jenkins, who is also exploring the idea of a cooked meal service for people who need it.

 

Lockdown Shop Opening Times

 Lief van den Baan has been updating his website which lists all the shop opening times in Hay, to reflect the lockdown.  

Details can be found at hayo.liefy.org

Captain's Walk Plaque Finds a New Home

 Earlier this year, the Black Lives Matter protests threw an unexpected light on Brecon.  The plaque commemorating Captain Thomas Phillips, on Captain's Walk, was taken down by persons unknown because of Captain Phillips' connections to the slave trade.  As Captain of the Hannibal, he was responsible for a voyage during which 328 of the 700 Africans on board died, and 18 of the crew.  When he retired to Brecon, he wrote a book about it, A Journal of a Voyage Made in the Hannibal 1693 - 4 to Africa and Barbadoes.

Now a decision has been made about what to do with the plaque, which will not be returned to its original position.  Instead, it will be donated to Y Gaer museum by Brecon Town Council, where it will be part of a new exhibit giving more details about the voyage and the slave trade Captain Phillips was involved in.

Further discussions are taking place to decide whether a new plaque should be commissioned, focusing on the victims of the slave trade, or whether a suitable piece of art could be loaned to the Council.

Tudor Brewery

 There was a new stall on the market today, selling beer.

Tudor Brewery is based at Llanhilleth in South Wales.  The brewery was established in 2011, and they've been brewing some prize winning ales since then.

In 2012, the Blorenge Golden Ale won Three Gold Stars at the Great Taste Awards, which is run by the Guild of Fine Foods.

Their Black Mountain Stout was Silver Champion Beer of Wales in 2015, winning the Stout and Porter category, and is suitable for vegans.

Black Rock, their dark ale, was Champion Beer of Wales in 2016, and is also suitable for vegans.

Their other beers, named for a mountain theme, are Skirrid Bitter, Sugarloaf Bitter and (not a mountain) Tudor IPA.

They also brew special beers like Winter Cheer, with cinnamon and spices, Twmbarlwm Honey Ale, and Wild Blackberry Stout.  Other occasional beers are Super Hero, an American Pale Ale; Green Green Grass of Home, a Special IPA; Rum to the Hills, with Jamaican rum and molasses, and Blitz Pomegranate Beer.

They have an online shop at www.tudorbrewery.co.uk

Purely in the interests of research, I bought three bottles to sample - the Black Rock, Sugarloaf and Black Mountain Stout.  I like dark beers, so I thought I'd go for those first, and if I like them I can try the rest of their range whenever they're back on the market.

Dangerous Corner

 Dangerous for the house, that is!

When I went out this morning, workmen had blocked off the pavement at the corner of Broad Street and the road to the Bridge, because something had bashed the corner of the roof of Black Swan Cottage.  It's fairly high up, so presumably a lorry did it.

Black Swan Cottage has been hit by vehicles turning the tight corner before, though usually they get the bay window at the side.  It's also a listed building, so it's not straightforward to get the repairs done to the required standard.  They can't, for instance, remove the bay window and make the wall flat.

There's a bollard on the pavement, and the owner of the building has asked before if it could be moved a bit further out to give more protection to the building, but so far Powys County Council haven't done anything about it.

Meanwhile on the other side of the road, at the Three Tuns, there's an old mounting block, once used to help riders mount their horses, and behind it is a corner that sticks out from the main building.  That's been hit recently, too, and loose mortar and bits of stone are lying on the top step of the mounting block.

Years ago, in Talgarth, the old Mill building in the middle of town used to get hit by lorries on a regular basis, leading the owners to put a sign up saying "Car Transporter - Please Do Not Hit This House Again" or words to that effect.  This was before the Mill was restored.  That problem has been sorted out because big lorries now go on the new road around Talgarth rather than through the middle.  The problem on the corner in Hay is similar, but it would be more difficult to find an alternative route for the lorries.

Welsh Lockdown

 So, another strict lockdown has been announced in Wales, starting from 6pm on Friday afternoon until 9th November, at which time, the Welsh Assembly will assess the situation and decide on new rules.

