Meal at the Blue Boar

 The staff of the HCB had a celebratory meal at the Blue Boar last night.  

As ever, the food was very good, though a couple of items were not on the starter menu.  I had the pea and mint soup, which was lovely, and several people had the mackerel pate.  The bread that is served with the meals is crusty and delicious.

There were several orders of burgers for the main course, a couple of steaks, and I had the curry.

The chaps were trying to hurry, because they didn't want to miss the start of the World Cup match!

So a very pleasant evening - though I felt sorry for the waitress, who was rushed off her feet, and remained smiling throughout!  

Lunch at the Blue Boar

 My sister and her family were somewhere near Cardiff for a car rally, and they decided to come home via Hay to drop off some furniture for me for my new home.

So I am now the proud possessor of a blanket box and a quite remarkable table - it seems at first glance to be a long, narrow table, and then the top folds out, and out, and out until it's enormous!  It's too big for me to open it all the way up, but it is just right for the space in the kitchen which is long and narrow, and it looks so much tidier in there.

It was a little bit difficult to find parking for the motorhome with the trailer on the back for the rally car (they won a prize - I don't really understand the details, but they were very pleased), so we ended up in the coach parking area of the main car park.  The Blue Boar was the closest option for lunch, and they already knew from previous visits that you get big portions there.  They had another four hours' drive to get home, so they wanted something substantial to keep them going.

And they got it.  Father and son went for the cheeseburger, my sister had venison, and I had the spaghetti bolognese, and they were all very filling, and tasty.  So a good choice for a hearty meal before a long journey.

It was lovely to see them all again, and I'm very pleased with my new furniture. 

New extension in the Blue Boar

 After the HOWLS AGM, a few of us went for a drink at the Blue Boar, and I saw inside the new extension they added for the first time.  It's lovely, with a big stone fireplace, and stone flagged floor and panelled walls.  It used to be a little shop that they rented out, and they opened up an entrance to it from the main bar.

There was already a group sitting at another table, and they apologised to us in advance for the noise they were making - Melanie from the Poetry Bookshop was there, and Julie the Welsh Girl, and they weren't really loud, just enjoying themselves.

A pleasant end to a productive evening.

Eating Out at the Blue Boar

 The first evening that my sister and her family came to visit, we decided to treat ourselves to a meal in Hay.  As we walked up throught town (it was a Monday) we found that Tomatitos and Kilverts were both closed, but the Blue Boar was open, so we went in there.

The new menu is a little bit pricey, but the portions are generous, and we all enjoyed the meal.  The teenager had a cheeseburger and fries, Peter and I had the Italian meatballs, and my sister (who has a cheese allergy) had the venison bourguignon.  They are not real ale fans, so stuck with the Stowford Press cider and Perroni, and I drank Timothy Taylor Landlord, which was very good.

Strange to think that, the first time I took the family out to eat in Hay, the teenager was a toddler, and now he's old enough to drink alcohol!

Remembering Mollie Lord

 There was a good crowd at the Blue Boar yesterday afternoon to remember Mollie Lord after her funeral at the Humber Woodland of Remembrance.  Tea, coffee and sandwiches, cake and quiche were available along one side of the bar, where there's a raised area at the back with tables.  Some of the people there had known her in London or Brighton, before she came to Hay.  Sara shared a lot of similar interests with Mollie, Lyn had mentored her writing, John ran the social dreaming group that she contributed to, and I saw Janine from the Hay Theatre Group, and Sean, and several other familiar faces.

There were some spare orders of service that were given out, and the reading that had been chosen was typical of Mollie, who was devoted to all the dogs she had over the years.  It was from The Journey by Crystal Ward Kent, and was about how much you can learn about life from your dog.  (Mollie's latest dog has been taken by her daughter).

Father Richard shared a story about Mollie, when she said she had met God on the Warren - to which he replied: "How's He keeping?"

She said she had been sitting on a bench, and a sheep came up to her and laid its head on her knee, and she felt that she had met God.

John Clare said that she was the most prodigious dreamer he had ever encountered, in all his years of running the social dreaming group.  She kept notebooks full of her dreams, and he recounted a couple to us (in one, she was knighted for services to lobster-kind!).  John is also an artist, and encouraged her in her work - she held an exhibition of her work at the Globe.

