Happy New Year

 

I think this is my favourite picture from 2021, from the World War Two weekend in August.

No Thursday Market

 There's no Thursday market this week, though there are a few stalls that are normally in the Cheesemarket huddled together in the Buttermarket - baskets, jam, and so on.  

It's raining quite persistently, so not a very nice day for outdoor stalls anyway.

April Ashley Has Died

 

Colin Spencer shared this picture on Facebook, of April Ashley sitting in the middle of Hay.

She has died, aged 86.

She lived in Hay for several years, and I met her when she came back to visit Richard Booth (I was working for him at the time).

She was a pioneer for transgender rights, and always glamorous (though I have seen her cooking bacon and eggs one morning before she'd put her makeup on!).

No Boxing Day Hunt

 The Boxing Day Hunt has been cancelled for the second year, so there are no horses at the Clock Tower today.

Still, I'm taking Basil Brush into work with me.  He'll be safe there!

Nadolig Llawen

 

Christmas Present for Friends of the Upper Wye

 The Friends of the Upper Wye have had some good news - they've been granted £9880 by the National Lottery!  This is to support the citizen science project, monitoring the pollution levels in the Wye.

Honour for Local Man

 The Westminster Abbey Carol Service is recommended viewing for people in Hay this year.  It's on at 7.30pm on Christmas Eve, on ITV.

Mac Eager and his daughter Cathy are in the congregation.

Mac has been a fixture around the streets of Hay for thirty years, keeping the town looking good, and he was chosen to go up to London for his contribution to the local community.

He was also chosen as joint Citizen of the Year this year.

The carol service was pre-recorded, so Mac has already been to Westminster Abbey.

Cancelled Concert

 Hay Music have just announced that they are cancelling the concert on 14th January, due to the uncertainties over the pandemic situation.

This is the second time that Llyr Williams' concert has had to be cancelled, but they are hoping to re-schedule it soon.  In the meantime, there will be refunds for the tickets already purchased.

They are hoping that the concert on Saturday 19th February will go ahead - this one features Lore Lixenburg and Bartosz Glowacki - but they are not putting any tickets on sale until they are certain that the concert can go ahead.

Choral Singing under the Bridge

 It was arranged at quite short notice, but I saw an announcement on the Hay Facebook page and when I got to the Bridge  there were a few people listening to medieval carols sung a cappella.  

Catherine Kramer was singing the soprano parts, as part of a new group called innominati.  This was their first performance, to raise money for the Friends of the Upper Wye.

The Friends of the Upper Wye have citizen scientists testing the water of the river for pollution and a Lift the River group celebrating the cultural diversity of the river - they have been sharing photos of the river, and information about walks and other events.  They also have a Designated Bathing Water group who are trying to make the river cleaner for swimmers.  The website is www.fouw.org.uk.

I was pleased to recognise some of the carols.  There was one about walking in the Garden in the cool of the day that I was unfamiliar with, but they also sang Lully, Lullay and Gaudete and Adam Lay Ybounden.

Christmas Party

 The Cinema Bookshop Christmas party was held this year in the upper room of the Three Tuns, which automatically made it better than last year, when we all sat in the big office at the Cinema as far away from each other as possible, and ate takeaway deep fried turkey from Chapters!

There was a slight mix-up in the organisation, when the menu that was downloaded for us to pre-order turned out to be for the Three Tuns in Lichfield, not the Three Tuns in Hay!  (it was a very interesting menu, too - but a bit far to go just for a meal!).  However,  the mistake was discovered in time for us to pre-order from the right menu, which was also very good - I had the turkey, and everyone who had the brisket said how delicious it was.

As we were upstairs, we only saw the staff all evening, so we felt pretty safe as far as Covid precautions were concerned.  There was another, bigger party, downstairs at the back, and drinkers in the front bar.  One of my colleagues had been pinged on her phone, so was self-isolating, and another doesn't do eating out, so there were only enough of us to sit round one table.  When I first joined the Cinema and we had our Christmas party, with Leon Morelli presiding at the top table, we filled that same room at the Three Tuns.

Wandering Round Talgarth

 There are some pretty corners of Talgarth, tucked away.