Only essential shops will be open for two weeks, and people are being asked to stay at home as much as possible.  So the bookshops, clothes shops and antique shops will be closed, but the food shops, pharmacy and post office will be open.  Any cafes that open will be takeaway only.

The Welsh Assembly are hoping that this will drastically slow down the spread of the virus.

Poppy Appeal

 Looks like this year's Poppy Appeal will be taking place from the old King of Hay shop in Castle Street - I saw the window display as I passed this evening.

Changes to Parking Restrictions

 Over the summer, roads in the middle of town have been blocked off from 11am to 4pm to make a pedestrianised area, and the car park in the middle of town has been unavailable for parking.

This is going to change from Sunday.

From Sunday - Wednesday the Memorial car park will be open and there will be no road closures in Hay.

From Thursday - Saturday, the barriers will be in place from 11am to 4pm as before, with access only for Blue Badge holders and deliveries.  The 'pop in and collect' points will also be there as before.

The new arrangements will be in place until the end of November, when they will be reviewed again.

The Town Council has been holding a survey, with questionnaires sent to every house and business in Hay, to see what people think of the road closures so far, and to ask for any suggestions to improve the system, and they will be studying the data so they have a better idea of what's working, and what's not.

Crime Week

 I went for a walk around the circumference of Hay this afternoon, and when I got to the car park, there was a Mobile Police Station there.

They had a table with a few leaflets on it - not many because it was windy and they didn't want them to blow away.  

It seems that it's Crime Week this week, so the Mobile Police Station has been going to a different town each day to give information to the public about scams and hate crime and rogue traders.  Tomorrow they'll be in Crickhowell.  

So I now have leaflets on several different sorts of crime to look out for.   

Gift Card Fraud apparently is someone phoning you up to tell you to buy gift cards and read out the details of them over the phone, otherwise the police will come round and arrest you!

Then there's "Is this caller genuine?" to tell people not to open their doors to strangers.

Another tells you how to spot a rogue trader.

And finally there's a booklet about what a hate crime is, and how to report hate crimes, together with a Confidential Reporting Form for people who don't want to go directly to the Police.  There was a recent incident in Hay when an Asian man was beaten up, that was reported in the Brecon and Radnor Express.  I can't find the report now, but it did result in a court case with the assailant being convicted.  There was a lot of sympathy for the man who was beaten up, in comments on the Hay Facebook page, with hopes that it wouldn't put people off from coming to live in the area, so I think most local people oppose hate crime, and would report it if they witnessed it.

And hate crime is not only about race, but covers religion, disability, age, gender and lifestyle choices (such as dressing as a Goth).  

A Local Saint - John Kemble

 A friend asked for a bit of help in researching the Forty Martyrs - Catholic saints who had been executed in England for their faith in the 16th and 17th centuries.  I was already familiar with several of them - St Nicholas Owen, who built priest holes where the persecuted priests could hide from the authorities, for instance and, because we share a name, St Edmund Arrowsmith, who came from Lancashire.

It was fascinating to find out about some of the others.  I had no idea that one of the Forty Martyrs was local to Herefordshire.  His name was John Kemble, and he was born at St. Weonards.  He went to Douai to study to become a priest, as many English Catholics did, and when he returned to England he spent fifty years quietly ministering to his flock in Herefordshire and Monmouthshire.  He was based at Pembridge Castle, the home of his nephew Captain Richard Kemble.

And then came the Popish Plot, which was concocted by Titus Oates, and became an excuse to round up as many Catholic priests as possible.  Fr. John Kemble was eighty by this time, and refused to go into hiding.  He was arrested by Captain John Scudamore of Kentchurch, and sent down to London to be questioned.  As he was unable to ride that far, he was strapped onto the horse like a pack, so it wasn't a comfortable journey.  When questioned in London, he was found to have no connection to any plot (Titus Oates had made the whole thing up), but he was found guilty of being a Catholic priest and was sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered.  He was sent back to Hereford, but this time he was allowed to walk most of the way.

