Books & Baskerville Hall

So we returned to the town of books again (Hay-on-Wye) and stayed at Baskerville Hall Hotel. We had looked around briefly last time during the Hay Festival and decided we would camp later on, in the summer.

(A fairly lengthy post so a cup of tea and biscuits is optional whilst reading.)

I wrote one of my first blog posts on the Hay Festival in May, with a few photographs of the Hall here.

We stayed in the grounds of the hotel for three nights and considering it was the middle of August, it was absolutely freezing at night!

Apparently the site is well known for his festivals and parties so this tent was on the grounds from a music festival they hosted at the weekend.

Don’t ask me why we bring a 10-man tent for the four of us!

Tuesday was arrival day and we got our tent up as soon as we could because the Welsh weather isn’t always on our side! Overall we were really lucky and it didn’t rain at all (only a little bit at night.) When the tent was done we went exploring, taking a trek to the woodland behind the hotel to see what was in the surrounding area.

Dad is ahead of us from the start!

Cameron does not take family photo opportunities seriously

I don’t think they realise I’m taking photos half of the time

There was a wedding on at Baskerville Hall during the day on Wednesday. I took the chance to capture some photographs of the archway they created around the main walk way – it was made out of willow and fresh flowers. I think it was a bit of a hippy wedding because some of the guests looked very out of the ordinary and there was a very rural naturalistic theme.

On a walk into Hay later in the evening, I made friends with a cat who thought he was a dog (yes you read that right.) His name was Dennis, who was out with his owner and her Jack Russell terrier and he followed along behind like a puppy! Even if you don’t like cats, how can you not think he is adorable!

Whilst Dad and Cameron spent a few hours in a canoe down the River Wye on Wednesday, Mum and I explored the quirky shops and lanes of Hay-on-Wye. I took way too many pictures so it has taken me a while to get them down to a reasonable amount.

This one is for you Katie!

Okay so now to the exciting part, not that everything else wasn’t. On my exploration of the town’s book shops for Uni resources I met a lovely lady called Anne who owns Addyman Books. It was a gorgeous book shop and is definitely worth a visit – their Instagram account is filled with wonders here.
On my first visit into the shop I found a rare Marvel edition of Alice in Wonderland which was worth £60, unfortunately way past my budget so I decided to go away and think about it. We came back the next day and Anne said she had a feeling we would return and had found another copy for us online, not in as good edition but only £25. Mum and dad generously bought it for me for my 21st (a whole 6 months away but well worth the wait!) Anne mentioned how she too collects editions of Alice and offered to show me her collection of books, so we agreed to come back later. It was fair to say I was pretty speechless and completely overwhelmed by the whole situation.
Alice in Wonderland means a lot to me, so someone offering such a a kind gesture was a huge honour, I teared up a bit.
I was so dumbfound that I didn’t take any photos of her collection of books because there were literally hundreds, I spent my time taking in all the editions and Anne told me some of the special editions to look out for. She owns a signed copy (by Lewis Carroll!!) which cost her thousands. We exchanged Instagram details to share any upcoming Alice related information with each other,

Camera selfie!

We had a chill out day on Thursday and went for a meal in Leominster returning to The Monk, which we visited back in May. 10/10 would recommend – the food was delish!
On our way back home on Friday we visited Goodrich Castle, in Ross-on-Wye.. yes there are more photos coming up, I was super camera happy this week!