I took a walk, the long way, into Ellesmere to do a little shopping and on the way I passed this in someones garden. The owner happened to be in the garden at the time so I asked if I could take a picture and was invited on to the property to get a better shot. Unfortunately he was on his way out and before I got the chance to interrogate him about the sculpture he had got in his car and driven off.
Further on in the walk I came across the village pinfold where the pinder of the village rounded up stray animals kept them until the owner claimed said animal and paid a fine. Apparently this was common in many villages although I have never seen one before and I have visited a lot of villages.
It is actually quite difficult to get to Llangollen by public transport from Ellesmere or St Martins as it entails at least three different bus journeys but it does make it a real day out.
Ellesemere to Llangollen...
53 to St Martins, 2 to Wrexham, 5 to Llangollen 1 hour 39 minutes.
53 to Oswestry, 2A to Whitehurst (Chirk), 64 to Llangollen 1 hour 48 minutes
53 to Gobowen, Train to Ruabon, T3 to Llangollen 1 hour 12 minutes
St Martins to Llangollen...
2 to Wrexham, 5 to Llangollen 1 hour 8 minutes.
2 to Gobowen, Train to Ruabon, T3 to Llangollen 1 hour 4 minutes
Llangollen is a nice place to wander around and needless to say we ended up at the station and decided to take the train to Carrog where we planned to eat out lunch. Good choice, a delightful river setting, easy to get to with so much going on in the water. Hundreds of fry swimming about in the shallows.
Lunch over we wandered back to the station to catch the return train, getting off at Berwyn so as to visit the Chain Bridge Hotel for a cup of coffee, before wandering along the pathways into Llangollen, stopping off to watch the emergency services practice their rescues.
Back in Llangollen we wandered around the town till the bus arrived. As the sandles I was wearing had broken and was making walking difficult I popped in to a shoe shop that had sandles on offer. I purchased a pair at the knock down price of £20. Five minutes later I spotted the exact same pair of sandles in a charity shop for £8. Got em both.
Today is the day that Robert actually fits the side hatch that has been fabricated off site and brought along for the fitting. First of all with the existing window removed the opening had to be enlarged so as to take the frame. It took several goes, offering up the frame to the opening before a good fit was achieved, normal practice.
I cannot say everything went smoothly as they managed to burn a hole in my brand new carpet, but I was pleased with the end result. I have been wanting a side hatch since before I purchased Iowner and now I have one.
Now I have to make the wood infill panels and fit slide bolts so that I can locks the doors closed. Then, of course, I will need to make internal folding windows to enjoy the light without enjoying the wind and rain.
Got a delivery from Travis Perkins of a couple of sheets of ply and a load of plain timber, 2x1, 3x1, 4x1 and 5x1. It is so handy to have materials available when you want them and now I can make the side hatch windows.