Improving Home and Garden

 It happened so gradually that I didn't notice, until my hands were almost under my chin to type!  My old office chair (which was being thrown out when I got it over ten years ago), was sinking slowly in the West - and the mechanism to make the seat higher again no longer works.

So it had to go.

I had an idea of what I wanted to replace it - not a modern office chair, but something vintage, and wooden.

I tried Fleur de Lys - I can usually get something good there - but they had no swivel chairs in stock at the moment.

So I tried the basement of Bain and Murrin - and there it was, right at the bottom of the stairs.  The perfect chair.  They even delivered for me.

 Meanwhile in the garden I was thinking that there were some spaces that needed to be filled up, so I went out to The Old Railway Line Garden Centre at Three Cocks on the bus.  I only had about an hour there before the bus back, so I needed to have a plan and not just wander round aimlessly.

I have loved magnolia bushes since I first saw one when I was eleven.  We were walking down to see a house my mum wanted to buy, and passed a garden when the bush was in full bloom, masses of cream flowers everywhere.  

As a teenager on holiday in Ireland, we went to Birr Castle.  The garden back then was still very much a family garden, and we met a lovely old lady pottering around with her gardening basket, who told us all about their wonderful magnolia bush.  We realised later that she was the Dowager Marchioness!

So I wanted a magnolia, and there were several to choose from. Initially I was going to go for a cream one, but there was a deep pink one called Emperor and since I had recently bought a plum tree called Czar, that was the one I went for.

[Edited to add: I have planted a monster!  When I read the label more carefully at home, I found it will grow to 5 metres high!] 

The weather was not pleasant, so I cut it rather fine in getting back to the bus stop.  In fact, as I trundled my trolley out of the garden centre, I could see the bus pulling into the layby, and had to make a dash for it.  Fortunately, the bus was five minutes early, so had to wait there, and I needn't have panicked!

Back in Hay, I had time to go up to the market - sadly depleted because of the weather.  The lovely plant lady was there, though - and she had a cream flowered magnolia.  Well, why shouldn't I have two magnolias?  This one is stellata, and doesn't grow very big. 

New Book of Poetry

 A lady called Tammy Allen recently joined the Hay Writers' Circle, and she's just had a book of poetry published.

The book is called Roots, and it's published by The Conrad Press.  Tammy is a Mental Health Counsellor from the Swansea Valley, and the poems deal with her experiences of loss, grief, healing and acceptance in the face of adversity.  Each poem is illustrated by Sion Rees.

Borderlines Film Festival

 The Borderlines Film Festival began on 6th March, and there are several films being shown in Hay.

I'm afraid I missed the first weekend of films - Booth's Bookshop Cinema was showing No Other Choice, a South Korean film about a man who goes for a job and decides to get rid of his rivals, Resurrection, a Chinese sort of time travel film spanning a century of Chinese history, and Nouvelle Vague, a French film re-imagining the making of Jean-Luc Godard's film A bout de souffle - the original film is also being shown in Ludlow and Hereford.

Coming up on Friday 13th is The Last Viking, a Danish crime comedy starring Mads Mikkelsen, and on Saturday 14th is The Stranger, a French adaptation of the Albert Camus novel.

All sorts of other films are showing across Herefordshire - it's a pity I can't get to Malvern or Hereford (well, I can get there - it's getting home that's the problem!) to see The Testament of Ann Lee, founder of the Shakers, a religious sect that started in Manchester.  There's also H is for Hawk, and Zootropolis 2, which shows something of the wide variety of films on offer.

There are also films about Palestine. All That's Left of You follows three generations of a Palestinian family from 1948 to the near present, one is set in 1936 when the Palestinians rose up against British rule, and The Voice of Hind Rajab, is about the little girl who was killed by Israeli forces in 2024, along with everyone else in the car with her, and the ambulance crew sent to rescue her. 