This is what I found behind a house called Waterfalls:

I walked up as far as the gates of the old Talgarth Hospital.  I didn't go any further because it was starting to get gloomy, and the street lights only ran as far as the houses around the hospital gateway.  Also I couldn't remember how much further Pwll-yr-Wrach nature reserve was - I think I'll wait until a sunny spring day to do that walk.

Just about everything in Talgarth was closed (apart from the Co-op, of course) - the Strand closed at 3pm, and I got there about twenty past three, so it was a good job I'd packed sandwiches and a flask.

I ended up on the bench by the war memorial, reading a book until the light got too bad.  The Christmas lights around the centre of Talgarth are quite pretty, though.  The bus came at about ten to five.

Bronllys Castle

 I was called in to Bronllys Hospital for my third Covid jab yesterday.

It was quite a bit busier than when I was there for my second jab in the summer, but the queue was moving pretty freely and everyone there was friendly and helpful.

The bus got me there just before my 1.40pm appointment, but as usual there was a long time to wait for the bus back to Hay, so I decided to walk down to Bronllys Castle, and from there into Talgarth.

Bronllys Castle is a tower, set above a small river on the road into Talgarth, near the Riverside International caravan park.  The site is managed by Cadw, and is free to enter.

Next to the tower is a large private house, presumably built when the tower was no longer used as living accommodation, and which mostly looks Victorian now from the road.  It's built on what was originally the inner bailey of the castle.

There are lots of steps:

There's a basement cut into the motte, and more steps inside the thickness of the wall to get to the top - the top floor was added in the fourteenth century.

I ate my sandwiches and drank my flask of coffee on one of the window seats at the bottom of the first flight of internal stairs.  While I was having my lunch, a family arrived to explore the tower, and climbed right to the top.

I went up after they'd gone - there are good views from up there up and down the valley.

Here's one of the window seats - the large windows show that the tower was built more for comfort than for defence.

Here's another window, and the fireplace at the top of the tower.

And here's the doorway to the en suite toilet for the top floor.

Not much seems to have happened at Bronllys, apart from a story that Gerald of Wales tells in his Journey Through Wales.  Mahel, Earl of Hereford, was at the castle when a fire broke out, and was killed by falling masonry.  I've also heard a version of the story in which Earl Mahel was unpopular locally, and the falling masonry may have been helped on its way....

The motte was built by Richard FitzPons, with a wooden tower, not long after the Norman Conquest.  The stone tower was built by Walter de Clifford III, who belonged to the same family as Fair Rosamund, who was the mistress of Henry I.  Walter de Clifford I, her father, built the castle at Clifford near Hay.  

Nat West Van

 So the Nat West van won't be coming to Hay until the New Year - I'm not sure what the problem is, but it means that the people who were using the van to do their banking are out of luck for a few weeks - unless they fancy a trip to Hereford or online banking.

Busy Santa and Friends

 Santa and his elves are going to be busy on Wednesday 15th.

At 3.30pm they are going to be at the Cheese Market with Jayne Darling for a Christmas Sing-a-long (she was the singer of all those lovely 40s numbers during the Second World War weekend in August).

Then at 7.30pm Santa, elves and Jayne will be at the Old Black Lion for a Christmas Concert and Charity Auction in aid of Homeless Hope.

Christmas Fayre

 It was lovely to wander round town with all the stalls today - some familiar faces from the Thursday market with a few festive extras.  It was possible to buy cider, beer, and gin from local specialists, as well as Ukranian vintage clothes, hand carved wooden spoons, baskets and rugs, sheepskins, plants, wreaths and mistletoe, hand spun wool, jewellery and lots more.  There was even a stall for the Herefordshire Wildlife Trust, and there was a man in the corner of the Buttermarket doing hand printing.  

In the morning I heard two different choirs, one in the town square and one down by the Clock Tower, and in the afternoon Brass Bells were playing - who turned out to be a small brass band.  There's something very Christmassy about hearing carols played by a brass band.

I managed to get the last few bits of presents I needed - all I have to do now is send them off! 

Walk by the River

 The sun was shining after the heavy rain, so I put my wellies on and set off down the Offa's Dyke Path for a walk.

The river is just over the banks in places, and the island just by the bridge has disappeared under the waves.