We also learned that she had had a difficult childhood, as both her parents committed suicide.  The third person to speak had grown up with Mollie - they had played together, and gone to night clubs together, and she said she felt that she had lost a sister.

Wake for Mollie Lord

 Mollie Lord was well known around Hay, usually seen out walking with her dog.  I remember going to her book launch at Booths a few years ago, and she also exhibited her art in Hay.

She died last month, and her family have announced on Facebook that they are holding a quiet family funeral, but after that there will be a gathering to remember Mollie at the Blue Boar, at 3.30pm on 19th October.  There will be refreshments, and they have asked people to wear something bright.

Going out for Meals

I've been going round to Belmont House for evening meals - the landlady gets on well with my mum and her partner, and has allowed them the use of the kitchen in the cottage where they're staying, beside the main house. That's worked very well, apart from the evening when the sausages (Hay Specials from Gibbons) set off the smoke alarm!

We've also been out to eat. It's difficult to find an Indian restaurant in the part of Cyprus where mum lives, so she was keen to go to Red Indigo, as long as she stuck to the fairly mild curries. She enjoyed it very much, and I now have a loyalty card - collect four stamps for meals at the restaurant (not takeaways) and the fifth meal, for two people, is half price.
We've also eaten at the Blue Boar (though mum wasn't terribly impressed with the selection of sweets, so she didn't indulge).

The best meal so far, though, was when the Young Man came to visit, and we decided to try out the new regime at Kilverts.
When we went in, the couple from La Fosse were there, having a meal. When mum first came to Hay, about ten years ago now, that's where she stayed, so we went over to say hello. They were eating the steak pie, and it looked so lovely that we all decided to have one.
It was gorgeous! The gravy was so delicious that we asked for spoons to finish it off. It also came with a selection of vegetables, and new potatoes. I'll certainly take visitors to eat there again.

Normal Service....

....is now being resumed!

This morning I caught the early bus into Hereford with my mum and left her at the train station, on the first leg of her journey back to Cyprus. This time she's got tickets to Birmingham International station, rather than getting off the train at Birmingham New Street and getting a taxi to the airport! This morning we were crossing our fingers that Monarch Airlines would have at least one more day's trading so they could get home!

Even though mum was here for two weeks, we didn't get to sample all the eateries in Hay, although she and Kevin went into Eve's so often they gave her a loyalty card! Kevin liked the espresso, and mum liked the blueberry muffins.

We treated ourselves to a meal in Red Indigo twice, though perhaps the first Saturday evening after they re-opened was not the best time to go! They were very busy indeed - the staff must have been exhausted by the end of the night - and they were doing take aways as well. Mum really wanted an onion bhaji - not easy to find in Cyprus - and she wasn't disappointed. The rogan josh was also very nice. Eklim, the manager, saw us as we went out, and said that he would be able to give the "lovely lady" his undivided attention next time we visited - and gave us each a miniature bottle of Prosecco because of the long wait we'd had. Neither of us minded - it was nice to see the support for Red Indigo after the unfortunate incident where their window was broken.
The following Friday was not so busy, and this time we had onion bhaji and chicken boona, also very tasty.

We ate in the Blue Boar twice, as well (lovely chili). Kevin had been waiting to taste English beer again, and he really liked the Timothy Taylor Landlord there. He complains that it's all fizzy lager in Cyprus.

We also went off to Hereford for a day, shopping for things that mum can't get in Cyprus (including a pressure cooker!), and spent another day in Brecon, where I treated them to lunch at the Brecon Tap (lovely steak pie, with black pudding mashed potatoes) and topped up my supply of bottled beers, including the Discworld range. This time, I took my own beer carrier.

On the last night, I took mum down to the Three Tuns, where we had enormous pizzas!