 

Hay Castle on TV

 Sky History at 9pm tonight - the programme is called Great British Castle Rescue, and Hay Castle features in the first episode.  As far as I can see, all the castles in the series were helped by National Lottery money, which is why Hay Castle has been letting visitors in for free if they have a lottery ticket this week (normally it's £7.50, but the ticket lasts for a year).

Flora of Brecknockshire

 Compiling a complete record of the flora of the local area has been literally a life time's work.

Mike Porter, the Recorder for the county for the British Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland, started collecting information for the book soon after he got the job in 1968.  In 2013, John Crellin joined him as co-Recorder, and started to help him with the book in 2021.  Sadly, Mike died last year, but by then most of the main text was complete, and John Crellin brought it to publication.  

There's a lot of diversity of habitats in the area, with mountains, moorlands, woodland, limestone pavements, and the largest lake in South Wales.  The book is hardback, with over 1100 distribution maps of the different species.  It's been illustrated by the wonderful local artist Meg Stevens - she did the most marvellous landscapes of the local area, often from a vantage point low down among the wildflowers.  I could never afford one of her paintings, but I do still have some of her greetings cards (which she kindly signed for me).

Not only does the book have the flora of the present day, but Mike Porter went back into the records as far as 1666, also incorporating the work of Victorian naturalists, especially Augustin Ley, vicar of Sellack in Herefordshire.

The book is available for pre-order now, at a discount price of £35, from Summerfield Books, www.summerfieldbooks.com  The publication date is 1st April, at which time the cover price of £40 will be charged, and there will be a press launch at the Bannau Brycheiniog Visitor Centre on 9th April.

The Brecknock Botany Group has a blog at https://floralimages.blogspot.com/ and it's well worth a visit or two. 

Cash Machine Back

 Someone said on Facebook that the cash machine in the craft centre is working again, so I checked this morning, and it is.  The toilets are still closed, however.

According to the Powys County Times, NoteMachine, the owners of the cash machine, had to order a new security door for the machine - and it took between six to eight weeks to be delivered! 

Telescope

 The Red Cross shop has had a space themed window for a while now - Star Wars jigsaws, books on astronomy and, as a focal point, a large telescope on a tripod.

Now that it's so easy for me to just step  outside my kitchen door and look up at the night sky, from a very dark garden, I've been getting into astronomy more.  So finally, I decided to take the plunge.

Even in the charity shop, it cost £80, but I looked it up online, and it's supposed to be a perfect telescope for a beginner.

Now all I need is a clear night!

 

More Archaeology in Hay

 Exciting news at the Castle mound in the old cattle market by the Swan - trial trenches are being opened up this week to search for evidence of the original Norman castle.  This is the castle that came before Matilda de Braose built the present Hay Castle.

Black Mountains Archaeology Ltd. have been hired by Powys County Council to do the dig, and it's professionals only - not like the Cusop Castle dig in June, which welcomes volunteers as a community dig.

I'm hoping to get there towards the end of the week to see what they've uncovered.

 

Quilting at the Castle

 The entrance hall to the Castle has been moved around a bit, so the reception desk is no longer by the stairs, but directly opposite the front door where it can be seen more easily.  However, this means that the quilting table was pushed into a corner - about half the table was in direct light from one of the windows, but the corner was a bit dark.

I wasn't sure what to expect, so I went along with no sewing materials at all.  The regular ladies quickly set me up with needle, thread, snips and a pile of material cut into hexagons that needed to be sewn to hexagon shaped pieces of paper.  When the quilts are finally assembled, the paper is taken out.

Another new lady was shown how to add hexagons onto a partly completed quilt.

Each quilt is quite small, and they are intended to be given to new refugees.

Conversation around the table was  interesting - one lady was about to go to Shanghai to see her son.  Another lady is a potter, and she showed us pictures of a Viking lamp she had made.  This is a small bowl with a central column, and you wind beeswax impregnated twine round the column to make the wick, then fill the bowl with wax, or olive oil, or whale blubber if you've got it!  Because it's a coiled wick, it makes a brighter light than a normal candle.

