Trust Life: Love Yourself Every Day with Wisdom from Louise Hay

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Not sure if poetry is for you? There’s a nice chair waiting for you so you can sit and browse for a while until you’re sure. Don’t be afraid to ask the staff for help finding something either as they’re very friendly! Outside the old Laura Ashley shop, there was a skiffle band. They were playing Putting on the Style when I passed, and they had CDs for sale. This town is a haven for book lovers in Wales and a real hidden gem. The entire town only spans around 1km but is home to over 20 bookshops! Consultant-led Accident and Emergency Services (the nearest A&E for most people in the area will be Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil, or County Hospital Hereford). It's not long now until the Hay Walking Festival (I hope they have better weather than this week!).

There was a retiring collection, rather than an entrance fee, and the money raised goes towards the musicians, and to help up-and-coming young musicians.I went for a walk around the circumference of Hay this afternoon, and when I got to the car park, there was a Mobile Police Station there. I've never been up to Vowchurch Common, though I've been past on the bus very often, so I looked it up in a little book called 100 Walks in Hereford & Worcester. This gives a round walk which includes Monnington Court, which I thought was very interesting until I realised that this wasn't the medieval Monnington Court which was reputed to be the hideaway of Owain Glyndwr in his last years after he disappeared (that's at Monnington-on-Wye,), despite what the book says. This was a much later house, though it does seem to have a medieval motte right next to the house. Isobelle has hit the ground running as a member of the Town Council, as she is now the Co-ordinator for the Green Transport Action Plan. She has already set up a lift/car share group on Facebook at www.facebook.com/groups/238557719890177/ Since we were visiting in December, the downstairs collection involved a great selection of books and anthologies around the theme of Christmas and Winter, which I loved.

So there's quite a variety in terms of length of walks and terrain - all in beautiful countryside, of course. In the Buttermarket is the Mad Hatters Craft Fair, again with lots of interesting crafts on sale, so there's plenty to do in the middle of town, despite the weather. I was given a review copy of this new book by Rosie Hayles, published by Logaston Press - and I've really enjoyed reading it. This time the church wasn't quite so full, but the weather had been pretty awful, which may have dissuaded people from going out. At the bar, the real ales are from Wye Valley - I tried the dark Space Hopper, which was very pleasant.A friend asked for a bit of help in researching the Forty Martyrs - Catholic saints who had been executed in England for their faith in the 16th and 17th centuries. I was already familiar with several of them - St Nicholas Owen, who built priest holes where the persecuted priests could hide from the authorities, for instance and, because we share a name, St Edmund Arrowsmith, who came from Lancashire.

Astronomy was important to the Church because of the difficulties of calculating the correct date for Easter every year, so that was studied - with the proviso that the Earth was, naturally, in the centre, with the planets, Moon and sun going round it. The focus is on government departments this time, with the Hay contingent planning to be part of the much larger XR Wales group, which will be gathering around the Home Office, along with XR Bristol (apparently they've got 500 people coming), XR Rainbow and XR Farmers, who have a pink tractor! I think they said that the communal kitchens would be in that area too. The jugglers weren't the only buskers - up at the top of the Pavement was a chap with an electric guitar who has become a regular fixture, playing something mellow. He was admitted to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge at the early age of 17 where he graduated in History. Father Richard will be playing the organ to accompany the silent classic Metropolis - both showings are already sold out.A CIC (Community Interest Company, like the one that renovated the Cheesemarket) has been created, and the idea of this is to fund raise for the library. They are setting up social media now, including a video project called Public Libraries Transform Lives, in which people explain what libraries mean to them. I remember belly dancing demonstrations, in the middle of the tiny bar - which also featured in Dandelion Dead, which was filmed in Hay in 1994. Just about the only thing they did to change it for the filming (which was set in 1923) was to take out the 1970s broken games machine. I could spend hours and hours wandering amongst these shelves and I probably spent the most time in this shop out of all the others. There are tonnes of vintage CDs and records to be found in the centre of the room as well as books about music going around the walls. There's a common thread between all of the more recent attempted sales - they have all gone through Paul Fosh Auctions, based in Newport.

The music was sublime, a mixture of English and Italian madrigals - and the lady introducing the pieces was hilarious! "In the last pieces," she said (as an example of her patter), "there was a lot about dying, but they were really talking about sex - and if I'd told you that before we sang them, you wouldn't have listened to a word, would you?" The Community Choir sang carols, beautifully, introduced by George the Town Cryer. A procession holding big white lanterns, stuffed with fairy lights, arrived and mingled with the crowd - there had been a lantern making workshop at the library earlier in the afternoon. Someone asked if this was the right time to hold climate protests, considering the present political climate in the UK. The considered answer was that all the problems over Brexit seemed like a petty squabble compared with the importance of saving the planet. Whatever people's politics are, we all need a habitable planet to live on. In one way, this is a perfect time to protest about climate change, both because of the short time we have to make a difference according to the IPCC report and the volatile nature of British politics at the moment - there may be a General Election soon, and the situation seems to be changing all the time. It was seen as a positive sign that Jane Dodds, the new MP for Brecon and Radnorshire, came to the Brecon protest last week, and was talking about holding a Citizen's Assembly to talk about what can be done in the local area to mitigate climate change. On the middle weekend of the protest there will be a time of Grief and Community, coming together to remember people who have died because of climate change and pausing to reflect about what they're doing. The idea is that this will give the protesters fresh impetus for the second week, which will be focussed on Global Justice. The Queen's Speech, to start the next session of Parliament, will be on the 14th October, in the middle of the protests. Phillips was himself affected by the diseases that ravaged the ship on that voyage, and became permanently deaf. He retired to Brecon and never sailed again. He died in 1713, aged around 48.Across the lane from the house is a row of cottages which can be rented for holidays by groups of between eight and seventeen people, though of course it's closed at the moment. These were originally the stables and the meeting house. Most of the crafters who appear at the Buttermarket also sell their wares through the Mad Hatters Christmas Craft Market Online on Facebook, and can be found through www.madhatterscraftparty.co.uk