Sentence was carried out on 22nd August 1679.  He was allowed to finish his cup of sack (a sort of sherry) and his pipe of tobacco before he was executed - the hangman made sure he was dead before he was cut down to be drawn, which means cutting the body open to pull out the intestines and heart and other organs.  This was normally done while the victim was still alive (think Mel Gibson yelling "Freedom!" at the end of Braveheart).  The gallows was set up on Widemarsh Common, which is now owned by Herefordshire Council, and is the home of Hereford Lads Club Cricket Club.

One of Fr. John Kemble's hands was preserved, and is still kept at St. Francis Xavier Church in Broad Street, Hereford.  The church is now open for Mass and private prayer again, and they live stream the Sunday Mass.  The church is built on the site of the medieval convent of St Catherine, and the first Catholic church was built there in 1792, by members of a Lancashire Catholic family who lived there.  The present church dates from 1837, and was paid for by the Jesuits, which is why it is named for their greatest missionary.  The church is now run by the Friends of St Francis Xavier, who raised money to refurbish the church after many years of neglect.  St. John Kemble's shrine is to the right of the main altar - it's a glass box, so you can see the hand resting on a red cushion.

Fr. John Kemble was buried at Welsh Newton near Pembridge Castle, in St. Mary's churchyard, and there is an annual pilgrimage to the site.

In 1970, he became of of the group of 40 martyrs who were declared to be saints by Pope Paul VI.  The feast day is 25th October.

Among Fr. Kemble's relatives were the Kemble family who became famous as actors during the 19th C, the most famous of whom was Sarah Siddons.

Big Issue Sellers

 Today was the first time since the beginning of March that I'd seen someone selling the Big Issue outside Spar.  It was the lady with the headscarf, who used to come when it was busy in Hay, rather than the regular chap who used to sell on that pitch, but she's been to Hay often enough that she recognised me when I bought a magazine.

Over the lockdown period, when it was impossible to sell magazines on the street, Big Issue did a deal with the Co-op to sell the magazine from their stores, so that the street vendors could still get some sort of income.  I don't know if that's going to continue.

There are worries that homelessness is going to rise this winter, as the government ends the eviction ban that has been in place over the lockdown period, so the help that Big Issue can give is more important than ever.

Nature Interpretation Panels

 Every time I go along the footpath through the glamping site on the other side of the Wye I see something new.  This time it was a series of double sided nature interpretation panels, starting with one near the entrance for grasshoppers and ash trees on one side, and gatekeeper butterflies and hazel on the other:

About halfway along the path, where there's a bench looking out over the fields, the board has information on crows and gorse on one side and alder and willow on the other:

And finally, by the gate into the field is a board with information about chaffinches and cuckoos on one side and skylarks and meadow pipits on the other:

Hay on ITV

 I saw a camera crew wandering around Hay yesterday - a man with a camera and a woman with a sound boom.  It turns out that they were from Wales at Six on ITV News, reporting about possible quarantine restrictions for Covid-19 and how that would impact border towns.  They also interviewed a visiting author from Dorset and the lady who runs Haydaze clothes shop, as her shop is in Wales but she lives in England.

The report was on ITV last night, about 4.30 minutes into the programme.

Bowling Club Progress

 

The last time I noticed, they'd only done the foundations!

Wicker Hat

 

Despite the pouring rain, it's the Mad Hatter's Craft Fair today.  I noticed this lady with a stall full of beautiful baskets, who had made a wicker hat for the occasion.

A Wreath for an Accountant

 

This lovely wreath is outside Hay Accountancy Services on Castle Street, to commemorate David Duggan, who died recently.  

His funeral was yesterday, but the Covid restrictions mean that only a very few people could attend the funeral in Hereford itself.

So, on the way to Hereford, the hearse drew up in Castle Street outside the Accountancy Offices.  The pavements were lined with people who had come to pay their respects, and a choir sang Calon Lan.  I presume this was the Talgarth Male Voice Choir, as David Duggan had been a member.  I wasn't there, but I have seen video footage shared by Kelvyn Jenkins on Facebook.

