Gwiliau ni yng Nghymru Part 2. By Taffy

I am now taking the reins of reporting about our holiday. Well I am a Welsh Terrier and we did go to Wales!

One day we decided to go for a walk along the canal at Chirk as we wanted to see the aqueduct that crossed the valley.

The Aqueduct was in a wooded valley with Chirk Castle immediately above it, the Welsh Mountains and Glen Ceiriog as a background and the village of Chirk a short distance away.
The 70 feet high aqueduct was built between 1796 and 1801 by Thomas Telford and William Jessop.

At one end of the aqueduct is the Darkie Tunnel. You can walk through it but it is 1200 feet in length.

It looked all dark and spooky and we didn't have a torch with us.

We chose to go in the other direction over the Chirk Aqueduct.

Now one needed to have a head for heights for this challenge, I preferred to keep my head down and just march on.

Molly spotted some sheep in the fields below us as we were crossing over. I thought that at one stage she was going to abseil down the side of the aqueduct, such was her keenness to go and see them.

After we had crossed the aqueduct it became very pretty and we had a walk past many boats that had moored up for the afternoon.

Some even seemed to have half a garden on their roofs.

After our walk along the canal we went to Chirk Castle.
This wrought iron gate-screen is at the entrance to the grounds of the castle and was made by Robert and John Davies of Bersham nearly 300 years ago!

Chirk Castle

We had a really long walk around the grounds of the castle.

There were pathways that went over the many fields.

We had to stop and have good sniffs very frequently, there were so many interesting smells. We were in the heart of bunnie country here. We even co-operated when we had our photo taken.



We certainly appreciated it when we spied a gate that led to a nice shady area. It was becoming quite warm and we were panting like mad.

Hoomans wanted me to pose sitting next to these Foxgloves!

They had to be kidding...there were some serious bees buzzing around and I certainly did not want to be stung on my derriere.

The river at the end of our walk was a welcome sight. We ran straight in to cool off. It was quite deep and Molly had water up to her armpits as soon as she went in.

It was absolute bliss.

So that was our visit to Chirk Castle on a nice sunny day.

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The following day the weather couldn't have been more different!

It poured most of the day and that was the day we had arranged to go on a mini ramble.


I had been delighted to find out that my half sister Duffy was also on holiday in Wales with her hoomans. We arranged to meet her and also another Welshie friend, Guinness, who we had met in Cumbria at the beginning of the month.




We met at Bala.

Bala (more correctly Y Bala) is a market town North Wales.

Bala Lake (Welsh: Llyn Tegid) is the largest natural lake in Wales. The rare gwyniad fish — trapped in the lake at the end of the last Ice Age, some 10,000 years ago — is in danger because its natural home is increasingly unsuitable. It is a member of the whitefish family, and can only be in Llyn Tegid.

While we were walking by the lakeside we met an Airedale.

His name was George and he was an elderly gentleman, he was 15 years old. He had been a rescue dog and at some time in his life he had been very badly treated. He had been beaten around his head and it had left him blind. He was living a very happy life now and walking along with his new master looked very content and so gentle.


Well the mini ramble was about 4 1/2 miles long.

It rained more or less the whole time we were walking and sometimes it was very heavy and we had to take cover under big trees.

Near the end of the walk we came across these caves cut into the side of the hill. They were really big.




Molly spotted some sheep in them taking refuge from the rain. I think that is where we should have been. Can you see how damp the hoomans are looking?? tee hee.

I apologise for the lack of photos of our mini ramble but it really was just too wet to keep getting the camera out.

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Now you may remember that Molly mentioned in Part 1 that where we were staying there were chickens.



What she failed to mention was the kerfuffle that took place while we were on holiday!!!

When we arrived at the beginning of our holiday there were 5 chickens, however, near to the end of the week a new arrival came along.


She arrived looking all cosy in a box of wood shavings and the first thing that happened to her was that she had to have one of her wings clipped so that she could not fly away.



She was then introduced to the resident chickens.

Apparently it takes a little while for a new chicken to settle in as the "Pecking Order" has to be decided.


She had a wander around and seemed quite happy and the other chickens carried on as usual.




And then my sister returned from her walk.

She came into the enclosed area in front of our house and was released from her lead as usual.


There are no photos of what happened next.........................

Molly went up to the side of the chicken run and realised there was a new arrival. Now this new chicken had been in her new home for all of 5 minutes. Had endured a car journey, having her wing clipped and then had a huge furry head trying to force its way through the fence of the chicken run!! Now I pawsonally think that is a lot to cope with! But hey, more was to come!!!!!!!!




Well...................................................................................................................................................

Molly managed to get into the chicken run.....YIKES.





The new arrival suddenly found itself 2 feet off the ground in a set of jaws.


There was a major panic I can tell you. Hoomans all over the place trying to grab Molly and make sure the other chickens did not suffer the same fate.


