Dry.

We had a dry day today just right for pressure washing if a little cold. I began at the top of the garden happily swishing away all the mud and most of the green on the paving slabs and decking planks. Parts of the planks were in such a bad state that they crumbled away under the force of the water but hopefully there will be enough reasonable wood left to re-use. I was getting near to the end of the decked area when I began to wonder where the water was going. I could hear it splashing under the wood into soil(?) but where next? All our gardens slope steeply towards the houses and my neighbour on the left has very neat paving at the back of her house. It's hard to see over the high garden fence so I decided to call it a day. Looking out of Peter's window I didn't see any water gathering in the next door garden. What I did find was some water pooling on the paving by our conservatory. There then followed some frantic sweeping to push the water to the drain. That was followed by the more successful technique of mopping up the water with a cloth and squeezing it into a bucket. It only came to half a bucket but I wouldn't like water to be getting underneath the conservatory. We aren't too sure about the quality of the building work as the last owner seems to have skipped a few corners. I'll stick to washing a smaller section at a time to allow the water to find a way out.

This evening my eyes kept being drawn to the changing sunset. Even now at 6.00 the black clouds are silhouetted against a background shaded from midnight blue to a faded orange.