There is an A4 sheet stuck up in the accountancy office window with details of David Duggan's life, including his membership of the choir and the Freemasons.  He was only 61.

New Bus Times

 It seems the T14 service has changed again.

The latest timetable I've seen, shared on Facebook, shows buses leaving Hay for Hereford at 7.24am, 10.24am, 12.24pm and 16.34, with buses coming from Hereford to Hay at 8.35am, 11.35am and 13.35.  The service appears to be split between the T14 and the 914, which runs from Hay to Hereford at 7.27am and from Hereford to Hay at 16.33 and 17.40.

From Brecon to Hay, the times are now 6.47am, 9.45am, 11.45am and 15.55.  From Hay to Brecon the times are 9.41am, 12.41, 14.41 and 18.46.

The early bus is meant for College students, though there is a complaint on the Dorstone Forum on Facebook that when the times changed (to 7.24am) on Monday, there had been no advance warning, so College students missed the bus on Monday morning.  There is also some concern that College students are being abandoned in Hereford on Wednesdays, when they need to get home at lunchtime.  Sixth Form College finishes at 1.30pm, which gives the students five minutes to get to the bus stop!

The 16.33 service is also supposed to be only for College students.

Also on the Dorstone Forum, Roderick Williams is campaigning for a return to a pre-Covid bus service.  He lives in Talgarth, and pointed out that the service to Brecon introduced during Lockdown only gave 55 minutes in Brecon before the bus passenger had to return home.  This has now been changed so that a bus passenger can get to Brecon and spend several hours there.  He's also provided links to https://bususers.org/ which provides information, lobbies for more accessible bus services, and helps with complaints.

Stagecoach, which runs the service, have said that they are concentrating their resources on the South East of Wales, where the need is greatest, but that doesn't really help those of us who live in more sparsely populated areas.

Mandy James on the Peterchurch Forum on Facebook is also campaigning for a better bus service.  She points out that some people who work in Hereford have had difficulties in getting home in the evening, when the last bus was at 4.30pm.

Open Air Bar

 The Rose and Crown has been closed since lockdown began in March - but they are now thinking of opening an outdoor bar, and they are looking for new staff.

Open Air Stalls Everywhere!

 There's a lot going on in the middle of Hay today.  

The usual stalls (cakes and bread, hand-spun items, veg, baskets and leather goods) are in the Cheese Market.

The Buttermarket is filled with another Mad Hatter's Craft Fair.

On the corner above Green Ink Bookshop is a table for the Keith Leighton Fund.

And, outside the British Legion, there are cakes, CDs and one of those games where you move a loop along a length of electrified metal, and get a little shock if you touch it.  This one is in the shape of a poppy.

I got a very nice wall plaque from the Keith Leighton Neuro Fund table, originally from Marks and Spencers, depicting a snowdrop plant.  Sheila Leighton has recently been able to donate £10,000 from her fund-raising activities to UHB Charities (the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham charity) for their Neuro Critical Care Unit.  The money will pay for two new beds, one in memory of her husband Keith, and the other in memory of Chris Price from Three Cocks, who had a brain tumour for five years, and died last year.

(information from the University Hospitals Birmingham website).

Collecting for Refugees

 The Old Electric Shop is collecting items (and money) for the refugees in the Moria camp on the Greek island of Lesbos.  There has been a fire in the camp, which is severely overcrowded, and the refugees are living in desperate conditions.

Here's the information they put out on Facebook:

They will be collecting until October 1st.

New Art Exhibition

 

Thru the Lens have got a new exhibition - My Shrinking World, by Geraldine Charity.

Some of her photos have been exhibited here before.  She takes photos of the things around her now she can no longer get out and about, showing that you don't have to go far to find interest and beauty.

Hot Air Balloon

 There's a hot air balloon floating around the edge of Hay, heading from the Brecon side of town around over Cusop Dingle.

There's something very serene about a balloon flight, somehow.

Office Space at the British Legion

 I stopped by the British Legion record sale yesterday and picked up a few picture frames for the art I've been doing.  

While I was there Kelvyn Jenkins happened to mention that they want to rent out the first floor of the building as office space, now they've done the renovations inside.

