Tuesday 7 September 2021

A walk along Brecon Canal

 Yesterday was far too nice a day not to take advantage of the sunshine and go for a walk.  Once we had unpacked from the Fair, Tam and I set off to Brecon to do the shopping there for a change.  We normally go once a month.  We parked near to the Canal and walked beside it for about a mile and a half, up as far as the A40.  On returning to the car I foraged a few tiny yellow Mirabelle plums which had fallen from a tree on the bank by the road, caught by tangles of ivy and long grass and so unbruised. There was a similar sized red one too, but I couldn't shake any down!



Purple Loosestrife was still in full bloom along the Canal.


We had been watching lots of small fish in the canal until this private narrowboat came along and muddied the waters!  This gentleman's good lady was sat in the front with her crochet.


The last smile of summer on these Meadow Cranesbill.




The fields looked sleepy in the heat haze.




This house was on the market last year, and still appears empty.  The people who lived there were great gardeners and always had a lovely show in their garden.  Sadly this year it was only the perennials in bloom.


The bridge we crossed back to the car.  If you carry on another mile or so you get to the Brecon Basin - end of the line.

Did we have a good Fair?  Yes, very, BUT it was exhausting.  We set up the Gazebo and tables on the Friday - put up the displays early Saturday morning, but then had to take the displays down at the end of the day as I didn't sleep on site.  Sunday was a repeat performance.  Saturday was extremely busy.


We had a lovely shady spot - this was the last grass pitch they had - they had suggested going by the wall of a building, but I wanted to try and tether the gazebo (a wise move as it got gusty on Saturday afternoon).  Lots of folk said what a lovely spot we had, and we didn't boil like the other outside folk in full sun.  On the Sunday we mopped up a few sales too as people who still had money left, came and shopped with us on the way out.  I sold my three lovely children's chairs to a Dealer friend so they will now be offered in her Narberth shop.

Of course, we had the idiots come by too.  One, who when I showed him the wear pattern on the legs of the little child's rocker, from where children had put their legs under to rock it, loftily announced, oh no, that was because the wood they used for the legs was square and they hadn't bothered finishing the leg off properly.  Hadn't he ever heard of turning a leg on a pole lathe?  Clearly not!!

Everyone was plagued by a Traveller invasion - the women and children all in their finery - the blokes with the same slicked-back haircuts and my goodness you had to have your wits around you when the lads were at your stall.  They were after knives, and of course, we had our antique ones.  3 or 4 would come in and pick things up, ask questions, try and confuse you - it was like a three card trick but I am used to their ways and watched them like a hawk.

I now have the money for a greenhouse (without dipping into our savings), which was my intention, so this morning I have been checking what is for sale out there and trying to work out whether glass or polycarbonate is best.  I'm leaning towards the latter at the moment as we face South, so need some protection for plants in the greenhouse.  What I'd really like is a Rhino greenhouse, but I didn't earn THAT much!!  We do have extra money to cover the rewiring or the bathroom fitting anyway, so it was well worth getting tired out!



8 comments:

  1. Sounds like a fun, if albeit tiring, weekend. You've helped me identify a "new" plant in my garden. It seems I may have Purple Loosetrife in a border this summer.

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  2. Glad to be of assistance RP. We shall be shattered still at least until tomorrow. Not much fun growing old!

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  3. Happy to hear that the fair went well...even if exhausting. Keeping your eyes glued to the merchandise has to be difficult when too many are around. And the know-it-none are a real pain in the tush. Glad it was worthwhile enough to help with the purchase of a greenhouse. Rest up! You've earned it.

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    1. I rested a bit today but not enough! Will try harder tomorrow:)

      I am now looking at greenhouses, and think I will go for one with polycarbonate instead of glass. More research tomorrow.

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  4. It is always amusing to me when someone tries to play the know it all when they obviously don't know it all. My daughter has a name for people like that, but I'll do you a great favor and not print it on your blog. Interesting about the Travelers. In Italy, my daughter caught one trying to steal her purse. She made quite a noisy scene. The woman wasn't even embarrassed. She just walked away.

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    1. Keith in particular gets them - having militaria. The I-know-everything-about-German-helmets-daggers-anything-German REALLY get up my nose and they normally turn up when Keith's away from the stall a minute! I just say, well, they are authentic and not repro . . . We had one Fair where we were next to Sid-the-Bin-Bag who brought all his (crap) stock in big bin bags and sold clearly repro stuff as authentic at about £100 a pop and the punters thought they were getting a bargain, especially looking at the prices we had on the Real Thing.

      The Travellers seemed to have absolutely NO compunction about tealeafing stuff - if you're stupid enough not to keep totally alert, it's your loss. Proper Romany gypsies are NOT like that.

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  5. It sounds like the fair was a success. The purple loosestrife is lovely, but highly invasive here and now illegal to plant in some areas along backwater streams. A greenhouse will be wonderful to have! Best, Celie

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  6. Here it's the Himalayan Balsam which is so incredibly invasive - it's along every river and wherever the birds might have passed the seeds on. We had it in our garden at the old house. It was introduced Could be worse though, it could be the almost impossible to eradicate Japanese Knotweed.

    I have wanted a greenhouse for so many years and had to put up with a plastic variety which soon degrade.

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