Canalside houses at Brecon with their beautiful display of flowers. (Photo taken 2007!)
Yesterday we had a day out. It was initially a trip to Brecon to collect some more clay paint from Ty Mawr, to finish off in the attic. If you look at the map, you will see that Brecon isn't that far from, in fact, is on the way to . . . Hay-on-Wye. Well, naturally we decided to have a day out on the back of the necessary journey, and although the weather has been better (it was rather dull and damp, but cleared a little before rain set in heavily on the way home).
We know the route off by heart of course - and I'm sure if you turned the car loose it would make its way to Hay! It was lovely to see the familiar countryside unfolding before us, although the mountains were under a curtain of wet cloud down to their waists.
We stopped at our usual junky antique shop and I bought 4 read-once magazines for 50p each (Country Living/Homes & Antiques) and my OH got a few little keys in the hope that one would be right for a cupboard he has. We were last there less than a month ago, so stock hadn't changed much.
The wild flowers - those that hadn't been hacked down by the Council in their bid to make the countryside TIDY (great angry-ness here over such mowing policies) were stunning. Ragged Robin is such a dainty flower, though it needs to be seen in big swathes to really impress. Along the side of the A470 heading towards Bronllys, there were masses of tall pale pink Orchids. As I was driving at the time, I didn't get a chance of a proper ID, so I shall have to turn to my books later. Valerian is so common round here it is almost a weed, but WHAT a weed when it is spilling over walls or massing as a backdrop in a cottage garden.
Anyway, we started the afternoon with a bacon butty at the Backfold cafe - which is always part of our ritual! - and then on through the bookshops. I stayed my hand, although my OH did buy me a cheap biography - The Queen of Whale Cay - which looks a change from my usual literary biographies! Then I succombed and bought a bound book of Riding magazines from 1938/1939 which I had been thumbing through for the last year, thinking it was all the money and I really shouldn't buy it, but I just love all the old photos and articles and the letters pages with photos of Trixie, Honey, Gollywog etc and their loving owners. Oh gosh, I can remember when the "proper" leg position was so that you could just see your toe in front of your kneecap . . . and forward-cut saddles were a new-fangled invention!
Do you remember me throwing out all the plastic from my kitchen? Well, yesterday two plastic jugs were chucked out and finally replaced by a lovely green and white huge ceramic mixing/pouring jug which I saw in the window of the ironmongers in Hay. I hope it doesn't get broken or I shall be very upset!
The road home . . .
I hope someday to have a home empty of plastic and full of fibers and soft toys.
ReplyDeleteOh and the schools here sell magazine subs as a fund-raiser and so I got my best little friend a sub to a riding magazine-hope she enjoys it as much as you have.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could come on one of your days out. I remember very well the toe thing when being taught to ride! I ended up riding very long when I came back to it as an adult, with a treeless saddle and a loose rein that would have had instructors having coronaries.
ReplyDeleteEm - that would be lovely. You can always come and stay the weekend! I used to ride my Arab, Fahly, at the buckle end too - he was so dependable and we had a brilliant rapport. He was difficult to fit with a saddle - huge shoulders and he arrived with muscle wastage - but treeless saddles were in their infancy then.
ReplyDeleteLynda - it's a case of working at it bit by bit. I am not entirely plastic-free yet, but getting there. I decant any fruit squash drinks into glass bottles when I buy them, and all my storage jars are glass or old earthenware ones. I am sure your friend will love the sub to the riding magazine.