Another lady had pictures of the Red Dress.  It's an absolutely gorgeous silk dress, made from embroidered pieces from all over the world, and it took years to put together.  Many of the pieces were made by refugees.  It's now touring on exhibition - it was at Theatr Brycheiniog last September, and it's in Geneva on 10th March.  Later in the year it will be in Australia. 

There's now a new project for a Calico Dress made in a similar way.  Calico Dress Cymru has been made by a variety of different groups across Wales, in partnership with the Waterfront Museum in Swansea.  Other calico dresses are being developed around the world.

The quilting group meets every Saturday at 11am at the Castle, and I've already put a little box of supplies ready for next week. 

Dydd Dewi Sant Hapus

 

Wyevale

 I went into Hereford to buy some train tickets, and do some other necessary business, and have a look for some new boots.  Sadly, nothing caught my eye, but I did run into two lovely ladies who recognised me from my blog.  Since there was a while to wait until the next bus home, they offered me a lift.

On the way, they wanted to pop into Wyevale Garden Centre.  I haven't been there for years, so I was quite happy to have a look round with them.  Also, I had been thinking of buying a dwarf plum tree for my garden, and they said there was plenty of room in the back of the car for it.  They even let me use their discount card to buy it.

So thank you Penny and Liz for the lift home, the garden centre, and the interesting conversation.  I'm really glad I bumped into them! 

Scaffolding

 

Scaffolding is going up around the Cabinet of Curiosities - it looks as if it's going to go right over the roof.

It's good to see the work starting to renovate the building. 

13th Anniversary at the Baskie

 It was the 13th Anniversary of the first acoustic Wednesday evening session at Baskerville Hall last night, and a good crowd came to celebrate - some of whom hadn't been for several years!  They all knew each other from other local open mics, though, so there was a lot of very nice collaboration going on, with guitars and harmonicas and, occasionally, Ellie's train whistle!  I went back to some of the very first things I did when I started going (not quite thirteen years ago), so they got the Joyce Grenfell monologue where one of the nursery children gets her finger stuck in the keyhole.

We also got some Elvis for Dale, and Jolene for Joe, with Dale and Joe dancing at the end.

It was an excellent evening, and there were also sausage rolls and chocolates to celebrate. 

Collapsing Castle

 I was very sad to hear that one of the towers at Clifford Castle has collapsed, due to the heavy rain we've been having.

The owner of the castle had been opening it to the public for twenty eight days a year (I went up there with a group a few years ago, and had a good look round).  But now he says he's closing the site, because he can't take the risk of anyone getting hurt.  He's working with Historic England now to see how the site can be stabilised and made safe. 

The Herefordshire Hoard

 Tim Hoverd came to Cusop Village Hall on Thursday evening to talk about the Herefordshire Hoard (or 'how can two metal detectorists be so spectacularly stupid?').  It's a talk he says he's given "too many times", but it's part of his job to publicise things like this, to show what happens when people don't follow the law in metal detecting.

Put briefly, two metal detectorists from South Wales walked some fields near Leominster without the land owner's permission (they asked the tenant farmer, who did not have the authority to allow it), and they found a hoard of silver coins from the Viking era.  They did not declare the find, as they were supposed to do, but eventually produced a few pieces to satisfy the Finds Liason Officer - an arm ring, a ring, a crystal orb bound with gold, and a badly damaged coin.

They intended to sell the rest of the coins - it was later estimated that there were around 300 of them. But the police quickly became involved.  The detectorists had taken photos of their finds, which is how the archaeologists could estimate how many coins were in the hoard.  Some were found when their homes were searched.  Others had been already sold, but once the story became public, it became almost impossible to sell any more of the coins on the open market, because they are very distinctive.

If archaeologists had been able to study the hoard, as a whole, they would have been able to tell a lot more about the dating, and the conditions at the time the hoard was buried, and who was most likely to have buried it.  From the few pieces that were recovered - about eighty coins were found - they can tell that the hoard was likely buried at the time that the Great Viking Army was sweeping across Saxon England.  The coins were mostly from Wessex and Mercia - and the designs on the coins showed an alliance between King Alfred the Great and his Mercian counterpart Ceolwulf II.  Some are struck with only one king's head, but there are others with both, known as "The Two Emperors" coins.

