Friday 28 December 2012

someone else's 'muriel'

Our decision to move to Wales was one of the spirit and heart rather than the head. It was far from logical, especially when my younger son said that he and his wife were expecting their first baby and we were planning to move miles away.
There was no suitable house for sale that fitted our criteria and we knew that we had to choose a property with our heads and it had to fit our list of 'must haves'. So we rented for two years.
Of course during that time we did fall in love with a 250 year old cottage. 
It needed quite a bit of work and the owners were reluctant to accept our offer. But as the cottage had been on the market for over a year and they wanted a sale they agreed. Two days later it rained, and rained, and rained and a stream up the hill blocked with debris and a torrent of water came straight down the hill flooding the cottage as well as the Chapel so we pulled out and waited another nine months for a suitable house.

When we came for our first viewing, we were a little concerned that the previous occupiers had moved the bathroom to one of the double bedrooms leaving a small box room just big enough for a single bed and a small chest of drawers but no electric sockets. So we had to allow enough money to move the bathroom back and we made it bigger by removing the wall between the loo and small room.
But...
someone had painted a mural in the double room!

Over three years later it is still there but parts of it have been abused by me getting rid of excess paint on my brushes and roller when I finished painting my study and the bathroom. And by the end of today I'm hoping that it will disappear for ever!



Wednesday 26 December 2012

how many chapel members does it take to put up the Christmas lights?

1. H. is our treasurer and part-time organist and lives over the road from the Chapel half way up a hill and so she has a very good view of the Chapel. And she thought that the Chapel would look so much nicer if there were Christmas lights on the tree in front of the Chapel.

2. B. spent quite a bit of time working out how to get the electricity from the Chapel to the tree and came up with a couple of methods.

3. G. thought one of these ways was best.

4. R. drilled holes and inserted hooks in the Chapel walls.

5. R&G  bought some lights.

6. V. offered the use of her 40mtr cable.

7. R&B ran the cable from the stable ( for over a hundred years the horse was the mode of transport for the visiting preachers and they needed somewhere to shelter!) over the door to the kitchen, under the windows of the School Room and Chapel and over the porch using the hooks already in place and then into the elm tree and then into the holy tree where the lights to the tree were plugged in and encased in several heavy duty plastic bags!

8. R&B with the aid of the ladder, climbed into the silver birch tree and arranged the lights which were then switched on.

9. G and everybody else agreed that 80 light bulbs seemed to disappear in the tree and more were needed.

10. number 5&8 was repeated.

11. H. is very happy with the result but....

Next year yet more lights will be in the tree! 

The rest of Chapel life happens in a very similar way with everyone contributing in their own special way.