I have to give a huge thank you to Mrs Gwynne of Belmont House. She put mum and Kevin in the cottage to the side of the house, which was originally the stables, but has been converted into bedrooms with a kitchen and lounge downstairs, and a conservatory at the back overlooking the garden.
There weren't many other guests staying there, and the ones that did were only there for a night or two, so mum and Kevin had free use of the kitchen if they wanted to cook for themselves, and use of the dining table and lounge. Mrs Gwynne even lent them some pans to cook with, and it was much better for me to go up and sit with them in the lounge - my living room is a bit cramped!
There was a TV, too - I don't have a TV, so I discovered the delights of such daytime programmes as Tipping Point, Eggheads, Flog It and a really quite interesting programme about restaurant tricks of the trade (was your cocktail mixed in a factory and delivered in a carton, or was it made by a skilled bar person in front of you?).
Mrs Gwynne also lent them a CD player so Kevin could play the CDs he got from Haystacks in Backfold - lots of Sounds of the Sixties.
Belmont House is currently up for sale - Mrs Gwynne has been running the B&B for forty years (most of that with her husband who died not long ago) and she thinks she's done it long enough!

A Relaxing Time at the Blue Boar and the Globe

I've never been in the Blue Boar's garden before - I hadn't realised how lovely it is out there! The day was gloriously sunny and hot, and the Blue Boar has Hooky and Old Hooky on tap, so there was really nothing better we could think of doing....

And on Tuesday evening, we went along to the Globe for the Open Mic session.
Tim the Gardener had told me he was going to perform his anti-Festival rant, which runs to five or six A4 pages - he had them displayed in the window of the Sandwich Cellar, but reduced to tiny writing so the pages didn't block out all the light! Also there was Dirty Ray, a young man called Alice who did beat-box while playing a flute, and a very good band called Slippery Slope, which included a steel drum in the line up. There were other performers, too, and it was a really enjoyable evening.

Cattle Market and the Blue Boar Memories

"Do you remember who wrote Pookie?" the lady asked. I didn't, though I knew about the little rabbit with wings from an old series of picture books. I looked it up - of course! It was Ivy Wallace! The lady knew her daughter, who had recently written a novel about the model factories of New Lanark in the early Industrial Revolution.
They had lived in Scotland for some time, but the lady's husband came from somewhere near Hay.
"I used to come here years ago, with my uncle," he said. "We came to the cattle market, and my job was to run between the rings and the auctioneer with the slips."
They asked about places to have coffee, and eventually decided on the Blue Boar. I told them that Ivy Wallace had once been in the Blue Boar, to make a little film. If anyone remembers the old advert about Fly Fishing by JR Hartley (and the chap enquiring turns out to be JR Hartley himself) - that's what they were doing, only with Pookie and Ivy Wallace. She sat by the fireplace in the side of the bar that is set up for food, pretending this was her own home - I remember peering in through the window to see the filming taking place.
"The landlord of the Blue Boar used to buy meat from my uncle," said the man. "And my uncle would always tell him to keep a steak aside for him when he came in." He held up his fingers about an inch apart to show how thick the steaks had been.

Lunch at the Blue Boar

I had visitors yesterday, so I took them to lunch at the Blue Boar.
The starters were almost a meal in themselves - I had the soup (not sure what it was, but it was delicious!), and my cousin went for the mackerel. He didn't want to eat it all, in case he didn't have room for the main course. And the main courses were also for people with hearty appetites. I had the chili, and my visitors had the salmon and broccoli tagliatelle and the chicken and mushroom pie. "I was expecting one of those little pots with the flaky pastry on top," my cousin said, after polishing off something that was obviously home cooked and delicious.
We didn't have room for a sweet, but we did wash the meal down with some nice Hooky and Landlord, and a glass of Pinot Grigot.
As we were getting ready to go, three old ladies were also getting ready to leave after their lunch. One lady wanted to wait for her son to pick her up outside, but was a bit unsteady on her feet, and couldn't see very well, so my cousin's wife took her arm and helped her down the steps.
"I'll be a hundred years old on Christmas Day," she said, and said that the church was organising a party for her - before Christmas, because she wanted to be there! They all walked with sticks, and one of them said; "They call us the Three Musketeers in the chemists!"

More Bargains

Lots of car boots down at the school yesterday - obviously tempted out by the sunshine! I met a lovely girl who's just come back from Portugal after eight years out there. She was selling rag rug making kits - and I learned how to make rag rugs at a workshop run by Jenni Stuart Anderson, at what is now the Hourglass Gallery on Broad Street, so we got talking, and I ended up buying all her back copies of Sacred Hoop magazine.
One of my neighbours was there too, doing a clear out, and she had some lovely silky shawls from the Far East (Vietnam, possibly?).
I also picked up the Russell Crowe Robin Hood movie for £1, which should be entertaining. (My favourite Robin of all time is, of course, the great Errol Flynn, followed fairly closely by Richard Greene).