If the detectorists had declared the hoard, they would have got a huge payout.  As it was, they got six and ten years in prison, and one of the coin dealers they tried to sell the coins through was also prosecuted.  They were involved with the criminal underworld in South Wales, and owed someone nasty a lot of money - and Tim Hoverd suspects that the bulk of the coins went to some crime boss, and may never be seen again. 

Earlier in the evening, before the talk, Tim sat down with the committee of the Cusop Castle dig to flesh out a few details.  The dig will take place from Friday 5th June to Sunday 14th June, and they are looking for volunteers.  It won't all be heavy digging - there are plenty of jobs around site for people of all sorts of varying ability, and full training is given.  I'm going to be there as much as I can - bearing in mind that I was last a professional archaeologist over thirty years ago, and a full day's digging now would probably kill me!

If anyone is interested in volunteering, they should contact Cusop History Group - there's a link on their front page.  Under sixteen year olds must be accompanied by an adult who is taking a full part in the dig, and Tim has a strict No Dogs policy. 

Also at the talk, to sell copies of his new book, was Joseph Emmett.  It's called New Roots, Ancient Lands: Walking Through Herefordshire's History, and it looks very interesting - I bought a copy, but it might be some time before I get round to reading it.  In it, he visits local sites like Arthur's Stone and Mouse Castle, Snodhill Castle and the Gloucester to Hereford Canal, as well as other sites right across the county. 

The next Cusop History Group talk will be "The Murder of Katherine Armstrong and the Trial of Herbert Rowse Armstrong" with Tony Pryce, introduced by Peter Ford.  It will be at Cusop Village Hall on Thursday 16th April at 7pm.  Entry is £2, with donations for refreshments. 

Spring is On the Way!

 

My first sighting of daffodils this year, at the top of the path near the school/library.  The snow covered Cae Mawr is in the background.

Wednesday Nights at Baskerville Hall

 I generally go to the Baskie on Wednesday nights to sing in the acoustic session there - the new picture on the sidebar is me singing one of the filk songs I learned when I went to a Filk Convention in Norwich recently.  Filk is Science Fiction Folk Music - back in the 1970s, when someone was typing out a convention programme (on a manual typewriter!, to be mimeographed) they meant to type "folk" and missed the key - and it's been "filk" ever since.

So all sorts of music are welcome there - this week we had a lady fiddler who we hope will come again.  She mainly plays folk, but was a welcome addition to House of the Rising Sun, which everyone joined in on.

Next week is the 13th anniversary of the session, so we're hoping for a good night.  Starts at about 8pm, goes on to 11pm, and we usually finish with Jolene, which is Joe's favourite song. 

And when we came out at 11pm last night, there was snow everywhere. 

Snoopy and Friends

 The post box has been looking a little naked lately, but now there's a new topper!

 

 

Hay Castle News

 Last week the Castle closed for routine maintenance, but this week they're open again.

At the moment, the Castle Trust is working with local primary schools to design a new interactive model about the Castle's history, which will be unveiled in May.

The latest newsletter also mentions a lot of Trusts and charitable foundations which have been supporting work at the Castle.  These include the Moondance Foundation, Adrian Swire Charitable Trust, Mumford Memorial Trust, Community Foundation Wales, Simon Gibson Charitable Trust and Oakdale Trust.  Hay Castle is also one of only eleven recipients of the Colwinston Trust award, celebrating innovation, excellence, creative expression and the power of story telling.  Other recipients include the British Library, National Library of Wales, Welsh National Theatre, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Rambert Dance Company - that's quite an impressive list to be part of!

The Castle is also preparing for this year's Weekend of Mistakes, the third year it's been held here.  The weekend in question is 20th to 22nd March, and they have a website at www.weekendofmistakes.org

The focus of the weekend is to explore financial and economic ideas. 

