Sunny.

Last night Vytas and I were waiting for Peter to come home from rowing when the phone rang. It was Peter "I'm at the top of the drive and all the heifers from the field are out and trying to escape down the road."  Being on his own all he could do was stop them from heading out on to the road and wait for help. Luckily I knew whose heifers they were and was able to ring Debbie Lewis and tell her what was going on. I didn't walk right up the hill in case I spooked the heifers (they are only just calves) but Peter had to stay up there until Debbie and Andrew arrived with some feed and sorted the heifers out. It was really lucky that Peter had been coming home at that time, it was pitch dark and with their farm being over a mile away the heifers could have wandered anywhere and people do drive fast around the country roads at night. 

Today we treated Vytas and ourselves to a carvery lunch at The Station Inn. Here Vytas is demonstrating the art of piling as many vegetables as possible on to his plate, and that is before I gave him my Yorkshire pudding. Today's vegetables were spring cabbage (oh so tasty), mashed swede with cream and carrots. We all had beef and pork and left there full to the gills.

We were lucky in that it was a really lovely day so after our lunch we drove to The Valley of The Rocks for a gentle stroll.

I love the scenery in the valley which is wild and rugged but sometimes it feels like a theme park in that the wilderness is only as far as the eye can see. Climb the rock strewn hill and beyond is farmland, still stunning but not wilderness. And half a mile from the entrance is the small town of Lynton. But it is still a lovely place to visit.

We climbed up Castle Rock to enjoy the view across to Wales, It was exceptionally clear today and with binoculars you could see individual buildings and the mountains beyond. It was when we were at the top of the hill that my camera battery ran out and the spare was ..... in the car.

Back home Vytas helped me do a major fix on part of our bed frame  When I had moved the bed to paint the room last Spring I had done it on my own by pulling the bed from side to side. This had put a strain on one of the joints and eventually some of the fixing dowels had snapped. Today we drilled out the broken dowels, glued new ones in and added some extra fixing plates. Right now the bed end is leaning up over the Rayburn to help the wood glue set before we put the whole thing together so we can sleep on it tonight.

Mostly Dry.

Vytas arrived at 3.00 this morning. I wasn't staying up on purpose, honest. I had turned my light out at 2.00 but was still listening to the radio when I heard his car pull up. So down I went, made him a cup of tea and had a chat before we both headed off for bed.

Today we made use of his youthful strength and had him burying the water pipe in the stream and piling rocks on top of it. We keep it in the stream so that it doesn't freeze up in cold weather. He and Peter also screwed in proper fixings to hold the pipe against the house foundations. I've been keeping the kitchen tidy and making cups of tea as my contribution to the chores. 

All the outside work was completed before a final shower. Peter went off to row and Vytas and I have had lots of time to chat. I find it so exciting to think that soon he will be out in Australia with Sally on a year long working visit. A good reward for all his years of study.

Sun & Rain.

We've had some rain today but not enough to cause the stream to back up. I went over to talk to Paul, not to take him to task over that wall which he insists had nothing to do with the water rising so much, Duh! I just went to suggest that he removed the wire fencing that crosses the stream at our boundary. They only put it back up when the 2 elderly ponies would sometimes wander into our garden by walking up the stream but that area is no longer used for grazing. At the moment it has caught a lot of debris and I explained that I couldn't clear it myself as I had recent surgery. I also asked him if, when he clears the silt out of his silt trap (which in itself causes a lot of blockage as branches get caught across the 2 pipes he put in), he could clear the silt from the stream back to our boundary. We have a land drain and the outflow from the septic tank feeding into the stream which used to be 2ft deeper but now they are in danger of being silted over. Apart from freeing the outflow from the silt I have tried to rest today as all of yesterday's exertions have left me with a lot of twinges especially where the hernia was repaired.  

I had a nice surprise this afternoon. Somewhere along the line I have lost a day and it wasn't until the lunchtime weather forecast that I realised it was Friday and not Thursday. So one less day of waiting for Vytas to visit. 

PS We found the frog in the kitchen last night. It was too feisty to risk getting the camera so I grabbed it and put it outside before it could wriggle free.

