Phew! What a week . . . Part II of Builth, finally.

My apologies for not having finished the second part of the Builth post.  Life got in the way.  A couple of photos and then on to a round up of what we've been up to here.

Four little maids from school are we . . .  Aren't they lovely?  Not sure if they were meant to be small mannikins originally, to show off dresses, or what?

A reflection of me in the picture I would have liked to buy, had he not had a silly price on it.  This is the Thoroughbred racehorse "Othello" who had several of the pillars of the TB stud book running in his veins., but notably the Byerley Turk.

A bevy of cats.  I SO WANTED the little ginger Royal Doulton cat in the front.  She was so pretty and whimsical, but at  £28 not for me as I was all spent out by this time.  One day . . .

Beauatiful things on the other side of the same stall.  I had a lovely chat with the stallholder too and hope she had a good weekend.  Aren't those hares adorable, and the Whipetty-dog, and the lady of Godiva . . .

I'm not normally a glass person, but some of the pieces here were delectable - especially the ones on the left top.

This was more me though.  These stallholders had really invested massively in stock.  Some delectable horses there.

Of course, the one I REALLY liked was this Arab  bust. . .

I preferred the first darker colour.  My Fahly to the life, only he didn't have quite such a pronounced dish to his face.

I struck lucky when I found a stall holder with a great selection of Torquay pottery pieces, going cheaply.  So I bought . . .

and I bought . . .

and I bought . . . (already had the middle vase, a rare and early one) . . .

and I bought. . . .  All these pieces cost just £4 or £2 each.  I spent under £20.  And then I had to take down all the old stoneware huntsman pottery I had on this shelf and put my new goodies on it (the stoneware stuff to be sold/got rid of).

Just to show you the entire row, one back from the above photo is . . .

A lovely big jug I bought recently (£5) and the unusual/rare Violet jar without a lid cost me the same price (too much truth be told as no lid) at Malvern, but the chap wouldn't budge, and it IS unusual.

Finally, I bought two beautifully=pieced quilt tops to make up, hand-quilt, and then sell on.

I prefer the first one, colour-wise, but this is bright and pretty, and has curved seams too.

Lots of work there for me this winter . . .

I shall try and do another post today or tomorrow, to show you what has been keeping me busy in the kitchen.

A day out at Builth Antiques Fair

"Say Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. . . ."

Miriam had difficulty in getting the right size knickers in the sales . . . and even more difficulty trying them on for size!

"Oh I do like to be beside the seaside . . ."

He was no longer a Knight in Shining Armour . . .

. . . and his horse wasn't up to much either!

You've all heard of pop-up shops - this is the pop-up man. . .

Some things just have style . . .

More photos to come later - but I must away to my jam-making.

Setting up in business!

This week I finally achieved a long-held dream, to start trading in a small Unit as part of a bigger Antiques Centre.  Here are a few photos to show the first few things we have put in.  A rocking chair here, nearly obscured by a pretty patchwork quilt, and a lovely hand-crocheted bedspread, both late 1960s/early 1970s.

We have an eclectic mix - from Roman legionary helmet, to Clarice Cliff bowl, Welsh blankets to the lock off a church or chapel, and in the corner, one of the signal cannons my husband has been collecting for a while, and a recent upgrading has released this one for sale.

Anything from a Shelley vase to a ship's wheel, from a stool to a horse's hoof, from an old butter churn to a Victorian railway lantern.

We have some good wall space to fill up.

I don't carry very much china - plenty of others doing that.  Just a few pieces which I have enjoyed at home for a couple of years, and now time to move it on.  The bells are an ARP bell (front) and a town crier's bell behind.

This shows one side, with the Militaria side of things in the glass display cabinet.

It's early days yet.  We give it a tweak and rearrange things to look better each time we go in.  It's hard to concentrate only on what you would like to sell when you have things which need to go to make room for new stock, so I think it will gradually evolve.  I have two lovely horse sculptures to go on display when there is room.

Anyway, we had an enjoyable day in Builth Wells today, at the big Antiques Fair there, so I shall post some photos of that tomorrow.

Walking is WONDERFUL!

This photo is just to remind me of what I can achieve when I set my mind to it.  It's the trig point on top of Rhossili Downs of course.

I have had two 3 mile walks since, just around the lanes locally, but including some steep hills.  I am still cooling down from today's walk, which included walking steadily (but not slowly) up a long hill towards Llanfynydd.  That part of the walk took half an hour but I stuck to it and was surprised at how much fitter I am already.  The views are lovely round here, very familiar, but still worth gazing at.  Back to the last part of the Rhossili Downs walk now.

Views in every direction, and I couldn't resist stopping and taking more photos.

Glorious heather and the remains of another burial chamber.

There are a number of burial chamber remains up on the top and you can't blame them for laying their dead to rest with such stupendous views in every direction.

By this time, Burry Holms was completely an island again.  You can clearly see the division made in the late Iron Age and used again when the Romans arrived - which made a promontary fort of the seaward end of the island.  Here is the link to the archaeology report: 
 http://heritageofwalesnews.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/burry-holms-excavation-newly-catalogued.html

Neolithic burial chamber in the valley behind.  Very tumbled and broken.  I intend to go back and explore these properly (there were two of them here).  They are known locally as Swain's Howes (as in burial chamber) and are portal dolmens, such as those I saw in Ireland on an Archaeology Field Trip. Here's a link for you:  http://thejournalofantiquities.com/category/swains-howes-burial-chambers-rhossilli-downs-in-south-wales/

You can see it's position in the landscape here - half way between the "wild" and the "civilized" as it later became.  I wouldn't mind betting that little lane is incredibly old too, and perhaps an original transhumance route up onto the Downs for summer grazing of livestock.

If you look at the middle of the photograph, behind my friend, just over her left shoulder, that's where we were parked.  It took us an hour to reach it!

This was the pathway down, and it was difficult to manouvre.  I am SO glad we didn't climb UP this way!

The Downs behind us as we set out through the Marsh grass . . .

It was like going on safari!

This last stretch was sandy and easy walking, but we had met a chap walking his Whippet, who told us to "look out for adders - he had never seen so many as that afternoon".  Fortunately they seemed to have gone to bed by the time we arrived.

I can't wait to go back and walk some of this area again with my husband.  It is SO lovely there.  Really magic, especially up on the Downs.