And a happy workforce is valuable in so many ways, not least because they’re jolly to be around. Had a great weekend at Boggart Hall, getting many and varied things done and greeting a vast array of people over the course of the weekend, though not too many to properly cater for at any one time.
Hazel and Rose did some good work on the lime render, taking over from Rhod, Carolyn and daughters Rhianwen and Sioned, who got the ball rolling. The back of the house is nearly done with its first coat now, though there was a dripping downspout that really soaked the corner of the house during the massive downpour (of which more later, or see BBC news) so we are a little worried that it might not dry before it rots. More news as events unfold.
We arrived on Friday, dreading the forecast rain, and the river was quite high through Hebden Bridge, but not yet over the road or anything. We drove through Tod to see if it was high there, but the smaller of the two rivers didn’t look too bad. However, around 7pm, they sounded the air-raid sirens, which we surmised could only mean flooding had begun. We weren’t brave enough to go downtown and look, but the next morning I got about a hundred texts asking if we’d drowned. We hadn’t, but we’d got a lot of leaves blown onto the roof. And a lot of new rainwater in the tank.
On the way to Hebden station to collect Claire, we saw this boat that had sort of run afoul of the weir that let the floodwater out of the canal. It was unmanned at the time, but we talked to the owner, who said it would have to be craned off to avoid damaging it further. He was remarkably philosophical about it. The state of both Tod and Hebden was generally silty and damp, most of downtown was underwater and a lot of low-lying houses and shops got their bottom floors totally flooded. The pavement was full of wet stuff put out to dry.
We used the money Elmo got for his birthday towards materials on wood for framing the gables and building out the rafters for the necessary amount of insulation, plus enough plasterboard to do the whole ceiling. Steven made a good start and got the first gable framed in by the end of the weekend.
Many hands made light work of the next section of clay plaster. There’s probably only a day’s work left on that, so I hope to finish this week and get some more tiles down. I’ve got a fantastic selection of tiles for my mosaic entryway floor.
Alec and Ryan enjoying the living room, which is very pleasant in warm weather. The rain stops just shy of hitting the couch, even in really windy weather.
Rhod and Carolyn and family were there for the first time, so a fire was definitely in order. And of course, the obligatory sausages to roast. The butcher commented that I was “running late today” as I got them at about 4:30pm. I guess he’s come to expect me on a Saturday.
Later on we were treated to some lovely tunes by Steven, Hazel and Rosie. They weren’t miserable tunes, despite the slightly melancholy look of the photo, they were quite jolly, really!
I hurried to finish the candle lanterns I’d been meaning to make, and saving up jam jars for, for ages. This shot doesn’t really do them justice, but they were really cheerful and pretty at dusk.
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