Baby Alpaca!

 

Alpaca babies are known as cria.

The owners of the alpacas have an Instagram account at Riverside Alpacas.

British Legion Record Sale

 When I went up the hill to the launderette this afternoon, I saw some unusual activity around the British Legion.

The first thing I saw was one of those elevated platforms, which was being used by a couple of men to do something to the flashing on the roof.

Below that, there was the usual table outside for foodstuffs for the food deliveries that the Legion are organising, and on the other side of the door was another table with records, CDs and a few bits and pieces for sale.  There were lots more records inside.

While my washing was on, I spent some time going through the records (I still have a record player), and I picked out about half a dozen - High Society, Judy Collins, a Peter Sellers comedy LP and one of Bob Newhart monologues, The Seekers and The Shadows - which tells you more or less what era most of the records were from.  There were a few earlier ones - Buddy Holly and Elvis - and a few 1980s ones, and plenty of Easy Listening and Classical records.

Hay Music Online

 The programme of concerts that Hay Music had organised for this year didn't take place, for obvious reasons.  They were also going to collaborate with Glasbury Arts' Harp Summer School (which I was looking forward to).

So, like many groups, they have gone online.

The first concert they organised online was with Ruth Wall on harp and her composer husband Graham Fitkin.

Now they are organising another concert via Stage Hub.  

Der Wanderer und der Fluchtling (the Wanderer and the Refugee) is a concert of songs by Franz Schubert and Hans Eisler and will be given by Loré Lixenberg (mezzo-soprano) and Bartosz Glowacki (accordion).

The Schubert songs will focus more on The Wanderer, and the Eisler songs are taken from his Hollywood Lieserbuch, which he wrote during his exile in the USA from 1938 to 1943.

The cost of the concert is £7.50, and it will be available to view from Friday 18th September at 7pm to midnight on 31st October.

The link is https://www.stage-hub.com/hay-music

A New Art Gallery

 

The Flaming Lady of Hay, opening later this week.

The Hen Allt Common Auction

 I happened to look at the auction site (Paul Fosh Auctions) in the last ten minutes of the auction for Hen Allt Common.  In fact, it took a bit longer than ten minutes to finish the auction, because every time there was a new bid in the last 30 seconds, the clock re-set to 29 seconds to give someone else a chance to bid - and there was quite a flurry of bidding.  In the end, Bidder 9 won the auction for £30,500.  

The secretary of the Graziers Association which is responsible for grazing animals on the common is trying to find out who Bidder 9 is so they can protect the Common (he posted on the Hay Community Facebook page, where there's a discussion about the sale).

Meanwhile, the auction for the Lordship of Leye also met its reserve, and was sold for £2,750.

A Lovely Day for Getting Lost

 That is to say, I wasn't lost in general - I knew where I was.  What I didn't know was exactly where the public footpaths went.

I decided to head for the hills to see if I could see anything of Hen Allt Common, and it seemed to me that the best way of doing this was to climb the lane that branches off from Forest Road to the Neolithic Long Cairn, and keep going until I got to Pen yr henallt Farm.  There's a public footpath marked on my map that goes straight through the middle of the woodland on Hen Allt Common.

It was a lovely walk up the hill, with panoramic views across the Wye Valley:

On the verge, I found Autumn Crocus:

When I got to Pen yr henallt farm, I found the stile for the pathway below the Common easily enough, but I couldn't see any way markers for the path through the woods.  There was a track, just above the farm, but there were no signs on the gate to show it was a public footpath, so I didn't go along it.  Instead, I went a bit further up the lane and found a field gate where I could eat my lunch.

On the way back, I met a girl on a pony followed by a family with a small child being led on a Shetland pony.

I took the path below the farm house, and was starting to worry that there wasn't a way out at the bottom of the field when I saw the yellow way marker on another stile through the trees.  Then I headed roughly downhill and across towards Hay, over another stile.  The map showed the path going down to Wernwilk House and up to meet the path that came through Hen Allt Common woods, so I went up as far as a gate:

This is as close to Hen Allt Common as I got, I think.

