Days in the life of St Hilary

24 November 2016

Today Caroline Neudegg and I took a stroll around the village to drop off leaflets about the festive coffee morning on Tuesday 6 December and at the same time we sought villagers views about adopting the village telephone box for community use.
 
It is surprising how the village always looks so quiet yet beneath the tranquillity it is buzzing with activity and at one point we wondered whether there was a secret code heralding our arrival as doors opened well before we reached the bell! 
 
On the Crescent Mary Lewis was leading the way with fairy lights on the bushes outside her door – early you might think but they are there to celebrate her forthcoming birthday. Next door Joan was at the window eyeing up the tree felling just across the way in the parking area at the side of the Bush and the two Marys were busy getting ready for a trip to Cardiff to see the Full Monty!!  And when we called on Ewa she was busy opening birthday presents before getting ready for a birthday lunch and a trip to the cinema to see Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
 
Views on adopting the telephone box were positive and as well as suggestions on how it could be used (e.g. one to one Welsh lessons – very cosy!) there were also stories about the box which, following Caroline’s research suggest it is a 1935 model. Were you aware that there are around 5 different models of telephone box??? Apparently when Beryl Price was postmistress she cleaned the box on a weekly basis and at that time the box was outside Little Hall Cottage. And, we heard that way back then the box was used by couples for courting! Perhaps we need a village story compiling about the telephone box and its uses in the past – as well as being used to make phone calls that is.

Talking BT and telephone boxes one of the over-riding issues on our travels today was the current lack of working telephone lines and access to the internet which is probably due to damage from last week’s storms.  Our land line is currently down and not likely to be repaired until next week because of all the problems but we do seem to have finally got our fast broadband working again but we came across some very frustrated neighbours.

It was lovely to catch up with the locals and we hope those who were off gadding had a wonderful day of entertainment.

Monica Dennis

 

It was an early start today with Caroline and Monica planting daffodil bulbs on No Man's Land. Around 200 have been planted so far - all generously donated by villagers.

 

After a coffee it was off to do a leaflet drop around the village to make locals aware of the Produce Market which is being held on 8 October. Early, you might say but we needed surplus fruit and veg to make the produce that we intend to sell.

 

Our leaflet drop continued but as always we were waylaid meeting people - you can't not stop for a chat!. We met the two Marys sauntering home from the pub, Mary Thomas was very complimentary about the new notice board and Charlie, who was at his gate said that he had seen lots of people (including delivery drivers) stopping to take a look.  Bill Clay and Terry were admiring it as we approached.

 

And, we met a lovely little dog named Bobby who enjoyed chasing the apples! Fortunately he had a name tag with a phone number so he was soon reunited with his owner Phil Thomas. There was some comment about an inflatable collar - not sure what that does but it obviously doesn't stop him from escaping!

Thanks to Bobby for his company and many thanks to everyone who offered produce. Tine to get the pan out to start cooking again!