Sunny.

Woke up this morning to hear of yet another tragedy, a tower block on fire. in London.This time not due to terrorist action but quite likely due to mistakes/poor planning/money saving when refurbishing the block along with the outside space. From what the people involved said this morning it began when a fridge exploded in a 4th floor flat, rapidly spread upwards on one side of the building and down from the top on the other side. How sad for all those families.

Down here in Devon we've had another day of lovely sunshine. I had an appointment at the surgery to have my ear syringed but when the nurse looked in my ear she said it looked too dry. I've been dropping in olive oil for a few weeks but apparently not enough. I need to do it at least 2 times a day and fill up the external canal, lie sideways for 10 minutes and then only mop up the oil that drips down my neck. I've now got an appointment with the nurse next Thursday.

It wasn't a totally wasted trip to town as I needed fresh fruit and veg from Lidl's and I had 4 boxes of glass and ceramics to drop off at the charity shop. I chose the cancer research shop this time as there was a loading bay close by to park in. The slight problem was that a vehicle was already parked there and a large box van was parked behind it right over the no parking sign at the top of the High Street. I waited for a while hoping that one or other would move which they didn't so I parked just in front of the loading bay across the top of a small alley that hardly gets used. Needless to say I unloaded the car very quickly keeping my fingers crossed that a traffic warden wouldn't come along as they are notoriously unsympathetic.

Back home I got out the long handled shears and cut all the grass steps and edges around the lawns before Peter started his mowing.

Then it was round to the side of the house to sort out a blocked drain. I had noticed some water overflowing the top bit which was a bit strange as it only takes water from the hand basins in 2 of the spare bedrooms. First I got the drain rods and checked that the drain under the lawn, which just empties into the bog garden, and found it wasn't blocked. Before attempting to stick rods down the vertical drain I took out the wire mesh that is supposed to stop leaves from going in and scooped out as much of the incredibly stinky stagnant water as I could. Then because the smell was so bad I poured in some bleach. Imagine my surprise when I realised there was smoke coming out of the top of the drain. It was at that point I remembered that you have to be careful mixing bleach with cleaning chemicals as the combination can give off toxic chlorine gas. The last time the drain had been blocked I had poured in one of those bottles of drain-clear type stuff and some must have remained in the drain. I stayed well away before running the taps in one of the bedrooms. I poured in washing soap into the sink and left the hot water running hopefully to clear everything out. The water seems to be flowing away properly now.

I started one last job, first wiping and then oiling the outside table. As I began to paint on the oil I remembered from last time that doing so in sunny weather ends up with lots of tiny flies stuck to the oil. I'll finish the job off later on this evening when there shouldn't be so many flies about. After all that we still found time to sit and relax out in the sun.