Printers Fair

 I really enjoyed the Printers' Fair - two floors of stalls with all sorts of beautiful artwork and letterpress text.  I treated myself to a print with a line of Gerald Manley Hopkins poetry on it: "Glory be to God for dappled things" from the poem Pied Beauty, and it's a limited edition.  Mine is no. 6 of 100.  It was made by Kathleen Littler, who uses wood engraving, with incredibly fine detail - she has a website at www.kathlittler.co.uk

The chap from Prints of Hay was giving out free prints of Hay Castle, and I also got some cards.  I especially liked the Francesca Kay cards with simple cutouts and haiku poems.  My favourite was Anubis: 

"He protects the Dead, 

But they're quite self-sufficient,

It's not a hard job."

Several of the stalls will be at the Marches Makers Festival in Kington from Saturday 2nd May to Monday 4th May.  I hope they come back to the Castle sometime, too.

There were also families looking round the Castle, and I found two little girls with their parents in the costume corner, having a swordfight with wooden swords.  So I asked if the bigger girl would like to know how to do real sword moves, and taught her the basic defensive positions, which I think we both enjoyed immensely. 

Meanwhile down in the Buttermarket there was a Craft Fair going on, and I treated myself to two hand made pottery bowls from Helen's Art Creation.  She also sells on Etsy as helensartcreation