From the gate, I looked across the field to see another stile leading into woodland which I guessed would take me to the Offa's Dyke Path.  Despite the yellow way markers, though, as soon as I got into the woodland on the other side of the stile I saw a notice pinned to a tree saying: "Private Land: So Get the Feck Out."

I went back over the stile and headed downhill towards Wernwilk House.

By now I was getting a bit tired of stiles - and I wasn't even going to attempt this one:

It was impossible to get through the brambles on the other side!

Fortunately, there was an open field gate just along the hedge.

There was another open field gate onto the lane that leads to Wernwilk Farm and Dan-y-Fforest, so I came out of the fields and came down to Hay on the roads from there.

I may try this walk again from another angle - if I take the Offa's Dyke Path up the hill the way markers are probably better from that side.  I did enjoy getting so high above Hay for a while - the views really are wonderful up there.

A Small Shopping Spree

 It was Market Day yesterday, and my Young Man wanted me to get some leather for a costume he's making from the leather stall by the Clock Tower.  While I was there, I looked through the rack of leather waistcoats they had, and treated myself to one of them in a really soft brown leather.  I think I got a good bargain!

Under the Clock Tower, two lads were doing juggling as buskers, and just beyond them was a new coffee stall, Smiler's Coffee.co.  As well as the coffee, he was selling the sacks that his coffee beans arrived in.  I've been wanting to make more rag rugs for a while now, and this was the perfect opportunity to get the backing material.

The jugglers weren't the only buskers - up at the top of the Pavement was a chap with an electric guitar who has become a regular fixture, playing something mellow.

Then I went up to investigate the Dial-a-Ride pop up charity shop, where the hairdressers' used to be opposite the Blue Boar.  They've had some very good quality donations, and I came away with a lovely hand-embroidered cushion cover, done in a style called blackwork, but in green thread.  I do blackwork myself, so I have a good idea about just how long it must have taken to cover the entire front of  the cushion.

Hen Allt Common

My attention has been drawn to an auction of land just outside Hay.  It's not something I would normally pay any attention to, but there seems to be something odd about this particular sale.

 Hen Allt Common is an area of grazing land and woodland between Cusop and Llanigon.  There's an online auction going on now (with about 7 hours to go as I type this), though the bidding hasn't met the reserve price yet (the highest bid so far is £11,500).

There's a slight problem with this, though - nobody is sure who owns the land.

At the moment, the 25 acres are administered by the local authorities in conjunction with Natural Resources Wales - the Common is an SSSI, or Site of Special Scientific Interest - but they are not selling the land.  The seller is Trelleck Estate Ltd., run by someone calling himself the Lord Marcher of Trelleck.

And this is where it gets interesting - the Lord Marcher of Trelleck is a businessman called Mark Roberts, and he has tried to sell land he doesn't actually own before.  He's even got his own Wikipedia page.

In 2015, it was reported in the Western Telegraph that Mark Roberts was trying to sell 25 acres of land in the village of Spittal, Pembrokeshire, as the Manor of Spittal, which he claimed was land that went with his title.  The newspaper reported that this was not the first time Mr Roberts had tried to do this - he had also claimed other pieces of land, and also the rights to shipwrecks round the coast, which led to a court case.

In 2017, an article in the Daily Post reported that he was trying to sell the Common at St. Asaph, in North Wales, again as land which went with one of his titles - this was contested by St. Asaph City Council and the University of Wales, which owned a part of the plot, an 8 acre site beside the River Elwy.  Fishing rights were included in the auction lot.

He also tried to charge local residents of Peterstone in South Wales £45,000 for access to pathways and verges.  However, if a pathway has been used for 20 years or more, the law states that no charges can be made.

And those are just the more recent articles - I also found a piece from the Daily Mail dating back to 2007, detailing several court cases that Mr Roberts had already been involved with.

And now he's claiming Hen Allt Common.

There's a common thread between all of the more recent attempted sales - they have all gone through Paul Fosh Auctions, based in Newport.

