It is with a huge degree of relief and modesty that we are pleased to announce that our 100% success rate at the Oswestry Show is intact – we won best non-agricultural trade stand again! Once more, thanks to all who helped and all who visited! Phew……… Prize winners from the show draw were:
Mrs M. Pumphouse ~ £60.00 1st Prize email draw
Mrs J. Cobby ~ £40.00 2nd Prize email draw
Mrs Hughes ~ £30.00 1st Prize postal draw
Mrs S. Williams ~ £20.00 2nd Prize postal draw
WHAT'S ON
BOO BOO DAVIS
Early in September we restart our much-heralded and exceptionally high quality musical events.
Kicking off on Friday September 8th we are proud, pleased and thrilled to present “Boo Boo Davis”.
Before you all cry as one “Boo Boo who?”, which will sound like much wailing and gnashing of teeth (try it), don’t take our word for it, you can visit his website at www.myspace.com/booboodavis where you can sample the audio delights of Boo.
He is archetypical, deep south, Mississippi delta blues at its gutsiest - miss this one at your peril! The show plus an excellent two course dinner is a ridiculously reasonable £30.00.
ANDY LEAKE SHOWCASE
HERE WE GO AGAIN! Our much maligned and loved resident pianist/impresario, in what I suspect maybe a futile attempt to reduce his rather large roof (it's too big to be called a slate), is putting together the next of his glorious extravaganzas.
Any of you who have been before will not need to be convinced of the quality of these evenings, but for showcase virgins let me assure you these are not vaguely or amusingly embarrassing talent evenings but a show of real quality, with acts that have rehearsed properly, been schooled and helped by Andy, with full stage backup -i.e.. Great sound quality and lighting.
The showcases nights continue to go from strength to strength. Again you are able to settle back and enjoy the show having consumed a two course dinner before the show. Tickets are value for money at £25.00
NEXT SHOWCASE IS FRIDAY 3RD NOVEMBER
WINE TASTING EVENING
Further to the success of the previous evenings, we are again hosting a wine tasting evening in conjunction with Momentum wines. On this occasion, the wine will be from a brand new agency to Momentum wines, called Tabali Vineyards. Based in the Lamari Valley in Chile, these are top quality wines. Wines to taste this time are:
Sauvignon Blanc (glass on arrival)
Reserve Carmenere
Reserve Syrah
Special Reserve Chardonnay
Special Reserve Pinot Noir
Late Harvest Muscat
The aim of these evening is to change to the style each and every time. These wines will be shown with exciting Tapas courses as opposed to a formal dinner menu. As always the winemaker, Yanira Maldonaldo, will be on hand to give a light hearted overview of the wines and answer any questions you may have.
Momentum Wines Chilean Tasting and Tapas: £30.00 per ticket (including all wines and dinner). Tickets can be reserved via The Walls or by calling Momentum on 01691 654499.
ADVANCE NOTICE: Although details have not been finalised yet, we would like to announce the arrival of ‘Comedy Nights’ at the Walls. Please look out for future details regarding these events.
CORMAC KENEVEY
Trumpeted as Ireland's answer to Jamie Cullum and / or Michael Buble - though I wasn’t aware that either of them was a question - on Friday 10th November, the magnificent Cormac Kenevey storms The Walls.
This guy is real quality and, just to show you that we can really pick them, I’d just like to point out that in 2003/04 you could have seen Jimmy Carr here at the Walls for £25 including dinner!
This show again is £30.00 to include a two-course dinner.
VINTAGE CLOTHING “They don’t make things like they used to” and such grumpy old person sayings, really come into their own at the next exhibition to be held at The Walls!
In a radical and first time change of direction instead of out and out painting or sculpture we host a display and sale of Vintage Clothing from the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s by the eponymous “Vintage by Chris”, from early September to the end of the month.
Chris Stanworth’s display is well worth a look and if you have questions about the exhibition or the clothes Chris can be contacted on 01691 659547.
NEW YEARS EVE
We have just started planning this years JUMBO celebration of the join between 2006/2007. We will shortly have details of the event including menus, details of the entertainment for the evening etc. They have always been absolutely belting evenings and it will be a sell out! WATCH THIS SPACE!
CRYING WOLF! SANTA'S PLAINTIFF CRY
Every year we are trying to find new and less hackneyed ways of reminding you that for the glorious celebration of our lord’s birth AKA CHRISTMAS, it is vital to book early to avoid disappointment.
