Huws Gray Re-opens

Huws Gray will be re-opening on the 4th May, for phone orders only. The showroom will remain closed, but the phones will be manned from 7.30am to 5pm.
They will also be catching up with deliveries that were cancelled at the beginning of the lockdown.

Horse Chestnut

Squirrels!

The sculpture trail is starting to extend along the old railway line path beyond the church. This one is just a little way from the bridge at the bottom of the graveyard.

Camera Club

Walking along the Riverside Path yesterday, I met a member of the Camera Club, who told me that they're still managing to meet online - every Tuesday evening up to 25 people log in for a meeting.
They're even having a competition in a couple of weeks - for photos of members' back gardens! Apparently they've been told that, if the garden happens to have a nice view from it, they shouldn't take a photo of the view - it's just for the garden itself.

Bluebells

Horses on the Cae Mawrs

Be careful - that's a live electric fence, and there are notices up reminding members of the public not to feed or stroke the horses.

More Takeaways

The Hereford Times this week has a double spread of pubs and restaurants around the county who are offering takeaways. In Hay, the Bookshop Café has joined the list of local providers of takeaways, with a shortened version of their café menu for takeaway or delivery, with a minimum spend of £5. Food is delivered between 5 and 6pm.

I also note that Westons Cider, Tanners Wines and Wye Valley Brewery have online shops, and if your taste in alcohol is a bit more exotic, there's also Chase Distillery for vodka and gin (Aged Marmalade Vodka! Elderflower Gin!) and Sly Gin at Haven Distillery.

Charity Clothing

I'm uneasy about the NHS being treated as a charity, but I admire the many people up and down the country who are doing their best to raise money for the NHS, and sew scrubs and masks, because the government is not doing its job properly.
The latest scheme I've heard of, in the Hereford Times today, is from a local online shopping retailer called Blonde Rox, based somewhere near Hay.
They've started selling jumpers with the slogan "Spread Only Kindness". 75% of the profits will go to the Wye Valley NHS Trust. There's also a children's version, where the money is split between the Brecon and Llandrindod Wells food banks, though when she started the scheme a month ago half the money was going to Age UK, as they thought that the elderly would be in most need of help.

Launderette Re-opens

I took my daily constitutional walk up past the launderette this afternoon, and found the door open and a very welcome sign up:

"We have made the decision to stand by our customers and re-open the launderette but we ask that you please be mindful of others and maintain social distancing guidelines.
We will be disinfecting regularly throughout the day."
There's also a picture of what a distance of six feet between people looks like.

So it looks like I won't have to get energetic with a sink plunger in a bucket after all!

Flowers by the Old Library

The first Aquilegia I've seen this year, and a very dark magnolia, in the little garden around the Old Library.

Egrets

Last year, I felt very lucky to be able to watch an egret as it flew up and down the Wye.
This year, it seems we have a pair - on the last sunny day that I went down to the Riverside Path, I thought I saw a swan flying by, but soon realised that there were two egrets, flying together.

Dial-a-Ride Deliveries

Dial-a-Ride are now offering a delivery service for prescriptions from Hay and Talgarth surgeries and Hay Chemist. The service is free, and there's someone in the office manning the phones from 9am to noon, Mondays to Fridays, with an answer machine outside those times. The deliveries will take place on Tuesday afternoons and Friday mornings. This is also open to people who are not members of Dial-a-Ride.

British Legion Helping Out

It's a bit late for anyone to go along today, but the local British Legion branch have announced on Facebook that they are starting to collect donations of food or provisions to deliver to anyone in the local community who needs help.
They are collecting from the doors of the British Legion club, opposite Kilverts, on Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 8am to noon. They are also asking for anyone who knows of a vulnerable person who might need this help to let them know so they can arrange deliveries.

A New Bookshelf

A new bookshelf has appeared under Hay Bridge, for swapping books.

Good Advice!

Another Sculpture by the River

Here's one I missed when I went looking for the latest new sculptures on the Riverside Path.

Pasg Hapus - Happy Easter

Celandine and primroses across the river.

Alex Gooch at The Table

They sold out in two hours on Thursday, and today they're back at The Table on Lion Street. They'll be there every Thursday and Saturday for the foreseeable future. They are only taking contactless payments - no cash.

They are also making pizzas on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. These are takeaway, but on Saturdays they can do deliveries for a minimum order of 2 pizzas. The hours are:
Friday 4.30 to 8pm
Saturday midday to 8pm
Sunday midday to 4pm

The menu is on their Facebook page, in the comments, with a smoked margherita starting at £10.50, and Mushroom magic, Olive and chilli and Kimchi and coconut at £12 each. The mushroom one sounds gorgeous - but I'm not quite sure about the kimchi and coconut!
Phone number for orders is +44 29 2039 7907

The Cabbage Leaf Looks at Trees

Last week, my friends from Botany and Other Stories came round to deliver the latest issue of The Cabbage Leaf, the newsletter/magazine about nature that they produce (we were careful to stay 2m apart!).
This time, there was an extra note attached:
"When this issue of the Cabbage Leaf went to print, the global coronavirus pandemic had already hit Great Britain.
This state of emergency is leading to unprecedented changes to daily life in uncharted territories.
Still we will not forget that, more than ever, many other issues still matter, the climate crisis being one of them.
Best wishes to everyone during these unsettling and challenging times."