Archaeology Talks

 This morning, I was whisked off to Brecon to give a talk about archaeology to a dementia group there.  I was talking about some of the digs I'd been on, and showing slides, and I had a few things to hand round, too, including my trowel!

The group meets at Kensington Baptist Church, near the Castle Hotel, which is a lovely modern building.  I gave the talk in the chapel part, and we had lunch in the hall (there's a proper kitchen - we had fish and chips).  All the people in the group were absolutely lovely, and told me all sorts of things about the local history of Brecon, and the farms they grew up in, and so on.  They asked interesting questions during the talk too.  I'd prepared quite a bit, but I was ready for the talk to go in several different directions, depending on what people were interested in.  In the end, it even included Martello Towers on the South Coast and the Wrexham Lager Brewery!  

Apparently there is another archaeologist who is one of the volunteers for the group, and she recently gave them a talk about Orkney and the archaeology up there (which is fascinating - I'm sorry I didn't get to meet her). 

So I had a lovely time - and I got a great compliment.  One of the ladies said that sometimes, speakers came and they couldn't wait for them to finish, but they wished I could have gone on for longer. 

So it was rather later than I had hoped when I got back to Hay, and I only caught the tail end of the Cusop Castle group meeting in the Swan.  Still, it was great to get back in touch with Denise Darbyshire again - who is doing research into the history of settlement in Cusop along with Peter Ford who lives across the road from me.

Next week, I'll be nice and early for the talk at Cusop Village Hall on the Herefordshire Hoard - the talk starts at 7.30pm and will be given by Tim Hoverd, the archaeologist from Herefordshire Council.  The group organising the dig at Cusop Castle this summer will be able to have a short meeting with him before the talk begins, and there will be a form available for anyone to sign if they are interested in being a volunteer on the dig.  Some people have already expressed an interest.  The dig is taking place at the beginning of June.  For further information, email the Cusop History Group.

Town of Culture Bid

 There's a new competition for a Town of Culture being launched by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.  The first winner will be in 2028.  This follows the success of the City of Culture programme.  There are three categories, for small, medium and large towns, and the cut off date to express an interest is 31st March.  After that, the short-listed towns will get £60,000 to develop a full bid.  The winning town will receive three million pounds to develop a cultural programme in 2028, with two runners up getting £250,000 each.

Hay has plenty of culture, so the Town Council are putting a bid forward.

If anyone would like to get involved, they should contact townclerk@haytowncouncil.gov.uk

Fiona Howard has already suggested Richard Booth: The Musical! 

Changes at The Chair

 The little art gallery on the Square is changing - into another bookshop!

The windows are presently obscured by painted flames, but behind the scenes, a specialist SF and fantasy bookshop is taking shape.  They've got to the stage of advertising for staff, with a note on the door.  If anyone is interested, they should contact Green Ink Bookshop for more details.

Hay Writers' Circle Poetry Competition

 Submissions for the 2026 Hay Writers' Circle poetry competition are now open.

Poems should be original, unpublished, a maximum of 40 lines in length, and on any theme.

The judge this year is Lesley Saunders, a prize winning author of several poetry collections, and translator of modern Portuguese poetry.

For full details, visit the website at www.haywriters.com

Closing date is 7th April. 

Holidays

 I shall be away for a few days, so no posts - I'm off singing science fiction folk songs (filk) in Norwich!

Citizen Scientists Testing the Waters

 An article in the Hereford Times has paid tribute to the over 500 citizen scientists who have been testing the waters of the River Wye for pollution levels over the past few years.  By now they have taken something like 50,000 samples!

It started with anglers from the Wye Salmon Association who were concerned about the water quality in the river, and expanded to other groups along the river like Friends of the River Wye and CPRE Herefordshire.

There is now a combined database available to view, created by one of the members of Friends of the River Wye, at WyeViz (the Wye Viz Wye Alliance Citizen Science dashboard).  100,000 people have visited the site so far.