PPS Just been watching the news, 35 flood warnings in Scotland and one village in Fife had 2ft of water rushing down a road washing away part of the road and half of somebody's house. Puts our little drama in perspective.

Rain, Lots of It.

I thought I was going to be writing about another quiet day of convalescence. I slept through the snoring last night and after an early morning cuppa went back to sleep for a few hours lulled by the constant rain. There was a break in the rain at mid-day so I went up, fed the hens and made sure the water on the road was being diverted onto the fields. (see photo above.) The rain started up again so I was just settling down to watch TV when I realised that I ought to check the dams as the postman would probably have driven over them on his way down to the house. Oh my! The drive was being washed away by all the water pouring down. I had to grab more wood and a concrete block to try and divert at least some of the water. 

Having done what I could I walked down to the yard to see if the ditch there was working properly and OMG! the stream had burst its banks, was up on the lawn, had flooded the septic tank and had topped the block wall we have between the back of the house and the stream. It was right up to the level of the old back door (I'll have to clear the back room to see how much came in), and on the other side of the house was over the foundation slab and just a few inches below the damp course in the new part of the house. 

All this would not have happened if our neighbours had not built a parapet wall along their road. The previous owner had made a dam across the valley to create the lake and put the road across the dam. Our current neighbours built the parapet to protect the far side of the dam if the lake were to overflow. So now the water backs up and puts our home at risk instead. I did phone them to check that nothing was blocking the stream as I've always been worried about the culverts and silt trap they built in the stream between us and the lake as well as the height of the parapet. They came round and said the water was flowing away at either side of the parapet but there wasn't anything they could do. If I had my way I'd be round there with a sledgehammer lowering the height of their parapet. We are going to check out the legal position but we really don't want to be involved in a neighbour dispute. (I bet they never had planning permission.) The only other thing we can do is pay out to raise the height of our protecting wall and extend it round vulnerable sides of the house. Once the water started to go down I put on dry coat and trousers and spent several hours baling water out from the space between the house and the stream wall. Then I did my best to rake up some of the drive as we were back to 12" ruts again. Can't walk now as I've done something to my hip/back. 

PS I am now keeping an eye out for the frog I saw in the back hallway. When I realised it was a frog and not a leaf I put the cats out because they were showing too much interest. By the time I put on some rubber gloves to move the frog it had gone. I've looked everywhere, even up the stairs, but I can't find it. I hope that it finds its way out and doesn't end up dead in a corner. Yuck.

Grey.

There is no mistaking that autumn is here. Leaves are changing colour and the lawns are covered with fallen leaves. It hasn't been raining today but the sky has been a dismal grey. There is a constant breeze but the temperature has been quite warm. Warm enough for me to have doors and windows open during the day. I'm a bit of a fresh air fiend and love to think of all the household smells being blown right away. All was fine until 2 doggy faces appeared at the conservatory door sending Speedy, who had been sitting on my lap, into a blind panic. The cats are OK with visiting dogs but Neville chases the cats so they don't take any chances.

I've had another lazy day. Mainly because I didn't get any sleep last night. Loud snoring drove me from my bed until 5.00 and I finally dropped off at 7.00. That's not a sensible sleep pattern. Perhaps next time I'll go and sleep in another room instead of sitting on the PC. Earplugs don't work and Peter has tried most remedies. All my helpful doctor could suggest was separate bedrooms. Usually I just go without sleep and then I'm tired enough to sleep through the noise the next night. It's always taken me several hours to get to sleep and I find it utterly infuriating that Peter puts his head down and is asleep in 30 seconds. And then snores!

Gentle Rain.

Today it has been raining gently all day and I've been gently resting. Apart from going out early to feed the hens I haven't done very much at all. I'm trying to do at least one small job each day so I did some sewing, repairing Peter's rowing shorts in between sleeping and watching TV.

Warm.

I've spent most of the day dozing. When I did go out this morning (to feed the hens), it felt really warm. Some of the leaves on the beech trees are starting to turn orange & yellow and the little ornamental acer is providing a bright splash of colour in the front yard.