On the way, I saw bullfinches darting about in a holly bush, a red kite gliding over the Roman fort, and - a white blob perching on a tree on the other side of the river.  My first thought was that it was a penguin!  It had a long white breast and black wings, and I could just see a long beak as it looked up and down the river.  Later I saw it flying upstream - it was actually a guillemot.

I also saw the By the Wye glamping people putting the finishing touches to their Christmas tree:

Hay Churchyard 2001

 Here's a blast from the past!

Howard, who can often be seen at this time of year sweeping leaves from the pavement on Broad Street (he likes to keep it tidy), was looking through some old files and came across a preliminary report on the wildlife in Hay Churchyard written by my ex-husband, who was doing the survey on behalf of the Brecknock Wildlife Trust.

He's given me the copy.

In the report, Allen recommends cutting the grass as if for hay, to encourage wild flowers to grow, and to cut back the brambles - but not completely, because they provide an important habitat for wildlife too.  He pointed out the value of the churchyard as part of interconnecting habitats with the riverside path and old railway - which of course has since been taken up very capably by the Hay Community Woodland Group.

He also recommended a more complete survey to identify flora, fungi and fauna on site, but I don't remember if this was ever done.

Bartonsham Meadows

 I used to buy milk from Bartonsham Dairy occasionally, but I haven't seen it in the shops for a while.

Now I know why.

Someone left a copy of The Flycatcher, the magazine for Herefordshire Wildlife Trust, in the launderette, and it's been quite fascinating to read.  One of the articles is about Bartonsham Meadows, in a loop of the River Wye near Hereford.  The tenants of the farm grazed their cattle on the water meadows, but the tenancy came to an end last year, hence no more Bartonsham Dairy.

The owners of the land, the Church Commissioners, decided to plough the pasture to plant crops.  This was a mistake, as the floods washed away a lot of the topsoil.

The Herefordshire Wildlife Trust, along with the recently formed Friends of Bartonsham Meadows, are trying to come to an agreement to manage the site as a floodplain meadow, with additional orchards and withy beds.  This would help with flood mitigation, carbon sequestration, ecological enhancement, improved river water quality, and a green space for the people of Hereford.  The meadows would be mown for hay in the traditional manner.

It sounds to me like a good use of the land, and I hope they come to an agreement with the Church Commissioners.

More Christmas Jollity

 On Saturday 11th December Hay is holding a Christmas Fayre in the middle of town - there will be 40 stalls offering festive gifts, crafts, food and drink, and singing from the Hay Community Choir and the Hay Shantymen.

At 3pm there will also be carol singing with Brass Bells (I'm not sure if that's the name of the group, or that they will be ringing bells, or both).  They will be fundraising for Homeless Hope.

So I think that will be a good opportunity to get the last few presents I need.

Christmas Concert

 Hay Music have a Christmas Concert coming up on 10th December.  It's called Then and Now: Christmas Music from Medieval to Modern, and the performers are called Hexad (I think because there are six of them).  The venue is St Mary's Church, and the doors open at 6.30pm to start at 7pm.  

And on January 14th, they've got Llyr Williams the concert pianist, playing a selection of pieces by Shubert, Liszt and Chopin.  That's also at 6.30pm for 7pm at St Mary's Church.

Tickets are available from www.haymusic.org.

Unusual Mead

 I was planning to go away for the weekend to see friends, but the trip had to be called off at the last minute.  So instead, I went Christmas shopping in Hereford.

I did treat myself at the same time.  While passing through the indoor market, I paused by the Gwatkin Cider stall.  I'm not really a cider drinker, but they did have a variety of unusual mead on offer, made by Chalice Mead Company (chalicemead.co.uk).  They're based in the South Downs.  My eye was caught by the chili mead - but what really interested me was the nettle mead.  The young man on the stall offered me a taste.  "I don't know what they do to it, but it really works," he said.  

It really does work - it's full of flavour and quite robust.

Recycling with the Lions

 Ever wondered how to recycle the blister packs that pills come in?  The ones with plastic on one side and foil on the other?

The local Lions Club is setting up a collection point in Hay for that purpose.  I met Chrissy from the Lions this morning - she was collecting money with a bucket at the market - and she said she was going down to the Library when she'd finished to see about setting up a collection point there.