Citizen scientists and their groups are also calling for the government to do more to clean up the river.  The main problem along the Wye is agricultural run-off.  A recent Welsh Government report (www.gov.wales on Control of Agricultural Pollution) says that only 41% of farmers are compliant with the environmental regulations, and they are visiting farms and sending out warning letters and enforcement notices, but there's still a lot more that could be done, if the funding and staffing levels were better.

The number of citizen scientists involved shows just how much local people love their river - and for every citizen scientist there are more people who love the river but can't get involved in that way.

From the article: "Andrew McRobb from CPRE Herefordshire said: “We started doing this monitoring because the agencies told us that they were lacking data. We’ve delivered data in spades and they need to act on it. Over five years of sterling work by volunteer citizen scientists has delivered evidence for the agencies and governments and led the way to the government funding a long overdue comprehensive Wye Catchment Plan. We can identify the problems, but only the government agencies can enforce the actions necessary to deliver real change”."

 

Forty Years of Wye Valley Beer

 Wye Valley Brewery marks its fortieth anniversary this year - that's a lot of pints of Butty Bach along the way!

Back in the 1990s, when I was an active member of CAMRA, we used to meet at the Barrels, the Wye Valley brew pub in Hereford.  We were among the first to see the pump clips for their new Dorothy Goodbody range.  Pete Amor wanted to show them to the ladies in the group, because he was slightly worried the artwork might be seen as a bit sexist - but we thought they were fine.  The beer was certainly fine.

Since then, the business has grown - brewing has moved to bigger premises, they've bought new pubs in the area, and they still hold their beer festival at the Barrels.  Founder Pete Amor retired, and his son Vernon took over.  Pete even made a little film, going round other independent breweries around the country, as a way of celebrating local breweries like his.

I regularly stock up with their bottled range, including Butty Bach and Wholesome Stout, from Londis. 

Dydd Hapus Sant Dwynwen

 

Happy St Dwynwen's Day - she is the patron saint of romantic love, and she was local to Mid Wales, being one of the many daughters of King Brychan.

First Snowdrop

 

I always look for snowdrops, and this year the first one I saw was on the patch of ground at the top of Backfold.  The first sign that spring is on the way!

Healthcare Fellowship Award

 Congratulations to Melanie Prince - she works in healthcare as a Point of Care Testing Co-ordinator, and she has been selected as one of six Healthcare Scientists in Wales to receive a Healthcare Science Service Transformation Fellowship.  She will be going to Norway in February, to study how the Norwegians organise urgent care pathways in remote rural areas, and she will be bringing back what she learns there to improve healthcare service locally.  It's a very exciting opportunity!

North Weir Trust

 The North Weir Trust are starting 2026 with three applications for funds:

three teenagers want support for an educational and charity based trip to South Africa 

a local forest school wants to support volunteer engagement and knowledge

and a local primary school wants to support love of reading.

The North Weir Trust was created to support all sorts of projects locally, and does really good work.

They have a website at nwtrusthay.org.uk 

Health Drop-In at the Swan

 

There will be a drop-in session at the Swan on Thursday 22nd January from 3pm to 6pm, for anyone who's interested in what's going on in local health services.

They'll be talking about Better Together, the local mental health services, and temporary service changes, particularly to the Minor Injury Units, Ready to Go Home Units and Rehabilitation Units.

There'll be tea and coffee available, and staff will be able to chat. 

Banking Hub for Hay

 There was a knock on the door this morning, while I was in the middle of watching an episode of Star Trek with my friend.

On the door step was Jane Dodds, the MS for this area, and another Lib Dem campaigner.  They wanted to drum up support for a banking hub for Hay.  

The last proper bank in Hay, Barclays, closed in 2018.  There used to be three bank branches in total, the others being Nat West and the Midland, which became Santander (and is now a clothes shop).  The Nat West send a van every fortnight, which parks outside the Cinema Bookshop for three quarters of an hour.

The idea of a Banking Hub is that several different banks share the same premises - so on Monday it's Barclays, on Tuesday it's Nat West, and so on. 

I was immediately enthusiastic, and so was my friend, who also came to the door to sign the petition.