In the same online auction as Hen Allt Common, Paul Fosh Auctions also has listed one of Mark Roberts' many titles, for sale with a reserve price of £2,500.  The bidding on this lot has not met the reserve price yet.  It's for the title of the Lordship of the Manor of Leye.  A map is included with the auction listing.  The original manor seems to be somewhere near Montgomery, but what is on offer is only the title, with no rights to land attached.

Natural Resources Wales have been made aware of the auction of Hen Allt Common, so it remains to be seen if the lot reaches its reserve price....

Wonders of the Border

 There's been a camera crew in Hay over the last couple of days, filming for a new TV series called Wonders of the Border.

They did some filming at the Cinema Bookshop, and Greg the manager had his fifteen minutes of fame by taking them around town and chatting to the presenter, Sean Fletcher, about the history of Hay as a booktown.  Sean Fletcher is walking the Offa's Dyke Path for the series, which is a follow up to Wonders of the Coast Path.

I also follow a blog called Archaeodeath, written by Howard Williams, who is a professor of archaeology at Chester University, with a special interest in death, burial and commemoration.  He is also taking part in Wonders of the Border, and was filmed on the Offa's Dyke Path where it overlooks Tintern Abbey at the Devil's Pulpit.

New Chapter for the Story of Books

 When I passed by The Story of Books today, a chap was inside building new shelves, so something new will be happening there soon.

Recycling Breakdown

 Up at the Cinema Bookshop end of town, the recycling is usually collected mid-morning, and then when I come back from lunch I can take the empty tubs back into the shop.  That was not the case today, though, and the tubs are still out  there waiting to be emptied.

According to Gareth Ratcliffe's Facebook page, the lorry broke down, so they'll get round to finishing the collections as soon as they can.

A Reduction in Medical Cover

From 1st October, the Haygarth medical practice will lose their funding for the Triage Nurse.  This project has been very successful in reducing waiting times for the surgery, from an average of two to four weeks down to three or four days, and it made it possible to increase the amount of time the doctor spent with each patient when it was needed.

But with the loss of funding for the Triage Nurse, the practice has had to look at different ways of working, and they have decided that they will have to reduce their opening hours.  So Hay surgery will be closed in the afternoons from 1pm on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and Talgarth surgery will be closed in the afternoons from 1pm on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays.  Emergency appointments will still be available in the afternoons, and patients will still be able to pick up prescriptions until 5pm from the collection points.

Anyone who wants to comment on these changes should contact:

Jayne Lawrence,

Assistant Director of Primary Care at The Primary Care Department,

Powys Teaching Health Board,

The Gwalia,

Llandrindod Wells

Email: PrimaryCareGeneral.Powys@wales.nhs.uk with any concerns with a copy to the Community Health Council enquiries.powyschc@waleschc.org.uk by Friday 18th September 2020.

The Benefits of Going for a Walk

 I thought I'd go and have a look at the new bookshelf in the bus shelter yesterday afternoon.

It's already full of books, but I wasn't tempted by any of them.

However, a few doors along, someone was selling surplus garden produce from the wall in front of their house, and I picked up a bag of pears and another of cherry tomatoes (they had a jar for the money).

Then I went along Forest Road to take the path behind the school back to the centre of town.  There's an apple tree growing on the verge, loaded with apples, and I filled up my bag with windfalls that I'm going to stew tonight.

I hadn't intended to come home with a bag full of fruit and vegetables, but it was a very nice side effect of going for a walk.

Dial-a-Ride Pops Up!

 Dial-a-Ride had plans for a pop-up shop in their offices in April.  Obviously, that didn't happen because of lockdown, but now they are going to try again.

They are opening a pop-up shop at their offices at 14 Castle Street from 10am to 3pm from Thursday 10th September to Saturday 12th September, and the same times the following week.

If anyone has donations for the shop (they will not accept electrical goods) they can be left at the office on Thursday and Friday between 9am and noon.

Dial-a-Ride were trying to set up a permanent charity shop and volunteer hub, but their grant application to start them off was not successful.  However, they intend to try again next year.

Costumes at the Castle

 It's a pity I've got rid of my Medieval re-enactment kit.

