Oops !

We had heavy rain and strong winds last night, I found a few things blown around the garden this morning but once again it's been a pleasantly bright day.

This morning Pete took the car for its service which along with a wax treatment to the underneath means that it won't be ready until tomorrow morning. Together we'd worked out that today would be a good day for this as I wouldn't like to miss my Friday riding lesson.

It was only half an hour ago when I went to organise my bag that I realised I wouldn't be able to go to choir tonight either. I'd even been practising some song parts that our choir leader had sent out for a tricky song we worked on last week and thought about what I'd be wearing. Not so much in terms of a fashion parade but thinking about how warm or cold it would be in the large village hall we practise in. Oh the joys of getting old and forgetful. 

I picked another three pounds of tomatoes this morning. It's getting hard to find space in the freezer for the bags of frozen tomatoes that look and sound like billiard balls. Soon I'll have to start cooking them down into a herby tomato sauce which has so many uses.

I've also been doing some diy jobs. First off was to use the resin filler to repair the garage windows from the inside. As soon as my neighbour's bush is cut back I'll repair the outside of the windows and paint them. I did a bit more general sorting out in the garage too. Little and often is my method with that job.

Years ago I saved some galvanised metal mesh from the builders thinking that it would be useful to cover the open drains below the gutters but it was never a priority job. I got round to the first one recently and today I did the other two at the back of the house. One of the drains doesn't lead to any drainage system but is simply a soakaway into the garden. However years of leaves and dirt falling into the drain had created a stinky anaerobic sludge, lots of it. Almost half a bucketful which I cleared out by hand. I knew it was only rainwater from the roof but it was not a pleasant job. Hopefully the mesh will keep the worst of the vegetation out in the future. Afterwards I still had some mesh left over and went to check one last drain on the street side of the house. To my dismay this drain which takes water from two sides of the roof looks to be another soakaway. There are actually two holes, one which the gutter from one side goes into is definitely a soakaway and the other one - needs investigation. Thank goodness for heavy duty rubber gloves. But I shall do that job on another day.

While the drive was empty (that should have given me a clue that I wouldn't be driving tonight) I cleaned out the drain that stops water getting into the garage. I clean this one regularly but it does fill up with dirt and what seems like a thousand valerian seedlings blown in from my neighbour's garden.

I feel I've achieved quite a bit today. Just a shame about choir especially as I had practised the tenor part of The earth says to the earth. (The last tricky line is missing from this recording). It's a hard one to learn as a choir but satisfying when we get it right.