At the moment, if I want cash I can go to the cash point at the Craft Centre, but it often runs out of money, and at the moment it is closed down until repairs can be made after someone tried to break into it.  The other option is the Post Office, which has taken on some of the functions of a bank branch.

If I want to do anything more complicated with my money, I have to take the bus into Hereford, which takes about an hour, and then I have to make sure I have other things to do in Hereford, because the X44 only runs, at best, every two hours (and not at all in the afternoons).  So what used to take me ten minutes at a local branch now takes me half a day.

I'm quite capable of organising online banking - I'm computer literate enough to have a blog, after all - but I refuse to do it.  I want to be able to go into a branch and speak to an actual human being who knows what they're doing, face to face.

So I have filled in the questionnaire they gave me, and I'm about to take it to the post box now.

For anyone who wants to join in the survey to say how the loss of banking services in Hay has affected them, they are also gathering information online at www.brlibdems.uk/HayHub

They will then take all the answers to the regulators to convince them that Hay needs a Banking Hub. 

Guitar Workshops for Women

 Sometimes I think it would be a nice idea to learn to play the guitar.  Occasionally, I've even got as far as buying a cheap guitar from a charity shop and having a go - but I've never got very far, and the guitar has always been given away again.

Having said that, the workshops at Racquety Farm look interesting.

Tomorrow, Saturday 17th January, there will be two workshops for women who are learning to play guitar.  In the morning, starting at 10am, there's a half day workshop for beginners, and the afternoon session, starting at 1.30pm, is for improvers.

Contact www.guitarforwomen@gmail.com for more details. 

 

Wholly Cow

 When I came home from the concert on Saturday evening, I decided to walk down St Mary's Road onto Brecon Road and round that way instead of going up the hill round the Swan, just for a change.

I've walked past the playground and the sports centre several times, and I've never noticed this before:

 In the dark, it was all lit up, so I couldn't miss it!  So this morning I went to have a proper look.  

On one end is a coffee machine.  In the middle is a milk vending machine (or milkshakes!) and on the other end there are snacks, with a screen to pay at the nearest end.  It's open 24/7, which is why it was all lit up at night.

I imagine it will be quite popular as the weather gets warmer, and there are parents bringing their children to the playground and people using the sports facilities.  There were quite a few footprints in the mud, indicating that people are using it now. 

Hay Vouchers

 I saw in the December issue of WyeLocal that this is the tenth anniversary of the start of Hay Vouchers.  These are gift vouchers for use in local businesses in Hay, and they've been a great success!

They are administered through Pughs at Londis, and in the ten years the scheme has been running, they've sold an amazing £75,000 worth of vouchers, which can be spent in 113 businesses in Hay.  Some have even been sold to collectors around the world.

This keeps money circulating within the local economy, instead of being spent at national retailers or online and disappearing from the local economy.

The vouchers can be used just like cash, and then the business redeems the money for them from Pughs. 

Hay Theatre - Towards Zero

 The Senior Youth Theatre group are rehearsing for their next play.  It's Towards Zero, by Agatha Christie, adapted for the stage by local writer and director Janine Sharp.

National Lottery Wales and PAVO Youth-Led Grant Scheme are funding the production, which will be performed in Clyro Village Hall on Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd March.

The eleven to eighteen year olds in the group chose the play themselves, because they wanted to perform a traditional murder mystery, and they are also making the set, props and costumes.  They also applied for the PAVO grant themselves.

There will be some slight changes to the original plot - instead of being set in Cornwall in 1944, it is now set on the coast of Clyro near Hay Sands in 1949.  This is because the first female Detective Inspector in Britain was appointed in 1949 - the doctor in the play is also a woman, because of the shortage of men after the Second World War.

It's not too late to get involved - there will be an open rehearsal and masterclass on Saturday 31st January from 1pm to 3pm at Clyro Village Hall (free, and refreshments will be available).

Then from 3pm to 4.30pm on the same day, they will be talking about what goes on behind the scenes, with the set, props and costume. 

