Postcard from Welsh Wales

We have now got most of the roof on the workshop.  We actually got on quite well with it and had it done last weekend.  Bob was quite keen to get it done before we went away, but didn't think we'd manage it and we'd resigned ourselves to just getting one side done, but on Sunday morning I was wide awake at 6.30am and decided that if we got up and got on with it we might just do it.  So, I let Bob have another half hour's sleep (can't really get up and start hammering away too early on a Sunday!) and then we sprang into action. We got the breather membrane on vey quickly and then whizzed along with the wriggly sheets.  We did have a bit of a glitch in the afternoon when we were about three-quarters done.  There are rooflights made of clear wriggly part way along and we had measured the sheets and worked out where they would go so they were between roof trusses because they'd look a bit silly with a roof timber through the middle of them.  We'd been really careful and checked and double-checked our measurements, etc and Bob had put in extra noggins at exactly the right spots to support the rooflight, but be hidden behind the solid sheets.  Of course, we'd measured the wriggly sheets when they were loose, lying on the floor.  As you nail them in place they spread just a little bit and, as you work your way along the roof, all those little bits add up and by the time we got to the last rooflight the timbers were all in the wrong place.  So, that was a little annoying as we were doing so well.  Anyway, we moved the timbers and everything was fine and we got everything but the ridge on.  Oh, and a panel at the back which will have the woodburner flue going through it - we decided it'd be much easier to cut the hole for that before it's on the roof, but we can't do that until we have the woodburner and know the size and position.

On Monday it was my birthday and we were just going to have a normal day and get on with some cladding, but it was pouring down you'll be surprised to hear.  So we had a lie-in and read the paper in bed and then just pottered around in the morning and were about to go out for lunch when Maggie knocked on the door - she hasn't visited for months and months, so that was a surprise and she stayed for quite a while.  After a late lunch we decided we needed some fresh air and activity and, as the rain was now just drizzle Bob cleaned the chicken run out and checked the car over for our holiday trip and I did some weeding.  Phil and Ann rescued us from these chores and we were glad of an excuse to come back in for a cuppa.

Then we went on holiday.  We stayed in St Dogmaels which is just next to Cardigan on the coast.  The house was bright pink and sitting high up on a very steep little hill overlooking the river.  It was an upside-down house with the bedrooms downstairs and the lounge and kitchen upstairs to take advantage of the view - all very nice, just let down slightly by only having half a dozen sheets of loo roll left, a teaspoon of washing up liquid and hardly any soap in the bathroom, a bit stingy don't you think?  Still a quick walk down to the village store sorted that out and everything else was fine.  On the way down we went to an auction viewing - an old chap's workshop contents, goodness me what a lot of stuff and all very interesting, but nothing we wanted enough to leave a bid on (although Bob might have liked the two old motorbikes).  We also went to a wool shop in an old railway building which was amazing.  From the outside a drab old shed, but inside a total rainbow of all sorts of lovely wool - all Welsh and all dyed on the premises.  The wool is all multicoloured and dyed in small batches so it's sold in hanks not balls and you have to hang the hanks over your arm so that way you can see an expanse of the wool and make sure you have a good colour match.  You then wind the wool into balls, two or three to a hank and mix them up so the colour gets evenly distributed.  I spent some of my birthday money on some.  We also stopped at Macynlleth which is a nice little town with some interesting shops.  All a bit sad at the moment though because that is where the little girl (April) who is missing is from.  Sadly, we get used to hearing these things on TV and get a bit immune to it, but it's different when you see all the pink ribbons tied to fences, signposts and doors and then see all the police and mountain rescue teams gathered at the community centre - quite sobering.

Also on the way down we stopped at Newquay and booked ourselves on a boat trip to look at the famous Cardigan Bay dolphins - how exciting.  We also had a really horrible icecream each - really yuk, I'm not sure why but they were just horrible.  So, the boat trip the next day was lovely, but not a dolphin in sight - nice way to spend an hour or so though and Bob didn't even feel sick which I think he was expecting to.  Mind you, the sea was like a millpond.  In the afternoon we went down to Dinas Point and had a lovely clifftop walk.  We were lucky because the sun was shining where we were, but all around was very black and cloudy.  We could see for miles out to see and up the bay, but not a dolphin in sight.  I think it's just a myth made up for the tourists!  We did watch a seal playing in the mouth of a cave far below us which was nice.  On Thursday the weather wasn't good so we went to the Welsh Wool Museum which was really interesting (and free).  Mum and Dad would be so proud - they used to love going to these places and my sister and I must have been real pains moaning the whole time about how boring they were!  Driving back the heavens absolutely opened and the roads were like rivers with fords where there shouldn't have been any (we just can't get away from this rain!).  We went into Cardigan for a quick once around and very quick it was too because we got soaked.  Then going back to St Dogmaels, the road was closed because of flooding and the police had to give us directions for another way into the village.  It was bad enough to be on the Welsh news.

By total coincidence, Bob actually knew the chap that lives in the house next to ours and so he went round for a chat in the evening.  They let their chickens have the run of their downstairs and sit with them on their knees!  They're even softer with them than we are with ours.

Before coming home on Friday we went to Mwnt
which was lovely and had crashing waves
which is what I really need to make a sea-fix complete.

Also at Mwnt - it was sunny, but gosh it was so windy, I nearly
got blown off here.  Not a dolphin in sight . . . . definitely
a myth!

And so, back home and once again we got rained off after two lengths of cladding yesterday.  Back to work tomorrow - that week's gone so quickly!

Matty continued his Grand Tour and made it up to the high
shelf behind the stairs to meet Brian the snail.  I'm sorry Dad, but
it's just a fact of life that snails are called Brian - they always have been.
Even since I was tiny and wondered why grown ups called you Brian
when everyone should have known your real name was Daddy.
Anyway they got on famously and spent hours reminiscing about
life in the old country (the garden) and remembering their fear of
the monster chickens that roamed there and could swallow a small
tomato whole and do serious damage to a snail who wasn't careful.