The theme of the Spring issue is trees, and the letter 'R', standing for Reforestation and Rewilding and Richard Booth. There's an interview with local scientist Emily Warner, who is studying for a PhD at Oxford, studying the benefits of reforestation. She also writes for Little Toller Books, a small publisher specialising in books about rural life and local history, where "Seeking the trees: a rewilding diary" can be found in their online journal The Clearing.
There's an article about the Golden Spruce, a tree sacred to the Haida Indians in British Columbia, which was chopped down in 1997.
There are statistics about trees - such as the number of trees cut down every year to make virgin paper for the production of books in the US (30 million!).
There's also an article about Tree Preservation Orders, mentioning four of the five trees by the Old Library and the pollarded lime trees on Broad Street.
Borja Montego Moraga, who lives in Clyro, has contributed an article for the Plant of My Land column - on Spanish olive trees.
And the Children's Corner on the back page talks about the Tree of Jesse in Abergavenny church.
The 'R for Richard Booth' part of the publication is a separate 8 page supplement, collecting many quotations about and by the King of Hay, including a poem by Chris the Bookbinder, who edits Quirk poetry magazine. I think my favourite quotation from Richard in the booklet is on the front page, where he's talking about all the books published about Princess Diana, and finishes:
"One starts life by thinking civilisation is turning trees into books and finishes it by thinking that a tree is better as a tree."

Mr Babb's Funeral

Today, at 2pm, St. Mary's Church will be tolling their bell 94 times to commemorate the life of Mr Jeffrey Babb, for his private funeral.

Changes to the Bus Services

Since hardly anyone is travelling at the moment, the T14 service from Cardiff to Hereford has been withdrawn completely.
However, it is still possible to get out of Hay by public transport - just.
Celtic Travel run the X15 bus service, which is working on a much reduced timetable between Builth Wells and Hereford. The bus goes from the Clock Tower at 10.07am, and comes back from Hereford bus station at 13.45pm. This is for Wednesdays only.
[Edited to add: there is some doubt about whether the bus does come into Hay or whether it zooms straight past through Clyro.]

Lights Dim Across Powys

Well, nobody's going out at night at the moment anyway....

There was a report in the Hereford Times about Powys County Council voting to save money on street lighting by dimming the lights after a certain time at night.
However, it seems that this is something that was going to happen anyway, and is not related to the pandemic.
Over the next six months, two engineers will be going round Powys reprogramming the lights and fitting new bulbs. They estimate that it will save nearly £28,000 a year.

Good News - Cash Machine

The post on Facebook was on April 1st, but it's been confirmed since - the cash machine at the Post Office is no longer charging people who withdraw cash.

Sad News - Rev. Charlesworth RIP

I turned the computer on this morning, and one of the first things I did was listen to the latest video message from Gareth Ratcliffe, who has been keeping everyone informed of the latest local developments. The last part of his message was a bit of a shock - Rev. Ian Charlesworth of Llyswen has died suddenly.
I've been looking at his Facebook page, which is filling up with tributes to him, including Kelvyn Jenkins who has said he will play the Last Post for him. The last post he wrote himself was on 29th March, giving some thoughts on Passion Sunday.
Rev. Charlesworth was a well known figure around Hay, especially round the Thursday Market, and he was at the forefront of the campaign to save Gwernyfed School a few years ago.
My fondest memory of him was when he organised a talk at Llyswen Village Hall by Valerie Singleton, of Blue Peter fame. She was a very entertaining speaker - but there were several of us there, including Rev. Charlesworth, who had watched Blue Peter when she was one of the presenters, and it was as if we were those children again - we were totally starstruck!
Someone from the parish is organising a Clap for Our Vicar on Easter Sunday, like the Clap for Carers, since it won't be possible to attend the funeral - or have an Easter Sunday service in the church.

Gibbons' Butchers Shop Closes

I'm sorry to hear that Geraldine Like is unwell - so to be safe she has closed Gibbons Butchers shop until 20th April, and is self-isolating.
The butchers shop on Broad Street is still open.

Clapping for Carers Again

There were more people out on Broad Street last night at 8pm, clapping for carers, and someone was setting off fireworks across the river!
But hospitals are still not getting the protective gear they need.
It's a sobering thought that one of the doctors who have died of coronavirus was volunteering in Hereford County Hospital when he contracted the virus. Dr Adil El Tayar was an organ transplant specialist who normally worked at West Middlesex University Hospital. He was 63, and originally from Sudan.

Safe But Smelly?

So the launderette has closed its doors for the duration - the sign on the door says that this is for the safety of the customers.
At the moment I've got enough dirty clothes in my washing basket for a full load in the washing machine, so what am I going to do with it?
The nearest launderette outside Hay is at the Anchorage Caravan Park in Bronllys, but as far as I know that is being kept just for the residents of the caravan park, and anyway, it's a bus ride away.
An even further bus ride away is the Laundry Basket on the edge of Hereford. I've never been in, but I think they do the washing for you rather than it being self service.
I haven't got room in my tiny house for a washing machine, so I started looking at manual washing machines for camping or caravans. I had a vague memory of a sort of barrel on a stand that you seal and then turn a handle vigorously. However, the simplest form of manual washing seems to be with what is essentially a bucket and a sink plunger - the bucket has a lid with a hole in it for the sink plunger to pass through.
I have a bucket and a sink plunger - so we'll see how that goes.
Another thing I don't have and have no room for is a tumble drier - but at least I am able to share my neighbour's washing line. I think that an essential purchase in the near future will be a clothes drying rack from Jones Hardware.

Jeffrey Babb has Died

I was sorry to see, in a Facebook post, that Jeffrey Babb has just died, of cancer at Bronllys Hospital. He was 94. He was a familiar figure around Hay, with his wild white hair and, as he got older, his mobility scooter.
Mr Babb had a long and distinguished career as a musician and conductor, especially with youth orchestras. In his retirement in Hay he was also associated with Glasbury Arts.
For his ninetieth birthday, there was a special concert in St. Mary's Church, and most of the performers were former pupils of his, many of whom had gone on to have their own careers in music.