Fortunately Molly did drop the chicken and was hauled out of the run at a brisk pace by hooman Dad and hooman Mum grabbed the extremely traumatised chicken.


There were feathers everywhere!!!

The chickens were squawking like mad!

It was chaos!

The poor little chicken was shaking and we were so worried it might die of shock. She was examined very thoroughly and put onto the ground as no wounds were to be found but she did start walking with a limp! We hoped it was bruising and crossed our paws that she would be OK.


To be continued.....



Taffy

Gwiliau ni yng Nghymru. (Part 1. By Molly)

If you have just read the title of this post and are a bit worried please don't be, rest assured our computer keyboard has not gone wrong.

We have just come back from Wales and that is actually Welsh for...

Our holiday in Wales. (Part 1.)

This is The Smithy.

We stayed here for a week

When we arrived on the Saturday afternoon I could not believe my eyes. Next to where we would be staying there were chickens!!!!
Something for me to stalk...erm .... I mean watch.

There were actually 5 altogether.

I just knew I was going to love staying here.



Next morning Taffy and I were up bright and early. I waited patiently by the front door waiting to go out and count the chickens, Taffy wanted to go out as he had made 2 new friends.


Living next door, were 2 other Welsh Terriers. Elvis and Molly. (Yes, another Molly)


Now on this particular morning Elvis had gone to have a haircut so it was just Molly who came and said hello to us.



I have to say I was more interested in chicken watching than playing.


Taffy and Little Molly watched me for a bit then got fed up and went indoors.




Little Molly gave our modest sized holiday toy box the once over.




Then decided she liked MY bed and MY duck.
Doesn't she look cheeky?



Well after Taffy and Little Molly had played for a short while we had to get into the car as we were going out for the day to Lake Vyrnwy.


A century ago the Vyrnwy Valley looked very different: The Corporation of Liverpool began work on the huge masonry dam in 1881 to create a new fresh water supply for their city. Apart from land for the lake, they purchased the surrounding 24,000 acre catchment area to control the purity of the water, and this enabled them to enhance the great scenic beauty of the area. This colossal project even involved relocating the former village of Llanwddyn. The lake took two years to fill and the water first flowed to Liverpool in 1891. An official ceremony in 1910 conducted by HRH the Prince of Wales marked the completion of the works.




There is a very impressive pointed tower which rises out of the waters of Lake Vyrnwy some distance from the dam. It looks like part of a fairytale castle, and it is linked to the shore by an arched bridge.This is the 'straining tower', which is where the water leaves the lake at the start of a journey along an aqueduct and pipeline to Liverpool, around 70 miles away. It is called a straining tower because the water first passes through a fine metal mesh to filter or strain out material in the water. The tower stands in over 15m (50ft) deep water and is over 48m (160ft) high, so much of the structure is hidden underwater.



After a short drive we stopped so that we could explore the lakeside and have a walk.


We had not stopped for 2 minutes and look what landed on one of the car's mirrors.

A cheeky Chaffinch chick.




He was very tame and would not go away.




He was obviously waiting for some crumbs and and stretched himself right up trying to look skinny and under fed.





So we put some crumbs onto a nearby post and down came the Chaffinch's Dad and after he had his fill he fed the chick.





When we walked to the lake shore this is the first thing we saw.





Dolphins!!




When we got nearer to them we realised they were sculptures.
I had a good look around them. I thought they were amazing.

Taffy was more interested in sticks.

" Come on throw my new stick."

We had a great walk through a forest and when
we returned to the car the cheeky Chaffinch Dad seemed to think if he sat and looked all cute he would get some more crumbs.



We drove a bit more around the lake and saw some enormous picnic tables. We think Gulliver would have been happy with the size of these tables.



A stop was made for lunch. We found a dog friendly pub overlooking the Lake. It had a splendid view.




Well it did for the hoomans, was not quite so good for us.

Behind bars!

Taffy was not very bothered he was having his furry head tickled.

Do I look suitably fed up?

When lunch had been consumed things looked up.

We went for a walk in the nearby Sculpture park. There was a lovely stream there for me to cool my paws and have a fresh drink.

Here are some of the sculptures we saw.

This one was called - Cuckoo in a cage.

I thought this one of a feather was very clever.

Hooman Dad liked the tall trees. We think this is boring as we are not in the photo!

The dam at the end of the lake was built by the Victorians.

The Dam was started in 1881 and completed seven years later in 1888. It was the first large stone-built dam in the United Kingdom, and is built partly out of great blocks of Welsh slate. When built it cost £620,000, which today is around £22,000,000. The dam is 44 m (144 ft) high from the bottom of the valley, and 39 m (127 ft) thick at the base. The dam's length is 357 m (1172 ft), and has a road bridge running along the top. It is decorated with over 25 arches and two small towers (each with four corner turrets) that rise 4 m/13 ft above the road surface.

We thought it was quite ugly, but it certainly has done a good job.

Well that is the end of the first installment, be back soon with part 2.

Molly xx