Thursday 23 September 2021

Going by the scenic route

 


I'm pretty sure this was Saturday's sunrise.  So pretty.  Despite it being a Shepherd's Warning, we had a decent day, and drove up to the Antiques and Collectibles Fair at Oswestry, where we saw a friend from Hay, up there checking it out for potential stock.  We weren't there early enough to find the beautiful Persian plate we saw carried out, along with a super primitive horse weather vane.  Someone made a killing on those, that's for sure.  It's not a huge Fair and has a totally different feel to Malvern, which is much bigger (HUGELY bigger on Bank Holidays) and has a lot more dealers about.  Mind you, not as bad as the old Carmarthen Fleamarket where you practically had to fight to get close to get a bargain as everyone was out to beat fellow dealers to a bargain.

    On the way back we visited the church at Llananno again (we'd stopped on our way back from Plas Newydd last week), to show Tam the rood screen.  I will do a separate post for this.



Just two photos from Oswestry - a lace making pillow, French or Belgian by the shape of the bobbins.  How on earth did they tell one from another?  At least the British ones have different colour beads on or different decorations or made of bone or turned wood.  Below, a 70s hexagon quilt.


Being gluttons for punishment, the following day we all got up early and went to Malvern Fleamarket.  It was much much quieter than the August (Bank Holiday) one - a fraction of the stalls there.  Once again we had a quiet stroll around, chatting to friends, and this  lovely horse picture (a print of a Stubbs painting) came home with me.  


It is the Thoroughbred stallion Mambrino.


Also at Malvern . . . Beautiful, but so fragile and the silk was rent apart in a couple of places.


A shame it had a broken nose, but  I wouldn't want it as part of my decor.


This was so pretty and beautifully sewn, but at £20 it stayed there.


Log Cabin quilt (and I did look at the book but left it there).


Apparently from Novgorod . . .


Lots of interesting things.

Then we bought a leather recliner chair from Ebay, which was for collection just outside Shrewsbury , so that's where we went yesterday.  It was somewhat hefty, having a metal framework for the moving parts, but Keith is very pleased with it and I managed to manhandle it into place. Now we just have to get rid of the spare Parker Knoll armchair . . .

Tam got us set up for using a phone Satnav app which took us, shall we say, the scenic route up to get the chair.  In fact, it took us on the same route as Tam and I took when we went in search of Cascob and Discoed churches earlier in the year.  We came through Clun (where we once viewed a property half a lifetime ago before ending up in Wales).  We viewed one more recently too, which we absolutely loved (Bryn-y-Cagley Hall it was called), but our house stubbornly didn't sell and so we couldn't offer on it.  Mind you, thinking of it now, the garden (over 70 David Austin roses to tend to), big orchard and soft fruit area, would have been too much for me these days, so perhaps it was for the best.  Houseman's "Clunton and Clunbury, Clungunford and Clun, the quietest places under the sun" still seems to run true as Clun was very quiet and peaceful yesterday.  We passed by turnings to the oddly-named Evenjobb, New Invention, Nind and through the village of Hope, and looked longingly at a turning which led to a stone circle (but probably not possible for Keith to reach at the moment), and drove through the Shropshire Hills and past the turning for the Stiperstones - wonderful walking country.

Anyway, we saw a sign for Machynlleth on the way home - it's years since we were last there and we weren't in a hurry to get home, so we went there and had a very slow wander round the antique shops before coming home on an unmarked road which went "behind" the Cambrian mountains.  Stunning views in places and I got a few photos.


Machynlleth, where it was market day.


What ALL Welsh ladies used to wear, back in the day.


Then the scenic route home a we noticed the sign for Llanidloes just as we were leaving the town.  Up through the mountains, and so beautiful . . .




A little sun to give a splash of colour.


One of the ubiquitous wind farms on the Welsh uplands.


I missed the best view which is of the reservoir up there - Nant y Moch.  Next time!  However, here is a pool instead . . . 


19 comments:

  1. One look at the lace pillow set up and it is clear why making lace will never be one of my skill sets. Whew. Some interesting items. I like your horse picture. Must say the photo you took (3rd from bottom) is a favorite. That splash of green amidst the lowering clouds. Very atmospheric.

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    1. I did have a few lace making lessons, but unfortunately I couldn't continue with it as I have arthritis in my neck and it was very painful.

      Glad you liked that photo - just got the dash of sunlight at the right moment.

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  2. Love your horse picture....and the stunning scenery -- your greens are so very green! Thank you for taking us along on a very lovely outing.

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    1. I was glad I got the picture - it looks well on the wall. No-one does green like Wales - although possibly the Irish have the edge as they get the rain before us!

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  3. What a treat to have a wander around the antiques fair, it is sometime since we have been to one. It was a delight to see the lace bobbins and of course the amazing views.

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    1. It is always a nice day out for us. Something to look forward to. We always enjoy finding new views and I missed a photo of the reservoir - we'll have to go back!

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    2. My goodness as you said how on earth could one keep track of those lace bobbins.

      Wonderful views.

      God bless.

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  4. I love seeing all the things you saw at the antiques fair.

    I wonder if there is a reason Welsh hats were so tall? you would think they would have blown away with all the windy weather and got very soggy in the rain!

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    1. That made me smile (about Welsh hats being so tall) and it occurred to me that Welsh women may have been rather short and needed to look more imposing! Probably merely fashion. Don't know what happened when it rained .. .

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  5. I enjoyed seeing the vintage textiles a lot.
    Sat Nav and scenic routes. Someone I know keyed their address in, in an experiment. After being blithely guided past home, they called it a day when they ended up by a beach instructed to turn left in 500 yards, which would take them into Ramsey Sound! HMMM.

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    1. Glad you liked the vintage textiles (as I do). I shall make sure to add some each Fair we go to.

      Sat Nav's can really be quite silly. In Wales of course, little lanes quite often go through farmyards and the thought of a big artic being taken thus makes the mind boggle.

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  6. Perhaps you know this, perhaps you'll wish I never told you, but did you know that one of the reasons that Stubbs was so hot on horse anatomy, musculature etc. was that he and his common-law wife went to live on a remote farm where he could carry out the very smelly business of dissecting horses? He could study their structure from the inside, out, as it were!

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    1. I did veg artist, and that thought was in my mind when I looked at the musculature on Mambrino! Learning from the inside out.

      I once paid a visit to the farrier of a riding school I worked at, and was somewhat horrified to find bags of horse and pony legs (knee downwards) for him to dissect and see why hoof or leg problems occurred . . . Very smelly I remember!

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    2. That certainly falls into the category of things you can't un-see!

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    3. Indeed! 50 yrs ago and still as clear as day.

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  7. Those hats are tall enough to hide a small child under!

    I have a friend whose daughter made the lace for her wedding gown...and the entire gown was lacework. It took her 9 months to do. After all that hard work, covid came. Her wedding was very small, family only, but the gown was a show stopper.

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    1. They look it don't they?

      WOW! Hats off to your friend's daughter. What a shame her wedding had to be small because of Covid but that gown will be remembered by everyone.

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  8. I have just begun reading Love in the Blitz by Eileen Alexander (I'm slightly underwhelmed so far). On 6 November 1938 she writes: "is dawn red? I've never seen it, so I wouldn't know." Can you believe that?

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    1. I've seen the dawn many a time -surely in winter, she would be up in time to see it, should it be red!

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