York House B&B

Cusop, Hay-On-Wye, Herefordshire, HR3 5QX

Telephone - 01497 820 705

News updates from York House - Last entry 26/10/11

28th December 2010

 What an amazing month, record low temperatures and snow fall that has lasted for weeks, giving us real Christmas card pictures to gaze upon. Unfortunately not the sort of conditions to encourage us to complete our household projects but to add more to the list, including repairs to frozen pipes in the outside loo.

 The pictures above were taken after the first of the snow falls.

 The food festivals were very well supported again this year with appropriate weather for each. The summer festival in June was bathed in sunshine with people eating ice cream and drinking chilled cider and the winter festival at the end of November was after the first snowfall and the emphasis was on hot pies and mulled cider.

 Entertainment for the summer festival was provided by the Brecon Town Concert Band

 After the prolonged cold spell it was impossible to tell where the brook was, not only had it iced over but the snow had covered the ice to conceal it's location, fortunately the water is not more than about 30cm deep.

      We hope that you have all had a Merry Christmas        and we wish you a very

Happy New Year

15th May 2011

Further snow falls in January meant that we didn't see the grass for quite a few weeks and the prolonged spell of cold weather was doing a lot of damage below the snow layer. It looked beautiful but there was some apprehension about what we would find when the thaw came.

 The damage wasn't immediately apparent, apart from the complete lack of grass in the area where the dogs had been scrabbling for grip in their pursuit of the ball (or any other object) that had been thrown for them to retrieve. Getting them to retrieve something is not a problem, getting them to release it when they have retrieved it is a different proposition.

In February we decided to have some modifications made to the kitchen. The long term plan is to move the cooker into the old fireplace (where a range cooker used to be) but to be able to achieve that we needed to have a stone lintel raised by about 300mm (or 'a foot' in old money) to create the necessary headroom. I think that we underestimated the amount of disruption that the work would cause and for a week or so, we were effectively camping in the dining room, surviving on a diet of micro-waved dinners that we had prepared in advance. I am sure it will all be worth it in the long run but it is difficult to imagine it sometimes.

The picture on the left shows the original position with the lintel about to be removed. The picture on the right shows the cut down lintel in it's new position and the brick and stonework made good.

In March and early April we had a most amazing spell of warm weather with a prolonged dry period and the plants that had survived the battering of the winter began to grow profusely and flower early. In consequence we had a beautiful display of snowdrops,  daffodils and then tulips but they all occurred unseasonably early.

Preparations for the 2011 Festival are now well underway and most of the structures for the site are already complete and the town is bracing itself for another invasion. Maintaining the topic of the weather, we have now got our fingers crossed for another year like last year when the only rain that we had during the eleven days was a little light drizzle on a couple of occasions and some overnight rain to help keep the dust down on the fields.

26th October 2011

The 2011 Literary Festival was another resounding success with visitor numbers setting new records. Again the weather was favourable and the thousands of visitors to the Town were able to make the most of their time by enjoying the other attractions that Hay has to offer including the Circus which is held in the grounds of the castle.

During the summer the remains of the Norman Castle and the attached Jacobean Mansion were sold to a charitable trust which intends to preserve the building(s) for the benefit of the town and open the gardens for public access. The long term plans for the buildings include perhaps using them for exhibitions and other artistic events.

The food festival was well attended in June and despite the weather being cool and overcast the atmosphere in the marquees was warm and welcoming with lots of local produce and products available to sample and purchase.

On July 25th we became grandparents for the first time when our daughter-in-law gave birth to a boy in the Borders Hospital in Scotland. Baby James arrived a few weeks earlier than expected and we couldn't go to visit immediately because we had guests booked in, it seemed like an eternity before we were able to get away and share the joy of the new arrival.

We have plans to do some more work on the house during the winter months but we will ensure that we allow ourselves plenty of opportunity to enjoy time with the family when they visit.

Best wishes, hoping to see you soon,

       Margaret and Jim Wesley.