After that, it was off to the pony sale. I've never been to one before, but one of my friends was having a Significant Birthday, and decided that the thing she would like to do most in the world was come to the pony sale in Hay for the day. She was bidding, too - she and her partner have started gentling ponies to sell on - though they didn't get anything in the end.
I noticed that some of the ponies were going for around £200 and some were only going for around £20, so I took the opportunity to ask her why. It seems that the fillies are more expensive, because the colts need to be gelded later, and that costs around £200. Other, older, ponies for sale were far more expensive. One of the ponies on sale was being offered by the executors of Chris Gibbons, our local butcher who died recently.
The auctioneer said that there were people there from Spain, Germany and the Netherlands, as well as Wales. The 'meat men' were there too, to pick up the cheap ones to take to France. "They go for the spotty ones," my friend said, "to turn into handbags."
About halfway through the proceedings, we moved from the grass ring (where the awnings provided very welcome shade from the hot sun and the ice cream van was doing a roaring trade) to the indoor ring. Among the pens, there were ladies with tea urns and plastic chairs and tables laid out, and there was food on offer too, and down by the grass ring there were stalls selling tack and boots and so on. You could go to the pony sale for the day, and never see the rest of Hay.
We moved over the road to the Blue Boar, though, for lunch - where our starters and main courses all arrived at the same time (but the curry was very tasty, and the duck pate starters the other two had looked lovely).
It was all very interesting - and I'm glad I went with someone who could explain things to me!

Fairtrade Christmas meeting

The Blue Boar was very busy when I arrived - the bar staff were rushed off their feet. I was being treated to lunch, and we were having a committee meeting while we waited for the food to arrive.* The main business was to fill in a form so that Ruth's name could be taken off the bank account and I could be put on. Jo had met Julie earlier in the day so that she could do her bit - and it wasn't too hard to fill in. Jackie had to sign it to say that she knew who I was - and I decided not to muddy the waters with pseudonyms when they asked if I'd been known by any other names over the past three years. I don't think 'Elen Gethin the Spinner' was what they had in mind.

Sadly, Jackie won't be able to do as much for Fairtrade next year - but she is involved in all sorts of other things around Hay, as well as her job, and she and her husband want to do some creative stuff as well, and there just aren't the hours in the day. She's active in Hay Church, and the local Carers, and puts together The Zimbabwean, a weekly paper that is distributed in Zimbabwe, and edited by an exile who currently lives in Southampton. By the wonders of computer, he can get the news stories together there, and then send them up to Jackie to put them in some sort of order - and then it has to be printed in South Africa somewhere and got across the border into Zimbabwe, which is often easier said than done.

Fortunately (or it would just be me and Jo!) Julia has said she'd like to come back to us now that her Fairtrade bag business is up and running, and there are a couple of other people that we're going to approach/armtwist/pressgang in the New Year.

*The sausages in onion gravy were good, and the prawns and salmon looked jolly nice as well - and I'll definitely have the chocolate mousse with ice cream again!

Did Henry VII ever stop in Hay?

I had a fascinating conversation with a visitor the other day about the inn sign of the Blue Boar. On the sign the blue boar is carrying a flag, on which is depicted another blue boar and various crescents and other symbols, including a red cross on a white background. This seemed to be a very specific depiction to the visitor, who speculated that it could show that Henry VII once stayed in Hay.
I knew that the blue boar symbol often started off as a white boar on pub signs, to denote loyalty to Richard III, whose personal badge it was. However, when he was defeated by Henry Tudor, it became dangerous to admit to loyalty to the previous king. The obvious solution was to change the sign - and the easiest change to make was to paint the white boar blue - which just happened to be the badge of the Earl of Oxford, who was a general under Henry Tudor.
The Earls of Oxford also have an association with Hay - the road that the Blue Boar stands on is Oxford Road, for instance.
Personally, I don't think the pub is old enough to have any late medieval/Tudor associations, and the sign painter probably just made up a flag he thought looked good - but you never know.
I gave the visitor Rob Soldat's name, and told him where to find him. Rob Soldat knows everything there is to know about the history of Hay, and he could explain the pub sign if anyone can.