Ynys Hir Plant Fair.

Not so nice today with arctic winds  bringing a nasty chill to the air. But it stayed dry right until I got home this afternoon. The first drops fell minutes after I had brought in the dry washing from the line and now it's raining heavily.

Five of us met up in the wooded car park at Furnace for our usual Sunday walk.

The plan was to walk along a track beside some fields down to the Ynys Hir bird reserve before returning to the Ynys Hir Restaurant to visit the plant fair being held to raise funds for the chemotherapy unit at the local hospital.

I was very concerned at the poor condition of this pony (caught here in mid chew) and took the photo with the intention of reporting it to the RSPCA. But then we saw a second pony that was in perfectly good condition. So the first pony is either very old, unwell or a rescue case and doesn't need reporting.

We ate our lunch at the bird reserve sitting at a table with a view inland to the hills on the edge of the Cambrian mountains. We have walked on the hill to the right though we didn't get to the top as the path was totally overgrown following covid.

And then back to the restaurant set in beautiful if slightly neglected mature gardens with interesting trees with paths under their twisting branches.

The restaurant just happens to be the most expensive restaurant in the UK. A meal there will set you back around £450 (£350 set menu, wine and tip) per person!!! That is a sickening amount of money when you think of people starving all over the world or simply the need for food banks in this country.

As well as rooms in the main building you can stay in a tent for £450 per night. That includes a private outdoor hot tub but you still have to walk through the trees to the toilets. Not for me thank you. But the handwashing area by the toilets (proper flush loos not eco sawdust ones or anything) was impressive with the basin being a carved marble bowl and a tap dispensing hot water plus rosemary scented hand soap and hand lotion. A few of us made sure our hands were nicely moisturised.

There was a band playing folk music and an area with plants for sale (I was so caught up with buying plants that I completely forgot to take any photos.) At first I was very restrained and only bought a pot of a tiny house leek sempervivum arachnoideum which has hairs across the leaves that look a bit like a spider's web. I walked round the grounds with one of my fellow walkers who had been there a few times before. Then we had a hot drink and cake, decaff coffee and some orange and rosemary cake for me, which was included in the £5 entry fee. After that it was announced that in order to clear the plants, which had all been donated by members of the Ceredigion Plant Society, they would take offers on the remaining plants. Back we went to the plant tables and I ended up with another pot of the tiny sedums, a couple of large ice plant sedums flower colour unknown and a pink flowered achillea. It was all for a good cause and I'm sure I can find somewhere to put them. 

I've already planted the tiny sedums in the big bowl on the terrace but the rest will have to wait until it stops raining.

The DIY also got done today. Before breakfast I sanded and painted the strip of wood by the wardrobe door and having noticed two holes to fill and forgotten to sand down the filler on the ceiling I did those after I got home.