Majolica Retrospective

 Pat Birks is one of the founder members of The Hay Makers Gallery - she's a potter, and has made many gorgeous jugs and jars and other pottery over the years, in the style called Majolica ware.  Some Majolica is very intricate and  colourful.  Pat's style is mostly blue and white patterns.  I found this picture on the Haymakers website:

 The Hay Makers Gallery are holding a retrospective exhibition of Pat's work, and they are looking for loans of her work.  They can be contacted on info@haymakers.co.uk, and would like to see a picture of the piece.

The exibition will run from 22nd to 31st January, at the St John's Place Gallery, open from 10.30am to 4pm. 

Nordic and Baroque Music at St Mary's

 The Hay Music concert was brilliant!

Erik Rydvall on the nyckelharpa, (from Sweden) and Olav Mjelva on hardanger fiddle (from Norway) are both folk music stars, and they were joined by Max Baillie on the classical violin.

There were times when the nyckelharpa sounded like more than one instrument - it looks very complex, but Erik said it was quite easy really (!).  It's an instrument which has been evolving since medieval times, when nyckelharpas were included in wall paintings of medieval musical angels.  He said he chose his current one because he can play Bach on it (and proceeded to demonstrate).

It's played with a bow, over four groups of four strings, and then each individual string has a peg to sound the note. 

By contrast, the classical violin hasn't really changed in 400 years.

The Hardanger fiddle has several differences from the classical violin, too.  Olav said that he comes from a mining area of Norway, and in the 19th century German mining engineers wanted to hear the latest European fashions in music, like the polka and the waltz, so sent local folk fiddlers off to places like Copenhagen to learn the new styles, which got incorporated with the local traditions.

On Friday, they went into the school to give a workshop, and several of the children turned up for the concert with their families - they seemed to be really enjoying it.

As well as Nordic folk music and baroque music, they have started to branch out into Eastern European music from composers like Dvorak - who themselves went off into the countryside to collect folk music to incorporate into their music.  And they played pieces that they had written themselves.

They have made a CD, Bach to Folk, so I had to buy a copy.  They said that, if anyone took the CD home and didn't like it, they could send it to Olav - and he would send them back a CD that he didn't like!  There was a warning that it would probably include accordion music!  They added that some people had actually taken the offer seriously....
 

At the beginning of the second half, Janice Day took the mic to advertise the upcoming concert Rhapsody in Green, which features her husband Martin Litton and Mike Hatchard sharing one piano, with Janice performing some musical comedy. The concert will be at St Mary's on Thursday 29th January, from 7pm.  Early bird tickets are £13 each, and can be booked via the website www.vintagebythewye.com

Crime in the Craft Centre

 

This is the first time I've had a chance to get up to the Craft Centre, where someone tried to break into the ATM on Sunday.  They failed, but damaged the wall inside the building badly enough that the toilets have had to be closed until further notice, until the damage can be repaired.  Obviously, the ATM isn't working either, but cash can be obtained from the Post Office across the road.

The miscreants have not been caught yet. 

Lodestar Trio

 Hay Music is starting off the New Year with an afternoon concert at St Mary's Church at 4pm on Saturday 10th January.  I went down to the Tourist Information office to get my ticket yesterday.

The Lodestar Trio plays classical and baroque music on violin, Swedish nyckelharpa and Norwegian hardanger fiddle, which is quite a combination!  They also play traditional and contemporary Nordic tunes.

Doors open at 3.30pm, and there will be a bar. Tickets are £20, and £10 for under-25s, with a limited number of free tickets for under-25 year olds, first come, first served.

Then on Saturday 31st January, at 6pm, there's a children's concert at Hay Castle. Tickets are £15, with under-25s free.  The Solstice Collective wind quintet are doing Peter and the Wolf, with Felix Ashley as narrator.

I love Peter and the Wolf, and have happy memories of seeing Johnny Morris (of Animal Magic fame) narrate it at a concert at Lancaster University back in the 1980s.  Sadly, I'll be away that weekend, so I won't be able to see this version.