Right now we are running a cancellation list only for Christmas Day and have only patchy space on the key days in December.
As usual we will be continuing party nights into January 2007 should you wish to keep the madness afloat a little longer. Menus and booking forms available now!
THE WALLS EXAM NIGHTS
We are now actively seeking teams of four to enter a series of winter exams, (mainly general knowledge), held every 2nd Monday throughout winter.
Teams will be competing for the highly prestigious ‘Humpty Dumpty’ Cup and the massive annual cash prize of £400. An added incentive is that each week’s winning team gets their post-quiz two-course supper and a glass of wine FREE!
Teams pay £60 per exam night to cover the two-course supper and wine. Each exam will feature a food and drink section. If you would like to enrol a team, please contact us with details of your team name and contact number.
And finally: staff and animal news…
Sometimes it's hard to know where the categories of each begin and end! This is a complicated and convoluted tale and is close to an explanation of the sign and photographs offering “Goats for Sale”.
Let's start with Kate’s horse, Oscar. Oscar is a very sociable chap who’s been with us for quite some time - and when we finally decided that we were going to become “SHEEPLESS IN SELATYN” (too good a pun to miss) and Underhill is quite close to Selatyn - we had to think about providing Oscar with some intelligent company.
Kate’s original thought was to purchase some pygmy goats - we had endured ownership of some full-sized ones before and, whilst they are great characters, they are wilful, only eat things they are not meant to and are brilliant escapologists and general “devils in disguise”. So, we thought, the little ones might be a raft of problems halved!
Anyway, to prune my ramblings a little “pygmy goats” cost two short arms and two short legs - an expense we felt was not really justified just to keep Oscar happy. So Plan B : we were offered two yearling nanny goats and Kate decided to put them in kid to a pygmy billy and so downsize in stages.
Without wishing to offend the sensibilities of the less worldly wise the next stage of the process involved variously digging holes, using boxes, pulleys and levers; some months later Chutney and Cybil duly gave birth to a pair of nannies each (Trinny, Susannah, Jolly and Vera). There is a little side story to the naming of Jolly and Vera: they were born whilst we had two exchange students staying so were named in their honour.
You can only imagine what a formidable army of destruction 6 variously sized goats can become! The gaps or holes the big ones can’t get through the little ones can! The plants the little ones can’t reach, the big ones can! Between them there isn’t a roof, wall, fence, tree or off-limits part of our house, garden and stable that these Spawn of Beelzebub have not managed to conquer, violate, break or despoil during their brief time with us.
So when Kate spotted an advert in the Advertiser for the single most wanted animal in the world on her Dr. Doolittle hit list, namely a llama, it was decided that some or maybe all of the goats should move on to pastures new.
So we herald the arrival of the predictably named Dali the Llama. I’ve fought long and hard to get his name changed to Burglar, but somehow I think he’ll still be Dali. Finally Oscar has a more agreeable mate - or does he? Watch this Space!
In the midst of all this animal magic/madness, the Mallard egg found outside next door's front door and given to our chickens was brought into the house and duly hatched on the back of the Aga. As far as I am concerned there could only be one name for this new addition: we now have a fantastically tame duck “Crispy” whose various talents included supersonic and pin point accurate disposal of huge amounts of “Birds Eye” frozen peas and a rare talent for hoovering between your toes and even up your nostrils.
Crispy goes for walks with you, sits on your lap watching television and has absolutely no fear of our long-suffering housecats and our eternally bewildered greyhounds.
Just in case any of you who know me relatively well are getting a little nervous about the provenance of any goat curry or duck dishes appearing on forthcoming Walls menus, I can categorically confirm that none of the aforementioned will end up in any of the ovens, saucepans or liquidizers at The Walls - whatever they get up to!
It’s a great relief to announce that just this once there is no printable staff news!
Early in September we restart our much-heralded and exceptionally high quality musical events.
Kate’s original thought was to purchase some pygmy goats - we had endured ownership of some full-sized ones before and, whilst they are great characters, they are wilful, only eat things they are not meant to and are brilliant escapologists and general “devils in disguise”. So, we thought, the little ones might be a raft of problems halved!
So when Kate spotted an advert in the Advertiser for the single most wanted animal in the world on her Dr. Doolittle hit list, namely a llama, it was decided that some or maybe all of the goats should move on to pastures new.
