The house on the hill

The cold kept its grip on the Welsh borderlands with a sullen intensity. We pottered into nearby Hay-on-Wye to sample its amazing bookshops and chi chi shops. It also boasts a fabulous proper old market town hardware shop with a backroom devoted to chainsaws and other cutting equipment. The pea and ham soup at Booths - the original big bookshop in Hay - was the best I've ever had. 

It was lovely to catch up with M&S and their son who was over from Portland, Oregon. We walked the bounds of the property excited with the opportunities and challenges it presented.