When the Castle re-opens, one of the planned activities is to have medieval costumes on hand so that visitors can dress up, and a group of volunteers will be making the costumes over the winter months.  They'd like anyone with sewing skills who is interested to get in touch at info@haycastletrust.org

They're also looking for interesting fabric to use - velvets, satins, and cottons in rich natural colours (going for the aristocratic costumes rather than peasants in wool and linen, it seems), and also trims like braid, pearls and gemstones.  

The costumes will need to be pretty hard wearing, and machine washable so they're not going for total authenticity as a re-enactment group would do - the important thing here is the look of the thing.

Brecon Road Bus Shelter

 The bus shelter on Brecon Road is no longer in use - as a bus shelter, that is.  Gareth Ratcliffe, and his son Lincoln, have been giving it a new coat of paint.  A bookshelf has been installed, and it is being transformed into a Community book and DVD swap area.  It's ready for donations now.

Open Mic at the Globe

 While looking through the £1 books outside the Cinema Bookshop, Tim the Gardener struck up a conversation with a visitor to Hay.  Tim has been a performer at Open Mics for years around Hay, and he was keen to invite the newcomer to the Globe, where they were having an afternoon, outdoor Open Mic session between 2pm and 5pm.  The Globe have put an awning up, so the seats are undercover even though it's outside.

It's a good idea, but I don't know how long they'll be able to keep it going, now we're starting to head into the colder and rainier part of the year.

On the Bus to Hereford

 I needed to go to Hereford again yesterday, and I noticed a few changes on the way.

The Boughton Arms in Peterchurch has been empty for a while, but it now seems to have re-opened as Casa Lupo, an Italian restaurant and B&B.

The Old Bridge across the Wye in Hereford is now closed to traffic, so the bus goes over the new bridge now.  This is a weekend of Extinction Rebellion action, and I saw two people standing with a banner on the bridge, waving at the cars.  I waved back.  I forget the exact slogan, but the gist of it was that this is a perfect moment to introduce green policies that will help to mitigate climate change, if only there was the political will to do it.

For my little treat after I'd finished my shopping, I went to the Hereford Beer House for a bottle of Kernel Table Beer.  There the system is that you sign in with your phone number, as I did at Tomatitos on Wednesday evening, and you are served at the table.  I was in one corner reading Dolphins of Pern, which I'd just picked up in the Heart Foundation charity shop, and there was another group by the front window in the opposite corner of the bar.

More Mad Hatters

 There was another craft fair in the Buttermarket on Wednesday, and this time I collected some cards from different stalls.  

There were felted goods, including slippers and fridge magnets by Inga Sipcenoka.  

Another stall had small felted creatures and spinning and wool supplies - they are KC Felties and Fluff from Hirwaun in South Wales, and they have an etsy shop.

There was jewellery, too, by Heather from Twisted Crystals.

This was in addition to the leather handbags and wooden chopping boards and clocks and fancy chocolates.

Signing in at Tomatitos

 I went to Tomatitos yesterday for the first time since lockdown started.  It was a gathering for drinks after a funeral.

So I got to see the new arrangements for pub customers in place.  There's a table by the door with a folder on it where you have to sign in with your phone number and the time you arrived, and when you leave, you sign out with the time you leave (which all makes far more sense to my old-fashioned, pre-computer brain than having an app on a phone).

It was strange to be in a crowded bar again, but it was good to see how many people turned out for the occasion.

Mad Hatters Craft Market

 I happened to pass by the Buttermarket when the craft market was on this weekend, and I was very impressed with the high quality goods on display.  There were leather handbags, wooden clocks, glass cutting boards, and lots more.  I especially liked the Nelmwood Designs stall, with intricately cut out wooden plaques and signs.

The next craft market is on 30th August.

Small Business Saturday

 Velvet Fern have been re-decorating the shop on the Pavement which used to be the Old Electric Bookshop.  It's gone from pink and green to white inside.

They are interior designers, presently based in Knighton, and they also do made to measure Roman blinds, curtains, cushions and lampshades.