Waterfall, waterfall

We've had a few days with a mixture of work and play.  On Thursday we checked the weather forecast - misty in the morning, clearing to a clear and sunny afternoon - and decided to work in the morning and then take Laura to Pistyll Rhaeadr which is about half an hour's drive away.  Pityll means watefall in Welsh and so, apparently, does Rhaeadr so with a name meaning Waterfall Waterfall you can probably guess that it's a waterfall!  It is quite a high waterfall with a little cafe at the bottom and fantastic views down the valley from the top.  The sun started to come out as we set out, but as we got closer the mist came back and got worse . . . . . and worse . . . .  and worse!  By the time we'd climbed to the top you couldn't see anything at all really (this picture was taken by Ben in July '09).  The waterfall itself was quite spectacular though.  It was cold enough for icicles to have formed all the way down the sides and at the top where the water rushes through and round the rocks it looked like a sparkly grotto.  The first time Bob and I saw the waterfall it was much colder and icier than this time and the rocks at the top were completely covered in thick, smooth ice and the grass had turned into globular ice sculptures where the spray had frozen - quite surreal.  A woman was sliding on her knees across the big, flat rock at the top to take a photo over the edge - I couldn't watch, if the ice had sloped slightly she would have had nothing at all to grab onto, scarey!  There is a very dramatic picture of it in it's frozen state on the front of the OS Landranger map for Bala and Lake Vyrnwy.  Anyway, on Thursday, after a sword fight with icicles and a bit of clambering round rocks, we made our way down through the mist to the cafe for a cuppa and a piece of cake (we'd already checked before we climbed up and the sign said it was open).  You've guessed it - closed!  What a disappointment.  Not to worry though, because that left room to enjoy a delicious dinner at Phil and Ann's in the evening.  Laura was mightily relieved that it was chicken and not anything peculiar, like squirrel pie.  That has been known (at a diffferent neighbours') and is a whole other story that I will tell the non-squeamish of you another time.  Lunch out on Friday and a visit from Bill and Maggie this afternoon for a cuppa concludes our social activities and Laura has now gone home.

On the work front Laura and I have done more plasterboarding, most of the upstairs is now done and we've taped the joints with special fibre-glass tape.  It's called skrim you know!  We didn't and hadn't a clue what he was talking about when the chap in the builders merchants asked if we needed any skrim when we ordered the plasterboard.  We just said 'Er, not at the moment thanks!'.  Bob has put the oak doorposts in the bedroom doorway and chopped a bit out of the old oak tie-beam to give a smidge more headroom - it is a ridiculously low doorway, but the alternative is to cut through the tie-beam which holds up the roof and we chickened out of doing that!  We did have a structural engineer's report showing how it could be done but . . . nah! too scarey!  He has also sorted out the window sills, so we are now ready to do the rest of the curved window reveals before we plasterboard around them.

Molly is still on a downward course - do chickens get arthritis?  She finds it dificult to stand properly first thing in the morning and Bob had to spread her toes out before she could use her feet properly yesterday.  She does get a bit better as the day goes on, but can't manage the steps anymore.  It's a sad sight to see and we keep thinking maybe we need to do something about it, but then you throw some corn or bread and she's there with the rest of them pecking away at it quite happily and holding her own with the youngsters.  What are you to do?

We have quite a busy week ahead.  Tomorrow we are going to see the Decemberists in Birmingham.  They are the band I told you about who helped us give Myfanwy the chicken her name - see 'Who is Elvis?' (28 July '10).  We have just got their latest CD which has been playing constantly so we can get familiar with the songs before we go.  It reminds me of being a teenager, sitting on my bedroom floor with a group of friends playing a new LP over and over, pouring over the lyric sheet to learn all the words before going to see the band at the Cambridge Corn Exchange - ahhh, those were the days!  On Friday we are going to see Martin Carthy (a bit of a folk legend) play at a pub in a little village just the other side of Oswestry in aid of Cancer Research.  On Tuesday I have a dermatology appointment at Shrewsbury hospital to try to get to the bottom of some red bumps that appeared on my leg in December '09, kept coming and going and then disappeared completely in about March only to return last December.  And, yes, they've just about disappeared again as it's March again, so I'll just have to describe them.  I've had antibiotics, anti-inflamatory cream, blood tests for all sorts, but the GP is flummoxed.  My theory is that it is to do with living in such fluxuating temperatures and lying my icy cold legs down in a very toasty bed which has been heated by an electric blanket.  Can you get chillblains in your legs?  The GP didn't think that was it, but I can't think of anything else that is so seasonal?  It's a mystery, as they say, and I don't really think I'll find out anymore on Tuesday as it has all but disappeared.