Hugging the familiar - day out in Hay-on-Wye

We have our wedding anniversary coming up shortly.  We HAD intended to go to Malvern for the Fleamarket tomorrow - until we saw the weather forecast - which was rain and probably gales all day long.  Which means no outside stalls and that is where the interest lies for us, fossicking through piles of house clearance stuff and interesting stalls with collectables from several counties away.  Whilst there are similar stalls inside, they tend to be less haphazard.

So instead, we took ourselves off to Hay-on-Wye (no surprise there then).  Even so, the weather wasn't on its best behaviour and we got wet a couple of times between shops (especially Booths and Addymans).

A loop in the road on the way to Trecastle, where we always stop in the Antiques Shop for a browse.  This time I found a couple of books - one on old craft tools, and 2007 copy of Millers Collectables which we didn't have. Then I found a little Torquay sugar dish for £3, so that is now snuggled up withh the rest of my collection, but I have Run Out Of Shelf now!  We stopped here on the way back and bought a cow horn (as you do!) as my OH had thought what he could utilise it for, and a towel horse which will replace an ailing one we have which has geriatric joints and is Past All Hope!

A rather wobbly car-photo of Pen-y-Fan swathed in rain.

Hay Bluff was screened by a veil of rain too.

So I didn't take many photos around the town.  Here I sheltered in the lea of the Castle remains, so I could take a photo of the Butterburs, flowering (bless them, they are hardy little things) in January, as they always do, on the bank below the Castle.

Their name comes from the use of their leaves to wrap pats of butter to keep it clean when it was taken to market to sell.  Around the Buttercross you get in many old market towns (Salisbury has a lovely one).

Above and below, a wonderful window display - a KNITTED 12 days of Christmas!  Lovely : )

Finally, the King of Hay's shop.  You can buy a Hay passport here! 

Thank you to everyone for your comments and tips about eating myself well, which I am going to pay much heed to, and I will keep you posted.  My Floradix tablets arrived in the post yesterday, so I am going to take the first one shortly.  Because I am back on the Doxycycline, I have to be careful to take them several hours apart from the Doxy, as it can affect it.  I know that I need to drink more water - preferably warm (yuk!) and have solved the sour taste of the natural Bio-yoghurt by having it with my muesli of a morning, along with half a sliced banana to sweeten it naturally.  I had a PILE of Curly Kale on my plate yesterday and had quite forgotten how much I enjoyed it.  But all this healthy eating has to be hand in hand with the conventional antibiotics at the moment.  However, I have discovered that perhaps the best thing to take as much of as possible is Elderberries, as whilst I knew they were effective for Flu and similar infections, also fight infections (like mine) which are embedded at cell level.  Right, more dried elderberries on today's shopping list.